Scene of the Week: South of the Border

There are many things that can make an enthralling action scene and at the top of the list is tension. A good filmmaker can have the audience’s heart rates racing and sitting at the edge of their seats. Just with the proper selection of film angels, edits, soundtrack and actors’ performances, a director can tell an engrossing story with very little dialogue that feels organic and not full of exposition. Denis Villeneuve in Sicario does a masterful job of bringing the suspense and tension on screen to the audience. Whether it is a FBI raid of a house, sneaking through Mexican drug tunnels or taking out drug kingpins, Sicario is filled with standout scenes. There is one sequence that stands above the rest and it involves making the treacherous trip across the border from Juarez, Mexico to El Paso,TX.

To provide a little backstory, FBI Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is along for the ride with members of the Department of Defense, U.S. Marshal Service, CIA (covertly of course) and Army Delta special forces operators in extraditing a prisoner from Juarez to El Paso. The drug cartels do not want the Americans to interrogate the prisoner so they plan to eliminate the threat at the crowded border crossing. From the moment the convoy enters Mexico to the climatic ending the tension is so thick you can cut it with a knife. Villeneuve is at the top of his game in Sicario and he would have to be to make a movie starring Emily Blunt become one of my favorite new action movies.