Stefano Sollima
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Gomorrah (2008)
Directed by Matteo Garrone
influenced Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), Suburra (2015)
The main cast is back, but without Emily Blunt (who must have been busy remaking "Mary Poppins"), and with Italian director Stefano Sollima (known for the raw "Gomorrah" television series) replacing French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve.
Though the film is the follow-up to 2015’s ultra-violent crime/thriller Sicario, it stands on its own as an intensely intricate exploration of the blurry lines that separate criminality and law enforcement, a theme often explored by the director whose past works include the Italian television series Suburra and then later, Gomorrah .
“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” isn’t so much a sequel as a pilot for an entirely new cycle of “Sicario” movies centered on the characters of the 2015 film (minus Emily Blunt), directed by the man responsible for the gritty “Gomorrah” series for Italian TV, Stefano Sollima.
They do, though director Stefano Sollima (whose resume includes the excellent TV series "Gomorrah") doesn't have the visual flair Villeneuve brought to the first film.
Writer Taylor Sheridan (Wind River, Hell or High Water) is once again at the keyboard, but this time Stefano Sollima (Gomorrah, Suburra) is behind the lens.
Before then, all you can do is marvel at how the reconfigured Sicario team — new director Stefano ‘ Gomorrah ’ Sollima, incoming cinematographer Dariusz ‘ The Martian ’ Wolski and returning screenwriter Taylor Sheridan — have managed to build on the militarised drug enforcement purgatory rendered first time around.
John Wick (2014)
Directed by Chad Stahelski
influenced Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (2021)
Plot Visuals Themes
Loosely (and, according to fans of the book, this adaptation is barely recognisable) based on Clancy’s 1993 novel of the same name, the trailer for Without Remorse would have you believing this is a furious revenge thriller in the same vein as something like John Wick or Taken .
There’s also numerous fight sequences and shoot outs which rival John Wick and Atomic Blond , with plenty of excellent choreography and stunt work – along with a hugely tense plane crash.
From Dirty Harry to John Wick , cinema history is lousy with vigilante justice, but it’s become increasingly difficult to depict One Man’s Pursuit Of Vengeance without that One Man seeming like a fascist or a psychopath — or both.
The story feels like a mixture between John Wick and Sicario , which isn’t shocking considering the writer and director team behind this project, Taylor Sheridan and Stefano Sollima.
Both the trailer and the plot make Without Remorse seem like it's another Taken or John Wick -esque 'man on a revenge mission' action movie.
So when you see a trailer for something like Without Remorse and you note that it stars Michael B. Jordan (who reinvigorated the Rocky franchise and played one of the MCU’s best villains, Killmonger) and you read that it was written by Taylor Sheridan ( Sicario , Wind River , Hell or High Water ) and you see it’s based on a novel by Tom Clancy (whose Jack Ryan is the undisputed champ of espionage-based action-thrillers) and the trailer suggests what you’re about to see is a John Wick -style escapade of revenge-murdering, you allow yourself to hope.
Léon: The Professional (1994)
Directed by Luc Besson
influenced Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
Characters Themes Plot
Like the hitman in "Leon: The Professional" (1994), he bonds with the girl and becomes her protector, complicating matters for his boss and buddy Graver.
We’ve seen it in Leon: The Professional , True Gri t (either vintage), Terminator 2 , and countless other iterations, and now it forms the narrative and thematic core of Sicario: Day of the Soldado , the awkwardly-titled follow up to 2015’s excellent narco-war drama, Sicario .
So now we’re into even more familiar territory: the tough guy reluctantly tied to and on the run with a spunky adolescent girl (“The Professional,” “Logan,” a dozen others).
There's a touch of "The Professional" in that, and perhaps even "The Searchers," to the extent he discovers empathy for someone raised by his enemy, in a way that he thought was lost.
The scene does remind me of “The Raid: Redemption,” and, to some extent, it’s similar to 2012’s criminally forgotten “Dredd.”
And Villeneuve’s knack for finding something deeper in a genre scenario – see Arrival, or Blade Runner 2049 for that matter – has been replaced by Sollima’s workaday talents as a director of action.
While not as gritty or powerful as its predecessor, which was superbly rendered by director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049), this North American debut for Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima still is consistently intriguing and harrowing as it emphasizes action over politics.
The original “Sicario” was directed by Denis Villeneuve, who likes to immerse the audience in waves of sound and alluring imagery as seen recently in “Blade Runner 2049” and “Arrival.”
