I'm not sure I got who he was in the past... Theye said something about the cartel but also mentioned somehing about him being a prosecutor... So, who was he and why was his wife and daughter killed??
shareThrough dialogue I think he was the sicario
shareI think (not sure at all) that he was a lawyer in Colombia and his wife and daughter were killed by a cartel (maybe in retaliation.) And he was willing to work with whomever to get revenge.
shareThanks to both! On the trivia part it says that 90 percent of what Del Toro was originally intended to say was cut in order to make the character more mysterious. Maybe they should have left some of it because no one seems to be sure who he was and why was his family murdered...
shareYeah I think maybe they should have left a few more details in lol
shareJust watched it now, and from what I can gather from the first viewing - he was a lawyer in Colombia and connected to the Medellin Cartel, potentially also a hitman for them, but I'm only guessing at this from the display of his high level of skills in combat/assassination (The Sicario).
The Mexican Cartel made a hit on his family way back for some reason, and in a particularly brutal fashion (beheaded wife and threw daughter into a vat of acid...). Understandably, he's been after revenge ever since, and exploiting the US govt's desire to have a monopoly on the drug trade lead by the Medellin cartel, which makes the conflicts more 'controllable', had them enlist him to take out the boss of the Mexican Cartel with their intelligence ('El Jefe'), the same man who authorised the hit on his family.
I think, just from the bits of information you get during the film, that he had previously been a Mexican prosecutor. After his family was murdered he took any route necessary/available to achieve revenge, which led him into the employ of a Columbian cartel who were rivals of the Juarez cartel.
sharemy thoughts exactly.
shareBefore he was a prosecutor, he was a sicario for Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel in the 80s/early 90s until Escobar's death and the death of the Medellin cartel.
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I don't know, maybe that he was a prosecutor for Mexico first and only after the murder of his family he turned sicario for Medellin and then after the cartel's dismantle he got hooked up with Colombian secret services and CIA.
Cause being a hitman for a cartel first and then studying/applying for prosecutor would be hard. And then turning "back to his sicario roots" even harder.
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Han shot first!
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Not sure what exactly are you trying to say, but Alejandro said he was working in Mexico as a prosecutor, Mexican cartels did exist in the 80's,early 90's and the whole being sicario and prosecutor for Colombia before his family was murdered thingy has no grounds in the film.
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Han shot first!
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clearly he was a prosecutor in mexico , the scene right b/4 he goes into the interrogation room , he runs into a mexican guy who says , he is sorry about his family , then BDT says , I'm glad you are still in the fight , so there mexican guy knew him as well as the Jefe at the end w/ his family who orchestrated the murder of his family , what would be his motive to kill a prosecutor in columbia if that prosecutor could not hurt him so it logically makes sense that BDT was from mexico ,
share"clearly he was a prosecutor in mexico , the scene right b/4 he goes into the interrogation room , he runs into a mexican guy who says , he is sorry about his family , then BDT says , I'm glad you are still in the fight , so there mexican guy knew him as well as the Jefe at the end w/ his family who orchestrated the murder of his family , what would be his motive to kill a prosecutor in columbia if that prosecutor could not hurt him so it logically makes sense that BDT was from mexico , "
Yep. This was all so clear I wonder why anyone would think Alejandro was Columbian. Well, I guess since he was in effect working toward the CIA's objective of helping the Medellin cartel some might have been confused by that, but the real motive of Alejandro was to kill the Mexican kingpin. What the CIA wanted and working toward it was merely a means to an end for Alejandro, and yes the brief encounter with the Mexican agent in the hallway at the Air Force base was what makes any other understanding wrong.
It sounded like the murder of his family was more recent than the heyday of Medellin. By film time we meet him seems Medellin has little power, almost non-existent, in the era of "mexico" cartels. Think its why the black OPs were trying to help Columbia gain back that power because they had lost it. He sounded like a rouge for hire after his family was killed and he had previously worked for the Medellin. Its possible he was a Sicario before or even during his prosecutor days? Maybe he became a prosector after Medellin began losing it power and influence?
shareAnd remember, Graver uses the word Medellin to describe "a state of mind", not a geographic location. Medellin conjures an era and order when a single regime was know by all to run the show. It was a known adversary system, like the US/Soviet cold war. This is apparent to Silvio the Policeman when he's captured, and resigned (mostly) to his fate.
