Review of Eye in the Sky (2007) by Mike M — 05 Aug 2016

"Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war"- Alan Rickman as Lt General Frank Benson in Gavin Hood's outstanding thriller Eye in the Sky. He's responding to civilian Angela Northman's (Monica Dolan) accusation that what just happened was a disgrace. Eye in the Sky tackles, head on, the legal and moral implications of military drone strikes to eliminate terrorists before they cause more harm. At first the objective is a find and capture mission of two British and one U.S citizen who have become radicalized and are now hiding in a friendly foreign country. Aaron Paul is Lt Steve Watts whose job, at first, is to pilot the drone being used to coordinate the capture of these terrorists. He's the eye in the sky, helping Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren), the senior intelligence officer in charge, see the target and plan the capture.

But an ominous discovery ramps up the ante and the suspense, causing Powell to decide the terrorists must be killed, not caught. And, if it were up to the Americans, the movie would have been 15 min long, because our government is willing to take whatever action is necessary to stop the threat. However the British are involved and they aren't so sure they want to kill 2 British nationals, even if those Brits are committed to killing as many people as they can. Once they iron that all out, Lt Watts is seconds from pulling the trigger on a drone strike that would destroy the house and all who are inside, when he spies a lone little girl selling bread on the street corner. And she's in the kill radius.

Gavin Hood has constructed a taut, edge-of-your seat thriller that explores the moral and legal edges of drone strikes to combat terrorism, and he pulls no punches. Eye in the Sky is an even handed affair, examining the issue from all the angles, from the military to the political to the civilian, as all involved weigh in and raise questions for which there are often no easy answers. Alan Rickman is, as usual, brilliant in his final film role and the rest of the cast more than carry the weight of a film guaranteed to tie you, the viewer, in moral knots. Eye in the Sky insinuates there is often no clear cut right or wrong, but often simply a gut-wrenching decision a whole lot of folks have to live with. This is one of the best films I've seen in the last year. You won't walk away unmoved unless you are made of stone. A+.