For
as long as there have been movies, there have been war movies filled with heroic
everymen who just want to go home safe to their families but cannot, at least
until they defeat their unquestionably evil enemies. Gavin Hood’s 2015 movie Eye in the Sky eschews the normal war
movie clichés and instead tackles the moral ambiguity of drone warfare. The
film begins as Colonel Katharine Powell (Helen Mirren) prepares for a mission
six years in the making—the capture of a British national turned terrorist
Susan Danford inside a house in Nairobi. When Powell discovers that Danford and
the others are preparing two suicide vests, the whole mission changes. The
politicians gathered to watch Danford’s capture bicker over rules of
engagement, risk assessments, and public relations fallout as they watch the terrorists
prepare suicide vests for two young volunteers. The tension ratchets upwards as
the terrorists grow closer to leaving for their intended targets and as a young
girl sells bread on the street just outside the house. Through this web of escalating
circumstances, politicians and lawyers pass the responsibility ever upwards.
All of them elected or appointed to make crucial decisions, but unwilling to
actually make them.
Helen Mirren as Katharine Powell |
Eye in the Sky’s superb cast sells the
ethical debates—which at times seem straight out of a graduate seminar in
philosophy—caused by the use of drone warfare in civilian areas. Mirren shines
as Powell. She is tough and sure of her mission, demanding that the bureaucrats
above her make a decision and manipulating the circumstances to ensure they
accede to her wishes. She is determined to kill her target, even at the cost of
the little girl’s life. Mirren’s skill comes in portraying Powell as
determined, but not villainous. Her motivations are understandable, relatable,
and come from a desire to protect civilian lives. The late Alan Rickman plays
Mirren’s superior, a general who oversees her mission in the company of some
high ranking British cabinet officials. What begins as a capture mission
evolves into a kill one when the suicide vests appear. It is Rickman who must forcefully
and continually remind the government officials of the ticking clock—eventually
those men are going to put their suicide vests on and use them. Aaron Paul
plays a conflicted American drone pilot who refuses to launch a missile at the
house until the little girl is given an opportunity to escape from the killing
zone. His quiet, but firm resistance forces Powell to risk the life of an asset
on the ground to get the girl out of the way.
The
film veers towards but never quite crosses over into farce. There are moments
when the lunacy of the entire exercise becomes almost Kubrickian. One British
official suggests that they let the suicide bombers leave and complete their
mission (killing perhaps hundreds of people) in order to gain a propaganda victory
rather than risk killing the little girl. In another moment, the American
secretary of state points out that they have 3 of the most wanted terrorists in
East Africa preparing two suicide vests and are bickering over legalities. The
film, however, shifts back to depicting the emotional cost. After the mission,
a devastated Paul and his co-pilot walk out of their little shed only to be
reminded by their commanding officer that they’re due back in twelve hours—potentially
to do this all over again. Rickman’s general chides one of the officials who
condemns them all for potentially killing the girl. He tells her, “Never tell a
soldier that he does not know the cost of war.” Whatever the tone of the film, Eye in the Sky raises troubling questions
of the ethics of war and the reticence of our own leaders to take
responsibility for their own actions.