Order and morality

Julio 2021-10-18 09:30:39

Order and Morality

"Border Killer" (Sicario 2015) should be a film that leads the audience to think about the theme of "order and morality". Its storyline is not complicated. That is, in a hostage rescue operation in Phoenix, the US FBI anti-kidnapping team accidentally discovered evidence of violent crimes committed by foreign drug groups, which triggered another multi-sectoral involvement by the US government to eradicate evidence. A not-so-legal secret operation with the Mexican drug lord as the main task. Towards the end of the movie, it is confessed that the purpose of this secret operation is to rebuild the order of the drug trade, which of course will lead us to think about the moral issues of this kind of order reconstruction. However, the "moral issues" involved in this film are not limited to this final value judgment. In fact, the film has always deliberately asked us to think about ethical issues in the process of telling the story. An obvious example of this is the film’s display of the Silvio family of a Mexican police officer who was bought by a drug dealer. If it weren’t for deliberately making us think about ethics, why would the film show their family’s footage over and over again? As some viewers have experienced, these footages seem to be redundant; But he was shot and killed by the activists. Even though Silvio deliberately said that he had a son when he was abducted, it failed to arouse the hijacker’s moral compassion. Especially at the end of the film, his son confronted his father’s empty bed and failed to wait until his father came back. The ethical impact of playing football with oneself is still very powerful. In addition to the Silvio family, the bought policeman Ted and the big drug lord Fausto Alarcon also asked not to harm their children in the face of the actors. Although they did not receive moral sympathy, the film These details that appear from time to time do prompt us to think about such problems. Is there no order and morality?

Before the secret operation, there was a public operation, that is, Gilmour, an important member of the drug group, was taken back to the United States for interrogation from Juarez, Mexico. The film fully shows the disorder in Juarez. For example, drug dealers hang the dismembered human body under the highway bridge like pork hanging from a slaughterhouse. There is no police intervention. You must know that there are police in this place because the prisoners are escorted. The local police were escorted during the process. When the vehicle that escorted the criminal was followed by a drug dealer, the commander of the operation issued an engagement instruction of "If they act rashly, we will fight back immediately." Even if the lane was crowded with a large number of civilian vehicles, when armed drug dealers tried to fight back, they shot them all. kill. This caused a great complaint from Kate, the only female FBI anti-kidnapping team leader among his colleagues, who believed that it was illegal for them to treat armed drug criminals among civilians by acts of war. However, the head of the action team Matt replied that such rules should be implemented in Juarez. Regarding this operation, it is certain that, except for the Mexican government, except in Juarez, I am afraid that no country will tolerate the use of the tiger wolf rule by other countries’ armed forces in its own territory, but this rule has been implemented, and it seems that even us The audience also recognizes this point and applies extraordinary methods in extraordinary areas. However, the rationality of this tiger-wolf rule of preemptive preemption by evil is geometrically reasonable, and it should be worthy of serious consideration by each of our movie viewers.

Next, let's look at what kind of ethical conflicts the covert operations have caused. The question that needs to be explained is: Why conduct covert operations? First of all, this is an action against other countries, but it has not reached the level of a war between the two countries, and the action has attracted the joint participation of multiple government departments, especially with the assistance of the military department. It stands to reason that this type of action requires the authorization of Congress. However, even the FBI team leader Kate knows its illegality. It is almost impossible for them to obtain authorization through formal channels. Therefore, the secret operation can be understood. Secondly, the action is aimed at a big drug lord. If it passes through normal diplomatic channels, it will inevitably be stunned, and the action will be fruitless. The third and most important point is that the purpose and means of their actions are illegal. The purpose is to restore the order of the drug trade, and the method is to use black and white collusion to kill people. Under normal circumstances, as long as the purpose and means are illegal, the rationality of their actions will be questioned. However, in the eyes of Matt, the head of the action team representing the national interest, the illegal means is to obtain a controllable border drug transaction order, which is still legitimate. This was very obvious in the paragraph that Matt explained to Kate at the end of the covert operation. However, even if we believe that national interests are paramount, does this secret operation really achieve the goal of a controllable order? Obviously, no. Because at the end of the film, when the little boys’ football match is going on, Juarez’s gunshots remain unchanged. This seems to be to tell people that killing a big drug lord does not mean that Juarez’s order can be controlled. The other drug cartel sent by Colombia still has a long way to go before it can take control of the area. The Americans seem to have done another wishful thinking with the efforts of the boss. Whether they can get peace on the border is still unknown. . If this is the case, the only profit from this story is that Alessandro, who was negotiated by the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs from Colombia as a covert operation consultant, was avenged and won the favor of both customers. His last advice to Kate seemed to prove that the Americans had taken a lot of money. Not only did the situation in Juarez remain unchanged, but the American border adjacent to Juarez has become a land of tigers and wolves.

We should further consider the relationship between order and morality. Although order does not exist and morality is attached, order is effective in the construction of moral rules, but for the sake of order, especially in the name of national interest, can all unethical and illegal methods be used? The dispute between order and morality can be generalized to a dispute between national interest and personal interest to some extent. In the name of national interest, illegal actions can be carried out in other countries. Then, in the same name, it can also be Similar actions are implemented in the country. Acting in the national interest should have its basic boundaries. If we ignore this point and do not act under the basic legal framework, the gun aimed at Kate might also be aimed at your chin someday. This seems to be the film. Want to alert people. Didn't you see, Alessandro, who was introduced illegally, is becoming a veritable "wolf"! (Text/Slate

Planting Flowers Monday, December 21, 2015) PS. Thanks to the translator of the Chinese subtitles of this film: Alber1982.

View more about Sicario reviews

Extended Reading
  • Brenna 2022-04-24 07:01:02

    This gang of drug dealers in Mexico is really fucking fierce, I really want to see them fight IS

  • Ima 2022-03-25 09:01:05

    Frontier Killer, the inaugural issue of the quasi-classic series plus professional affirmation of several film festival awards. However, I personally feel that this film is not as good as the sequel three years later and several other works by Sheridan, the screenwriter who has become popular in the West in recent years, such as Going Through Waters and Fires and Hunting for Trouble in the River Valley. The key question: Is Blunt's heroine weak at the beginning and does not give her self-improvement arc to the end, or is she still a new federal agent who can only accept the shock of reality/cruel truth education? This is wrong. This is not to say that there are any prejudices against the theme orientation of suppressing the new and promoting the old, but you let a character who has been passive without arc development to occupy the number one stage, and the whole story will lose the applied empathy tension. Even if you don't have to be like Silent Lamb Foster, you must at least moderately show the eye-catching advantages to maintain a good impression. The controversial bank money laundering woman should be arrested for a period of particularly weak, so weak that the audience will feel that the heroine does not have the wise roots that can be expected at all! This key narrative flaw is so striking that it cannot be concealed by powerful photography alone to seize the focus of public opinion. However, the situation got better after shooting 2, because Del Toro, who was already dominating the drama, was righted to the top. …Three-and-a-half

Sicario quotes

  • Alejandro: You're asking me how a watch works. For now we'll just keep an eye on the time.

  • [last lines]

    Alejandro: You should move to a small town where the rule of law still exists. You will not survive here. You are not a wolf. And this is the land of wolves now.