An idealistic FBI agent is recruited into a shadowy government task force fighting the border war against Mexican cartels. Gradually, she discovers that her role is to make the operations look legitimate. Their methods and goals are deliberately kept from her. Denis Villeneuve's film is about what it costs to hold clear morals in a war that has none.
Sicario is a 2015 crime, drama and thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 narrative, 2 cinematography and 1 sound), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Das Boot uses several of the same techniques.
Limiting the film to what one character can see and know. The camera never goes where they couldn't be, so you share their blind spots and their vulnerability.
How this film uses it
You see the story through Kate Macer, and she is systematically denied information about the operation she is part of. She knows exactly as little as you do. That is, the moral horror of the film is the experience of being complicit in something you can't fully see.
Where to see it
Kate in the convoy approaching the border crossing. She knows less than anyone else in the vehicle and you know exactly what she knows. That is why you physically feel the danger of the ambush.
Using the full width of a very wide 2.35:1 frame to set small human figures against huge, empty landscapes. All that empty space makes the characters look isolated and insignificant.
How this film uses it
Roger Deakins shoots with spherical prime lenses and frames for a very wide 2.39:1 image. The US-Mexico border landscape ends up looking as large as a moral battlefield. You see the Juárez skyline against the Texas horizon with the desert between them. That geography carries the main point of the film: this war is being fought in the space between 2 legal systems.
Where to see it
The Juárez convoy sequence. The wide frame holds both the tactical team and the bodies hanging in the city. You have to take in both within a single image.
Mixing battle sound the way a soldier would hear it, with chaotic, physical noise coming from every direction. Nothing is tidied up for your comfort, so you feel inside the fight.
How this film uses it
Jóhann Jóhannsson's score works as physical pressure, with low bass tones that you feel in your body. In the border crossing and tunnel sequences, the sound is designed to make your body feel dread before any image confirms there is something to fear.
Where to see it
The tunnel sequence. The music drops out entirely. In its place, you hear the physical sounds of the underground, mostly the team's breathing and movement. The sound of the darkness ends up as claustrophobic as the space itself.
Shooting with a handheld camera so the frame shakes and moves with the action. This documentary-style look, called cinema vérité, puts you uncomfortably close to the character.
How this film uses it
Deakins uses very little handheld camera, even in the action sequences (the convoy, the border crossing, the tunnel). The camera stays still and controlled, often on a dolly or a crane arm. That calm, steady look makes the violence feel clinical, like the bureaucracy that runs the war.
Where to see it
The traffic jam border crossing. The camera is in the car with Kate and can't see what the threat assessment officers can see. The camera is as blind as she is, so the violence is a real shock when it arrives.
Questions
Sicario: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Sicario use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Sicario (2015): Single POV Restriction, Anamorphic Scope Composition, Immersive Combat Sound Design and Handheld Cinema Vérité.
Who directed Sicario?
Denis Villeneuve directed Sicario, released in 2015. CineCode also covers Polytechnique (2009), Incendies (2010), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2014), Arrival (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
What films are similar to Sicario?
Films that share techniques with Sicario include Das Boot (1981), Gravity (2013), Civil War (2024), Son of Saul (2015).