The movie demonstrates in various ways how ruthless and disorderly life becomes due to the constant power vacuums when regimes are fighting for supremacy. The unholy, lessor of many evils takeway is that it MAY be best to tilt the game for one cartel over several, simply to drop the body count.
Just my interpretation.
Thanks for the explanation but I'm not sure I understand how he became a prosecutor after being a sicario. I get that after his family was killed he became a sicario. This is all very confusing... They should have given us more background stories.
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Thanks Eddie!! I finally understand...
You are right, it was too complicated and that caused a lot of confusion. They should have done what you said or at least explained it better...
Regardless of who he was, I'm sure that the writers wanted his background smoky. He had his guts wrenched by whichever cartel, and he wanted to look the bad guy in the eye and take him out. The whole end of the movie, from the drive in by Alejando to the house, was well done. The only scene I remember from another movie that got my attention like the scene at the dinner table was Verbal Kint from "The Usual Suspects" orally explaining the rise of Keyser Soze making his bones by killing his own family to get the word out that he would to stop at nothing to get what he wanted. Throw out good guy bad guy. Everyone here is out to eliminate everyone getting in their way. No need for political correctness here. Interesting twist: FBI getting the CIA to do their dirty work.
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I feel like you´re making this more complicated than it really is. Cartels and the rough meaning of the word has existed a pretty damn good time in Mexico. SO...Let´s say Alejandro went after Fausto when he was between 33 and 38 years old,let´say Fausto killed his wife and daughter during that time,it still gives him a year of drinking his sorrows away in bars and motel before being approached or approaching a Colombian cartel for mutual benefit. Medellin is Just the word all his victims use and in this case,as Fausto acknowledges,a cartel in Colombia DOES exist...and they want Fausto gone,fact.
This is Not a documentary,yet you make all your statements based in reality when talking about the film Sicario and thus,this leads you to that concluion. Not a great way to respond to fiction,man....
Let´s say Aleandro got three years training over there. Plus,he leaves alotta bodies in his wake so him getting the nickname Medellin in´t that strange,he Probably wanted it to be something seen coming OR created his own myth for status or misinformation....
Given the time,he should still be able to have spent about atleast six,seven years in Mexico,wreaking havoc...and in Mexico,prosecutors get slightly more weapons training then in the states...Atleast,so ays the legend.
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He wasn't a hitman for the cartels at all.
He was a state prosecutor in the time of Escobar, the time of Medellin. His wife and daughter were killed, and he became a ghost, spending twenty years becoming a killer and working towards his target.
The term Medellin refers to where he is from and the time of the Medelin cartel. It's a generic term used by the Mexican prisoner, who probably doesn't even know Alejandros name.
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Actually honey, you'll find it's spoken three times in the entire film. Once during the interrogation, the second time by Silvio inquisitively, and the third time by Brolins character, who then explains it exactly as I have. Perhaps you should re-watch the film.
Simply stating 'he was' and 'it doesn't' doesn't make your assumptions any less wrong.
There is no way he was a government prosecutor, whilst at the same time working as a hitman for the Medelin cartel. His rapport with the official before the interrogation clearly indicates he had never been under the employ of the cartels before his family were murdered.
Just because you can't understand the film doesn't mean it makes no sense.
Thanks for the thorough and accurate explanation. I will use some of your explanation (in my own words, of course) in my review of the movie. Thanks again.
Goat at Ruthless Reviews
Benicios charcater was an mexican prosecutor in the past who got hit by the mexican cartel and both his wife and daughter was killed. He joined the mexican cartels biggest competitor, the Colombian cartel and became a sicario for them. The CIA know that Benicios character have alot of knowledge of the Mexican cartel and want revenge so they hire his services to take out a big cartel leader in Mexico cause they had begun to operate on American soil as we saw in the beginning of the movie and Benicios character gladly helps cause he wants his revenge for his family that was murdered by the same cartel boss. Dont know how you cant know this after watching the movie? to stupid to even understand what you see or very bad at paying attention???
~If the realistic details fails, the movie fails~