One Of Denis Villeneuve’s Best Films Came With Life-Threatening Risks
It’s a good thing that “Sicario” is often cited as the best Denis Villeneuve movies, seeing as the director, cast, and crew apparently risked their lives to make it. Imagine putting yourself through life-threatening situations just to witness the poor reviews roll in and the almighty Tomatometer bestow an abject splat upon your film. Thankfully, “Sicario” currently stands at a muscular 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the third highest-rated of Villeneuve’s films on the website, behind “Arrival” and “Dune: Part Two.”
But without “Sicario,” those other two blockbusters arguably wouldn’t exist. This was the movie that established Villeneuve as a director capable of balancing human drama with large-scale action and set him on a course to shepherd the big-budget movies he’s now known for. As “Dune: Part Two” crosses box office milestone after box office milestone, “Sicario” still stands as the movie that made it all possible.
As such, all the risk involved in making the 2015 thriller was surely worth it. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an at-times traumatic experience for those involved. The movie explores the war between the U.S. and Mexican cartels, with Emily Blunt’s good-hearted FBI Special Agent Kate Mercer at the center of this particular moral gray area. Led by CIA Agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and accompanied by assassin Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro), Mercer quickly discovers that the world into which she’s thrust is even more dangerous and convoluted than she’d thought. Which is exactly what it was like for the people making the film.