Eye in the Sky
Go! A challenging, honest, warfare thriller.
Deciphering decisions behind deadly drones.
Drone warfare kind of just…happened. One minute we were throwing people onto a front line to their likely deaths, and the next, we just started killing people with unmanned planes that fittingly look like swollen, wingéd phalluses. It is an increasingly polarising subject, as each assassination almost inevitably comes with a bitter side order of civilian casualty. From South African director Gavin Hood (Ender’s Game, Tsotsi), Eye in the Sky attempts to elaborate on the moral issues that come from these increasingly common extra-judicial executions.
Colonel Powell (Helen Mirren, State of Play), is the British military commander of an operation to capture important members a Somali terrorist cell who are meeting in Kenya. From her UK base, she connects with drone pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad) in Nevada, USA; and Kenyan ground military in Nairobi (including Barkhad Abdi, Captain Philips). The initial aim is to simply surveil and capture the targets, but as the situation becomes ever more complicated, Powell is forced to “refer up” to her London-based General (Alan Rickman, Harry Potter Series). As various lawyers and senior ministers get involved she is forced to wait on effecting a decision that will potentially have significant political, legal and human consequences. Played out in a near-real-time (and pleasantly short) 100 minutes, it makes for a tense drama, driven and delayed by clamorous ethical dilemmas.
As an intelligent thriller and a realistic insight into a complex military scenario, Eye in the Sky scores a direct hit. Mirren quickly hits cruising speed as the determined and stern Colonel, who makes the difficult decisions that no one else wants to. Rickman, in his first of two posthumous films, is similarly strong; typically stoic yet irreverent. Aaron Paul adds a (slightly over-egged) emotional edge to proceedings, while Barkhad Abdi is intensely believable as a ground officer whose uneasy presence threatens to blow the entire mission. The performances are strung together by a well-exposed blend of different perspectives, illuminated by clever cinematography and a straightforward script. Seeing aerial footage of children from a deadly weapon is unnerving, but still the distance renders them mere tiny pawns in a deadly chess match. It is when we drop to ground-level, hear their conversations and see their relationships that their humanity re-appears, and wheel of potentially terrible consequences keeps tortuously turning.
As an intelligent thriller and a realistic insight into a complex military scenario, Eye in the Sky scores a direct hit. Mirren quickly hits cruising speed as the determined and stern Colonel, who makes the difficult decisions that no one else wants to. Rickman, in his first of two posthumous films, is similarly strong; typically stoic yet irreverent. Aaron Paul adds a (slightly over-egged) emotional edge to proceedings, while Barkhad Abdi is intensely believable as a ground officer whose uneasy presence threatens to blow the entire mission. The performances are strung together by a well-exposed blend of different perspectives, illuminated by clever cinematography and a straightforward script. Seeing aerial footage of children from a deadly weapon is unnerving, but still the distance renders them mere tiny pawns in a deadly chess match. It is when we drop to ground-level, hear their conversations and see their relationships that their humanity re-appears, and wheel of potentially terrible consequences keeps tortuously turning.
Besides increasing our blood pressure levels with entertaining uncertainty, Hood maintains a consistent level of moral neutrality in the story – London Has Fallen this is not. While probably still too lenient towards the idea that such strikes are necessary for the ‘greater good’, it raises sufficient questions to give it more balance than other, similar efforts (yes, I’m taking about you Homeland). Equally, as a very realistic piece of cinema, we unavoidably become a silent participant in the visual theatre of the mission. It is a subtle yet challenging subtext that queries how detached we would become if similarly challenged to control on-screen events from thousands of miles away; and, perhaps, how acquiescent we already are.
It falters slightly in the middle when sweaty and indecisive ministers (with and without diahorrea) shuffle the tone towards the satirical. Like sucking some of the air out of a helium balloon, it may offer momentary laughs, but the balloon itself loses its taut shape. Some members of the nail-bitten audience may welcome the light relief, but to me, it allowed some of the well-built tension to escape, to the overall detriment of the film’s seriousness and weight.
Nonetheless, Eye in the Sky is a definite go. It follows The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper as a modern film about modern warfare: powerful, poignant and pertinent; delivered by an emotive payload of tense entertainment.
It falters slightly in the middle when sweaty and indecisive ministers (with and without diahorrea) shuffle the tone towards the satirical. Like sucking some of the air out of a helium balloon, it may offer momentary laughs, but the balloon itself loses its taut shape. Some members of the nail-bitten audience may welcome the light relief, but to me, it allowed some of the well-built tension to escape, to the overall detriment of the film’s seriousness and weight.
Nonetheless, Eye in the Sky is a definite go. It follows The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper as a modern film about modern warfare: powerful, poignant and pertinent; delivered by an emotive payload of tense entertainment.
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