Eye In The Sky

Eye In The Sky is a tense drama from director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition, er X-Men Origins: Wolverine) that focuses on a joint British/American drone mission over Kenya targeting terrorists.

Essentially it's a look at the morals of using such weapons and the debate over if collateral casualties can be accepted. We follow almost a real time as Helen Miren's Colonel leads a mission from a bunker in Surrey with the intent of capturing terrorists leaders whilst an American crew in Nevada control a drone overhead, Kenya forces operate on the ground and Alan Rickman's General and Government ministers watch from a room in Whitehall.

Circumstances change on the ground quickly and the operation is forced to change from capture to kill as the terrorists move to a house secure on the ground and appear to be preparing a suicide bomb attack. However a young girl is spotted selling bread close to the house in the projected blast radius.

What follows is a series of conversations and debates over what action to take, the legality of it and if there is will to fire on the house with the girl so close. It's a fairly neat simplified encapsulation of the issue.

The different points of view are presented evenly with nothing being sensationalised; the military look at things in terms of one life is to save many more later, the ministers debate the potential political and PR repercussions and the crew in charge of the drone agonise over will result of the actions they take.

Suffice to say I glad I'm not in position to have to make such a choice, indeed nearly all of the characters in the film struggle with it and keep passing things up the chain of command. Rickman and Mirren's military veterans whilst seemingly deal with the situation dispassionately are still crucially shown to be rounded people, not just hawks, who know full well the human cost of warfare.

The film benefits for not making up the mind of the audience for them at the end, matters are resolved but we are shown the price.

Director hood does well to avoid things feeling too stagey in a production that basically takes place in a few small rooms whilst avoiding, aside from a one piece of fanciful technology, making things too 'hollywood thriller'. Recommended.