“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is Dark, Disjointed and Dogwhistle Politics

Sicario (2015) revealed a twisted, politicized grey area in global and American politics to audiences through the eyes of an outsider, played by Emily Blunt. With her view, the audience has a character with whom to commiserate espionage and the visciousness of the American military, while slowly learning individual character backstory. Through identifying the lesser of multiple evils alongside the character, audiences are able to justify awful actions and move forward in the narrative. Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) is not that.

Good Old Fashioned Propaganda The change in director, from Denis Villanueve to Stefano Sollima, could have something to do with the change in feeling of the film. In reality, there wasn’t much of an emotional connection at all in terms of plot. Benicio Del Toro is the highlight of this film, but even with his performance of, “Alejandro”, the timing feels wrong. With all that is in the news about immigration and the Mexican-American border situation, this film had the opportunity to delve into deeper waters. Unfortunately, there are no nuances in the actions that spark the plot of the movie. Propoganda featuring the American government’s favorite terrorism topics is featured in the first 15 minutes of the film; illegal immigration and Muslim extremists working together to bring terror to everyday American folk. This film could have explored these timely topics through a very unique lense. Instead, dogwhistle politics are used to stoke the fire of …