The war at home

Target in sight

Regardless of where you stand with the U.S. government on their inclination of using drones to fight terrorism, there's no question that this has changed the tactics of how wars are fought now. No longer are soldiers put at mortal risk of their lives in storming enemy territories but instead carry out their duties of operating the drones from console boxes on military bases. However, Eye of the Sky shows that as easy as it may sound or appear, in war every decision has a consequence. Colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren), a UK-based military officer coordinates a secret drone operation to capture key members of the Al-Shabaab extremists groups located in Kenya.

The mission originally begins with a "capture only" objective but when Katherine and the multinational team she's working with notice a radical member on their most wanted list planning a suicide bombing with the other targets, the mission immediately escalates to "kill." But the decision to go through with it is incredibly intricate as different branches of both the British and U.S. governments deliberate back and forth with how the attack should be carried or if it should even happen to begin with. The operation becomes further complicated when the drone's pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) spots a village girl who lives adjacent to the house he's targeting selling bread right within the kill zone. Eye in the Sky isn't apologetic with its approach on the difficulties of modern warfare and the hurdles of going through every chain of command just to get a verification of an uneasy decision. The film's intensity exhausted me but that's a good thing because I seldom ever get tensed up from watching a movie; for Eye in the Sky to accomplish that with mostly dialogue is quite an achievement. More importantly, the film leaves the viewer with a very dour outlook on the theater of war and moral ambiguity of the film's climax (which is a very critical moment for the whole film). Much like how The Deer Hunter dealt with the Vietnam war and its' impact on the psychological state of soldiers after returning home, Eye in the Sky showcases the ethicality of actions and whether there is such thing as a good or bad decision when it comes to war. Eye opening but never forgetting to be engaging, Eye of the Sky is destined to become one of those instant war classics, with its' themes and topics surely to be discussed (and likely argued) upon for years to come.

​-Reviewed by Razor, 7/18/16