EYE IN THE SKY – The Review

Credit : Bleecker Street

Gavin Hood showed a talent for handling complex issues with brilliant skill in “Tsotsie,” a film about a small-time thug that was both a thriller and a balanced exploration of the intersection of crime, poverty and AIDS in South Africa’s slums. Now the South African director brings that knack for taut thrillers with nuance, balance and humanity to the morally murky subject of drone warfare, in EYE IN THE SKY.

Hood takes a neutral tone in this gripping thriller, where a joint British and American mission to capture a British national, who has become an Islamic terrorist leader in Kenyan, is complicated when their remote surveillance, the “eye in the sky,” reveals a suicide bomber mission in progress. The unexpected discovery seems to change the mission from capture to kill, but that decision is debated between politicians, diplomats, military leaders across international lines, in a tension-filled drama with the soldiers at the drone controls buffeted by their own feelings. The suicide bomber plot starts a countdown and window to take action but the decision is further complicated by the appearance of a young girl (Aisha Takow) in the kill zone.

Drone warfare has allowed soldiers to kill enemies from great distance while eliminating the risk of being on the battlefield, and has sparked myriad moral questions. In this film, Hood explores some of those questions, through the eyes of the human beings involved. At the same time, “Eye In The Sky” is a top-notch thriller, with all the tension and rawness needed to keep audiences riveted and nail-biting.

The film features a fine performance by Helen Mirren as hard-as-nails Colonel Katherine Powell, a British military officer who has spent years tracking the targeted terrorist, a British female convert to radical jihad who has risen to become number 4 on the international terrorist most-wanted list.

When intelligence leads Powell to a house in Kenya, the British see a chance to capture the terrorist alive, and bring her back for interrogation. The late Alan Rickman plays British Lieutenant General Frank Benson, the military top brass observing the military operation Powell is directing, along with a few British politicians, from a panelled conference room in London. In one of his last performances, Rickman plays his part with style and a sharp intelligence, a character who helps viewers to tease out what responsibility is carried by the military and what by their civilian political leaders.

A need for a positive identification of the target leads to a delay. When their terrorist change locations, the “eye in the sky” follows, sending a insect drone into the house, operated by Kenyan undercover agent Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi). Surveillance reveals the preparations for a suicide bombing. To prevent civilian deaths, the military wants to change the mission from capture to kill but they need political approval for the change.

In a conventional action thriller, this scenario would have painted the various people involved in this decision as right or wrong, good or bad, morally black or white. Hood instead lets each character express their own view of the situation, as well as reveal their feelings about their actions. The result is a film that has all the ticking-clock tension of an action thriller, while intelligently exploring the moral and ethical questions behind drone strikes in a balanced way.

Hood takes no sides, simply presenting the issue in all its complicated nature for the audience to decide. There are no perfect, clear answers here – it is all in the ethical, moral calculation. Is the death of one innocent person worth it if it means saving hundred of others? Do they let this terror mastermind slip from their grasp? How do the Americans and British differ? What about the feelings of those who will pull the trigger? The bouncing back-and-forth in taking responsibility for the action is very telling, as are the different calculations made by the military and the politicians. The film also touches on the moral responsibility and personal anguish of the soldier with his finger on the trigger, USAF drone pilot  Lieutenant Steve Watts, (Aaron Paul), something rarely presented in conventional thrillers.

Although the film plays like an ensemble cast piece, it is interesting to note that all the various characters are in far-flung locations – the general and politicians in a posh London office, Col. Powell in her command center, the American drone operators in Las Vegas. All are pretty remote from the focus of the action, except for the Kenyan agents on the ground, who are facing more direct risk, particularly Kenyan agent Farah, played with verve by Barkhad Abdi, who was nominated for an Oscar for his debut role as the Somali pirate leader in “Captain Phillips. The thriller brilliantly illustrates the power of a connected world, the sophisticated state of surveillance and communications, as well as its limits.

Mirren and Rickman dominate most of the action but the cast also includes Jeremy Northam as Brian Woodale and Iain Glen as British Foreign Secretary James Willett. Director Gavin Hood also plays a role, as Lt. Colonel Ed Walsh.

EYE IN THE SKY is a compulsively watchable thriller, packed with some striking performances, but also a film that engages the mind and humanity of viewers. That Hood can pack all this real-world complexity  in a film that is still a terrific, white-knuckle thriller is amazing and a tribute to his skill. Aided by nice performances and believable, feeling characters, EYE IN THE SKY a must-see film that tackles the issue of drone strikes in a first-rate, intelligent  thriller.

OVERALL RATING: 4 1/2 OUT OF 5 STARS

EYE IN THE SKY opens in St. Louis March 18th, 2016.