Eye In The Sky
Game of drones…
Drone warfare has never quite felt so real or as nerveshredding as it does in Gavin Hood’s excellent drama. True, it’s a topic that’s been explored recently – but while Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill concentrated on one man’s redemption, Eye In The Sky takes a more complex look at modern warfare.
Set across four continents, it plays out in boardrooms as much as battlegrounds. Leading the line is Colonel Katherine Powell (a no-nonsense Helen Mirren), who’s overseeing an operation to bring in a radicalised English woman, Susan Helen Danford (Lex King), who’s joined up with Al-Shabaab terrorists.
Scripted by Guy Hibbert with both intelligence and patience, the story avoids any sort of Michael Bay-hem. Rather, it cuts back and forth as various politicians pass the buck when it comes to making the decision to bomb the safe house where Danford and others are currently holed up. In London, we meet Lt. General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman), who agrees an attack must take place but is left frustrated as decision-makers “refer up” the chain of command.
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) is responsible for flying the drone, but faced with a very real moral dilemma in his crosshairs, one that gives the narrative a potent tick-tock tension. Hood, who has toyed with political subtext in movies from Tsotsi to Ender’s Game, here crafts a film that raises huge moral questions about the validity of drone warfare. Factor in Mirren and Rickman, in one of his final roles, and you have a highly impactful drama.
THE VERDICT Tense and thoughtprovoking in equal measure, this is first-rate – a modern-day Dr. Strangelove played out on video screens. › Certificate 15 Director Gavin Hood Starring Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Aaron Paul, Lex King, Jeremy Northam Screenplay Guy Hibbert Distributor Entertainment One Running time 102 mins