Sicario
Short description
Sicario follows Kate Macer, an idealistic FBI agent working along the U.S.-Mexico border, where drug trafficking has turned the region into a lawless battleground. Frustrated by the limits of her usual work, she is recruited into a government task force led by the blunt Matt Graver and joined by a quiet, mysterious consultant named Alejandro. The operation takes her into territory where the tactics of her own side are as murky as those of the cartels, forcing her to weigh her principles against her instinct to survive.
Denis Villeneuve directed the film, the seventh of thirteen he has made in chronological order, arriving between Enemy and Arrival. Taylor Sheridan wrote the screenplay, and the cast is led by Emily Blunt as Kate, Benicio del Toro as Alejandro and Josh Brolin as Matt, with supporting turns from Victor Garber, Jon Bernthal and Daniel Kaluuya. Produced by Edward McDonnell, Molly Smith and Basil Iwanyk, the film was a Hong Kong, Mexican and American co-production.
Made for about 30 million dollars, Sicario took roughly 85 million worldwide, a solid return for a crime thriller of its scale. On TMDB it holds 7.4 out of 10 from nearly ten thousand votes, while critics rated it 8.1 out of 10 across 280 reviews, so professional reviewers were noticeably warmer toward it than the wider audience.
What's left behind the scenes
- According to the director, the film's investors wanted Emily Blunt's role to be rewritten for a man. But Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan insisted that the main character remain a woman.
- Emily Blunt based her character, Kate Macer, on one of the CIA employees she consulted with during preparation for filming. The actress described her as an introvert and a loner.
- Emily Blunt began filming four months after the birth of her first daughter, Hazel.
- Director Denis Villeneuve described the film "Sicario" (2015) as a "dark cinematic poem."
- In Spanish, the word "sicario" means "fighter".
- In Italian, the word "sicario" means "hitman".
- Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan once stated in an interview that he doesn't entirely disagree with the methods of Matt Graver, a role played by Josh Brolin in the film.
- Emily Blunt's character prefers the "Glock-19" pistol.
- Alejandro prefers the "Mark 23" pistol by "Heckler & Koch". This pistol won the tender conducted by the Main Directorate of Special Forces of the US Department of Defense (its competitor was the semi-automatic "Colt OHWS").
- Emily Blunt hit her head on a beam under the archway of the tunnel under the border when the team had just descended into it. Director Denis Villeneuve later said in an interview that he decided to include this episode in the film to add greater realism to the narrative.
- Kate smokes "Indian Creek" brand cigarettes. Cigarettes of the same brand can be seen in Silvio's bedroom, the corrupt Mexican cop.
- When John Bernthal's character fights Kate, he says, "You brought this on yourself." This line is very reminiscent of one his character Shane heard in one of the episodes of the television series "The Walking Dead" (2010).
- Perhaps the most difficult thing to film was the border crossing. Filming on location would have required closing roads for several days, so it proved more practical to build full-scale sets.
- During filming in Mexico, Emily Blunt (who played Kate) contracted such a severe case of food poisoning that she had to receive an IV drip between takes.
- The character played by Benicio Del Toro is mostly silent in the film, although the script had given him plenty of lines. As the actor said: "In the original script, my character tells Kate about his past several times. And although that gave me an understanding of who this person is and how to play him better, there was a snag with these lines. I didn't feel comfortable revealing my background to someone I had just met." Del Toro began gradually "removing" his own lines. According to director Denis Villeneuve, the actor thus cut 90% of the lines written for him by screenwriter Taylor Sheridan from the role. Like Del Toro, Villeneuve agreed that a silent character would look more convincing. As he once stated, "...dialogue is for plays, and in cinema the main thing is movement, personality and the ability to be present in the frame, and Benicio had plenty of all of that."
- Footage was captured through a thermal imaging lens using a special "FLIR SC8300" camera. During final editing, it was decided to exclude many of these shots from the film.
- While working on the film "Sicario" (2015), cinematographer Roger Deakins drew inspiration from the photographs of Alex Webb, particularly from a series titled "Crossing the US-Mexico Border," published in 2003.
- The word "Sicario" comes from the Latin "Sicarius," which means "dagger-bearer." The Romans called zealots – adherents of a socio-political and religious movement in Judea that emerged in the second half of the 1st century BC – "dagger-bearers" or simply "sicarii." Zealots concealed small daggers (called "sicae") in their clothing with which they killed Romans. Some scholars believe that Judas Iscariot's second name shares the same root. In the 1st century AD, murders in Judea were so frequent that in 81 AD the Romans were forced to pass a law against hired assassins and poisoners ("Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis"). The words "sicario" and "sica" also derive from the verb "secare," meaning "to cut." The word "sicario" exists in Spanish and Italian.
- Denis Villeneuve wanted to cast Emily Blunt in the lead role after seeing her performance in Jean-Marc Vallée's "The Young Victoria" (2009).
- When Josh Brolin was offered a part in this project, he had just finished filming with Baltasar Kormákur on the thriller "Everest" (2015) and declined to participate in Denis Villeneuve’s film. Then, cinematographer Roger Deakins sent him an email asking him to join the production. This was so unlike Deakins that, surprised, Brolin agreed.
- On a poster above the bodies of those hanged in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, one can make out the words “Los estamos observando,” or “We are watching you.”
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
