Eye in the Sky

Eye in the Sky

This film had lofty ideas but it fell flat on its face. The movie focuses on the politicization of a drone attack targeting high level terrorists and conflicting with the military agenda. The politicians and the military are at odds on how to proceed with the drone strike. The politicians are incapable of making a decision and play political hot potato deferring to their superiors. This goes on for a while and instead of creating an atmosphere of suspense it becomes tedious.

Helen Mirren is the Colonel impatiently waiting for the go ahead.  Alan Rickman is the liaison Lt. General dealing with the politicians. Arron Paul is the drone pilot. Barkhad Abdi plays Jama Farah, a Kenyan undercover agent (he was a pirate in the Captain Philips movie). There really is not much acting going on in the war room. As this may be his last film it is sad to see Rickman sitting in the war room trying to get bickering officials to reach agreement.  If this feckless bunch were hunting Osama Bin Laden he would still be in Pakistan collecting a pension.

There is more action during the drone strike. The deployment of the missile is delayed because of collateral damage; in this case one person. This caused another round of indecision and procrastination. Targeting the safe house had to be recalculated to Helen Mirren’s consternation.  

How they handled collateral damage is the movie’s moral lynch pin. Not to be too callus, collateral damage depends on what end of the attack you are on. To prevent another terrorist attack would you accept the cost of collateral damage?