Sicario Border Battle

Sicario -  

Border scene 

This scene from Sicario is one of my favourite shoot out scenes from any crime thriller I have seen. The scene is not very flashy, packed with action or full of explosions but what it does have is a very realistic feel which I love. I think the realistic feel from this scene derives from the clever editing techniques (splicing locations together) as well as the effort that went into the production of this scene. 

The setting

The scene takes place on the border between El Paso and Juarez and for the production three different locations were spliced together within the editing stage.

These locations were a car park in Albuquerque where a replica of the bridge/border was built,footage of the streets of mexico city (doubling for Juarez) and real footage of the bridge and the border itself. I think by splicing these three different locations together to create the setting of the scene works really well to enforce the realism of the scene as the first few shots in the scene is the real footage of the border/bridge and Mexico so when viewing those shots nothing seems forced or unnatural which helps lead the audience into the acting and set up shots without breaking away from the immersion of the location. 

The real footage of the bridge/border is mostly shot from the side of a helicopter and the helicopters blades can be heard within the shot the sound of the helicopter blades as well as the visual of the helicopter is also used to not break the immersion of the location as the next scene shows the set up shots on the fake bridge and a helicopter can be seen and heard in the background of the shot which helps the audience flow really well between the shots.

The way that the fake bridge was set up compared to the real bridge is done very well and looks like a direct mirror of the real scenes. Each car within the scene also looks like it belongs there with some having damage or personal looking items on the dashboard. There are also a few venders on the street that go from car to car and the gates of the border can still be seen in the background of shots all of these background details adds to that realism when you notice them 

The sound

The digetic sound within the scene continues to add to the realism of the scene and it does it very well all sounds we would expect from a packed Mexican border are there and layered very well with multiple car engines each sounding different based on the vehicle as well as the sound of tires moving across the road depending on the speed of the car a different variant of the car tires can be heard.

       

Non digetic sound is also used within the scene to link shots together and make the flow between shots easier for the audience. It is used quite a few times within the scene but the more notable ones are the sound of the helicopter blades and a dog barking. The shots of the dog barking really work well as when the shot changes and focuses on something different the bark sounds muffled/clear or closer/further depending whether the shot is inside a car and how close to the dog the shot is.