Josh Brolin plays a CIA agent working in the US and Mexico. His character is very informally dressed and seems to treat the whole affair with mischievous glee. I have a tendency to think of CIA agents as sitting in the library or in their offices as planes fly into buildings, than an overly competent performer of tasks. But that is my prejudginess. I guess my thinking on this is that if the government was filled with such talented individuals we would not be in the messes we are in now.
One line delivered by Josh Brolin's character was very interesting. I can only paraphrase: until 20% of the US population stops using narcotics the war on drugs will continue.
Emily Blunt plays an FBI agent working on hostage issues on the US border. Her character is dragged along on the CIA's domestic incursion into the drug trade. Her character kind of works as an unknowing observer as these other characters seem to know what is going on.
They also use what appears to be a seal team as muscle in their forays into danger. The film is kind of propaganda for what the Department of Homeland Security wishes would happen: inter agency cooperation, the CIA, FBI, Defense Dept., and local law enforcement working together in perfect harmony, although they seem to put state level agencies in a bad light both in the US and in Mexico. Ted is a character that is dirtied by the cartel and tries to kill Blunt's character. Ted is a local police detective. And the Mexican police officer that they portray as a family man is also working with the cartels.
Benicio Del Toro plays someone that has been hurt by the cartels, his family was murdered brutally. The film can be seen as a revenge film. It appears the crux of the CIA's plan is to create chaos in the cartels by setting Alejandro (del Toro's character) loose on them as a Sicario or hitman with all the support of a Navy seal team/homeland security behind him. We should all be so lucky if we need such revenge. It makes me think of all those Saudis that flew into towers. What do we do? Keep buying their oil instead of converting to renewable energies, sell weapons to the Saudis and help them bomb the Yemenis. But I digress.
To me, and many US citizens, it seems like a huge waste of resources, policing and incarcerating millions of people for mental health issues like drug addiction. Prohibition creates criminals. It is funny how we allow alcohol use, though it causes so many problems, yet we do not allow other drugs to be used, and the result is the same but the illegality creates even more problems. We should study Portugal's drug policies.
Another issue that seems to always creep up in films about the US and Mexico is the use of the word "America." America is a continent, North America has the countries Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Mexican citizens are also Americans. Canadians are Americans. US citizens are Americans. North Americans might be more accurate. I just do not think the US has the monopoly on the use of American. One of those funny uses of language that I notice now and again.
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