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I getchya. There's certainly a Machiavellian undertone to it all. That's essential to the story it's telling. But, as I saw it, it's definitely not Nietzschean - or beyond good and evil, as you say. Both exist in the world the film is set in. Every character, even Del Toro, have a sense of this which motivates. What is more, the film seems to want to draw attention to these competing conceptions of morality.
Anyway, I don't see it as US military industrial complex propaganda. The point - for me - seems to be that the US is complacent in evil acts as a party in the war on drugs.
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What is more, the film seems to want to draw attention to these competing conceptions of morality.
Yes, but in a strange way I think that a single conception is demonstrated as the one as part of the narrative.
I could be biased toward identifying a specific part of the story but I think it's because I have high suspicions that just like Zero Dark Thirty there was strong CIA and military influence on the production. Just better hidden than with Bigelow's movie.
As I said earlier though, I think that Sicario is an exceedingly well made movie, in terms of story, acting, pacing, script, etc. Totally unlike American Sniper which was a one-dimensional snore fest with some fucking sorry acting from the lead.
I will be looking out for the Sicario sequel.
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And @t_w
I think you're both right. The might=right narrative in the film is seductive, not least because it's somehow cathartic . And I think part of the film's effectiveness is that it conveys some of that feeling, hints at why this path so beguiles US policymakers. The FBI agent characters are a necessary foil to this so that the film retains some kind of moral anchor - you could tell the story without their being central characters. But because they're central they highlight the tension between the two worlds, culminating in the end scene where might wins. For the moment.
t_w
h2o
I don't essentially disagree with some of your points.
For me it boils down not to the fact that the US is shown to be complicit in the senseless and immoral deaths of many people, but that its stance is beyond good and evil and lays with the strong, the wolves.
This is the "right of might" I speak of. My saying that it is "good and right" is only within what can be regarded as such within that context.
The weak, then, that are regarded as lesser and in a perverted sense in this regard, immoral and without character, are such people as the law abiding FBI agent whose whimpering, simpering ineptitude in the face of being stalked by "wolves" while clinging to the illusion of the rule of law (though these people purport to be on her side, and the side of justice. It's just that their justice occupies ethical high ground in the alternate universe of the spooks).
Also included in this are her partner whose well meaning and good intentions are impotent in the face of the "just let it happen" as a special forces soldier stands on his chest with a gun to his head as the head wolf roughs up the lamb a little bit to properly "advise her" (Blunt's character).
We see things differently, yes, but I think some thought might be placed in the fact that a sequel has been commisioned starring Del Toro's Sicario. It will apparently be a vehicle solely for him. Placing such emphasis on the very deliverer of death and mayhem is evidence to my mind of the further mythologising of very worst traits in human character produced by the effects of war.
On a simple level you could just say that the most flawed, dark characters make for the most interesting stories but I think that this sort of film operates on different levels and not only one so basic.
Saying that I would actually watch that sequel.
Perhaps finally I can make the argument that film presents two worldviews: that the two approaches by governmental agencies in the film, one; strict, morally grounded, following the letter of the law by individuals with conscience and humanity is trounced, being ineffective and a complete failure in the face of the amoral warrior wolves who will employ any method to achieve their goals.
And they do.