It’s been more than a decade since the Western democracies have commenced the ‘War on Terror’. But, at least for the past five or six years, reports often surface that the US War on Terror is the leading cause of terrorism around the world. The US government and military officials may play the same tune: “our actions is what helping you to stay in safety”, while more vile terrorist organizations like ISIS, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram, etc rise from the US ‘noble’ effects to contain terrorism. Along with ‘War on Terror’, words like ‘rules of engagement’, ‘enemy combatants’, and ‘collateral damage’ are tossed around to hide the Western democracies’ own dispersal of terror. US and Britain take great pains to use these terms in order to conceal their terrorism unfurled upon innocent civilians. With every display of their superior weaponry like drone strikes, these majestic democracies only happen to create more terrorists. The military and political system of US thought schools their pawns to place every individual around the world on an ideological map and observe them as little grey dots on a video game. Gavin Hood’s terrific thriller “Eye in the Sky” (2015) serves as a visual analogy to the ethical minefields, plaguing the modern warfare. It shows us a war that has no national boundaries and the one in which even moral boundaries are perpetually changed.
“Eye in the Sky” is
riddled with disparate persons, linked by phones, video screens and satellites.
They argue about the damage and gains of conducting a drone operation on a dilapidated
house, situated near a sparsely populated market area. The mission at first was
to capture a radical UK citizen Susan Danford aka Ayesha Al-Hady and few other
extremists in a suburban Nairobi neighborhood. She and others are in the
official ‘kill lists’ approved by both US President and British Prime Minister.
But Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) objective is to capture them alive
and bring back the British citizen to stand on trial. Aiding Powell and others
is the unmanned aircraft (drone), 2,000 meters above Nairobi. The Colonel is
tracking down the action in Nairobi from a dark, concrete bunker, situated
outside London. Senior British army General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman) watches
the action from Whitehall with members of British Prime Minister’
administration.
The drone is controlled by US Air base in the Nevada desert.
Steve (Aaron Paul) and Carrie (Phoebe Fox) are assigned to be control drone’s
eyes from a windowless trailer in the air base. The intelligence and
surveillance experts are at US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to make
positive identifications about the people, coming in and out of the Nairobi
house. On ground, under the orders of British allies, Kenyan military operative
Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi) observes the high priority targets. Despite all the
high-tech surveillance gadgets, signal strengths and perfect approach to the
capture, a small change in the plans from the terrorists’ side sends the
mission to be ensnared in ethical gray areas. Susan and the men shift to a
house, situated in the part of city, controlled by Al-Shabab militants. Farah
intelligently gets through the militants controlled area and his surveillance
only brings back shocking news to all the persons involved in the capture
mission. Now the intent to capture transforms to ‘targeted assassination’. The
high command people want the controller of eyes, Steve to get ready to strike
at the ‘house’. While the targeteer has worked out the collateral damage and
every one is ready for the strike, in comes a nine year old girl (Aisha Takow)
to sell bread near the doomed house.
Veteran screenwriter Guy Hibbert must be commended for his
ability to diffuse the moral contradictions and complexities of drone or modern
warfare, while also constantly engaging the viewer on a basic level. He also
highlights the inherent inabilities of all these modern technologies to
effectively contain the terrorism. Director Hood and Hibbert understands the
impersonal nature of drone warfare and the unimaginable impact it creates on
low-level operators, but at no point they use it to force in the moralistic
messages. In fact, the film addresses the common comment of drone strikes being
a hollow gesture. The words said by Rickman’s Benson towards the end points out
how the impersonal tone and dissociate nature in warfare hail high above from
the persons who govern rather than among the men/women who just follow orders. The
script isn’t without its flaws or missteps. The movie opens with a little girl
playing hula-hoop in the broken-down corner of a house, situated in the middle
of slum area. The narrative inter-cuts to the girl’s daily activities, the
pressures on her family, etc and we guess that the girl’s immediate fate is
going to be springboard for the movie’s moral messages. But, Hood and Hibbert
for the most part of the narrative, stays away from taking that route.
The snippets we are
constantly offered about the girl halts at one point and she’s only seen
through the surveillance camera like the perspective of military and government officials. The
insightful arguments and counter-arguments in those decision-making rooms are
based upon assessing the cost of a single life. Gradually, the weight of
accessing the cost of the girl’s life is placed upon us too (no just from a sentimental whim). Only the
slow-motion denouement and crying soldiers seemed to be far-fetched and
sentimental, but Gavin Hood clearly didn’t want to be so subtle on the subject
matter (or may be it is a much-needed mainstream sheen). “Eye in the Sky” is
the most satisfying directorial venture for South African film-maker Gavin Hood
after multiple-award winning movie “Tsotsi”. He finely mixes up some satirical
elements like Iain Glein’s UK Foreign Secretary to break the uncontrollable
tension. Hood also clearly establishes the interpersonal and political dynamics
of the characters on-screen. Great care has also been taken to not render
anyone as a monster hiding behind a button or camera. Everyone is portrayed as
fine individuals, which is what heightens the impact we feel at the end. The
performances realize the tension without a single glitch. The steely
determination of Helen Mirren and the perfect expression of disdain from Alan
Rickman are perfectly used for the movie’s two best characters. And, Mr.
Rickman also has the honor to deliver the movie’s best lines (“Never tell a
soldier that he does not know the cost of war” – and it is also the last line
delivered by Mr. Rickman on celluloid).
Trailer
“Eye in the Sky” (102 minutes) is an impressive and highly
engaging cinema that tackles complex political and ethical issues without
providing any easy answers. It may seem to re-tell the good-old statement ‘in
war there are no real victories’, but the way it tells it is so unexpectedly
hard-hitting.
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