And Villeneuve is on a hot streak on par with Sheridan’s, becoming a sort of sci-fi wunderkind in recent years with Arrival , Blade Runner 2049 , and the upcoming Dune re-boots.
And if you can’t get the original director Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”)), what sort of movie-making logic leads to Stefano Sollima, an Italian TV director?
Villeneuve and Deakins combined again in Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
And Villeneuve’s knack for finding something deeper in a genre scenario – see Arrival, or Blade Runner 2049 for that matter – has been replaced by Sollima’s workaday talents as a director of action.
The original “Sicario” was directed by Denis Villeneuve, who likes to immerse the audience in waves of sound and alluring imagery as seen recently in “Blade Runner 2049” and “Arrival.”
The original film (directed by Arrival ’s Denis Villeneuve) gave us an inroad into a complicated and constantly shifting landscape in the person of agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), who was our proxy in the story — a smart but naive character who slowly came to discover the full horror of the way matters of drug trade across the border were really settled.
And Villeneuve is on a hot streak on par with Sheridan’s, becoming a sort of sci-fi wunderkind in recent years with Arrival , Blade Runner 2049 , and the upcoming Dune re-boots.
And if you can’t get the original director Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”)), what sort of movie-making logic leads to Stefano Sollima, an Italian TV director?
There’s hints and touches of various other magnificent scores in Hildur Guðnadóttir’s work here – Jóhann Jóhannsson’s delicate majesty on Prisoners inspires the more reserved moments, while the atmospheric soundscapes of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 are fondly remembered during the wide, precursor shots to the rather constant carnage.
Hell or High Water (2016)
Directed by David Mackenzie
influenced Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (2021), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
Sure, Sollima and screenwriters Taylor Sheridan ( Sicario and Hell or High Water ) and Will Staples smartly recall Clancy’s earlier themes of how governmental mistrust and mutually assured destruction in a Cold War time loop fueled the military-industrial complex.
Credit is also due to director Stefano Sollima, whose “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” was a sturdy sequel to the superior “Sicario,” and to co-writer Taylor Sheridan, who wrote both “Sicario” movies as well as the Oscar-nominated “Hell or High Water.”
We get some of that with cellphones and the like, but mostly the script from Taylor Sheridan (the sharp hand behind “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River”) and Will Staples (who’s mostly written video games such as “Call of Duty”) is a lackluster transposition steered inertly by Stefano Sollima (“Sicario: Day of the Soldado”).
Made by the same writing/directing pair, filmmaker Stefano Sollima (the Italian “Gomorrah” TV series) and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (“Sicario,” “Hell or High Water”), “Without Remorse” feels like a CIA Black Ops recruitment tool—making ruthless assassinations of faceless foreign nationals seem efficiently slick and badass—for aspiring jarheads and military contractors.
The credit for the brutal edge and canny balance goes to stellar Oscar-nominated Hell or High Water and Sicario writer Taylor Sheridan, backed by video game writer Will Staples.
Later, Taylor Sheridan took a pass at Will Staples’ adapted screenplay, though it must be said that the finished product lacks the pop of Sheridan’s dialogue in Sicario or Hell or High Water.
Sicario (2015)
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
influenced Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (2021), Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)
I wish the “Sicario” name had been dropped from “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” because maybe I would’ve enjoyed the film more.
La primera y más importante de las dificultades a las que este filme tuvo que hacer frente consistió en la contrariedad de conseguir que la esencia del Sicario original sobreviviera a la salida del proyecto de Denis Villeneuve.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado continues the saga of Central Investigation Agency officer Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro).
When was the last time you watched the first film Sheridan wrote, 2015's Sicario?
Picking up some time after the events of 2015’s Sicario , screenwriter Taylor Sheridan continues Graver and Alejandro’s stories with Sicario: Day of Soldado, an aggressively pugnacious sequel that’s a viscerally uncomforting descent into a self-created hell on earth overflowing in violence and death.
Sure, Sollima and screenwriters Taylor Sheridan ( Sicario and Hell or High Water ) and Will Staples smartly recall Clancy’s earlier themes of how governmental mistrust and mutually assured destruction in a Cold War time loop fueled the military-industrial complex.
Elements of the dirty-war epic have been cropping up in recent espionage and battle films: the ethical ambiguity in Kathryn Bigelow’s get-bin-Laden film Zero Dark Thirty (2012), the implacably vicious action in David Ayer’s World War II tank movie Fury (2014).
Then again, Chris Hemsworth recently found streaming success outside the Marvel-verse in the gnarly action film Extraction .