Eye in the Sky

2smiggy

IMDB link

Seen this last night , and really enjoyed it. Basically about a planned drone strike in Kenya , involving British, Kenyan and US forces. Not giving away any details, but just sort of goes in the emotions that comes with fighting a 'war' from the other side of the globe.

Enjoyable film, probably 8/10

Mr E

Loved the difference between the British decision-making process and the American decision-making process.

Terrific movie. Bittersweet as Rickman's last. Well acted by all, a great cast.

You could have heard a pin drop in the cinema during one of the final scenes. Extremely tense.

2smiggy

Mr E wrote: »

Loved the difference between the British decision-making process and the American decision-making process.

thought that part was brilliant myself , chalk and cheese !!

MilesMorales1

It was pretty great. Liked how it didn't back away from anything, and didn't have a dumb happy ending either.

Tom.D.BJJ

Honestly, that was an incredible movie. Easily the best i have seen in a long while. 9/10

Rickman was good, but Helen Mirren was immense

ziedth

I absolutely loved this too. Kind of criminal how it has sneaked under the radar. Mirrored quite rightly seems to be getting all the praise but in all honesty there wasn't a foot wrong and it was great to see the high hacker from Captain Phillips back in a film.

The scene that stole the film for me though was Alan Rickmans (and I just realised how literally I mean this now) final scene(s). He really could act have acted out a work place training video and make it absolutely essential viewing

paul68

I haven't seen this film yet, i've heard alot of good things about it final performance by alan rickman

The Black Oil

Very good film designed to lock you into your seat as much as the drone locks on target. Strong cast, including the late Alan Rickman. What a shame he will never grace our screens again. There's a horrendous sense of dread

around the little girl, including when the missiles are deployed.

There's a lot of talk about "procedure", and "referring up" in the attempt to come to a decision with moral, legal and military dimensions. Well worth watching.

leakyboots

Watched this recently, very enjoyable and tense film. Great performances all round

fryup

just watched it tonight on dvd, superb movie....but a tad far fetched

do they really use robotic beetles to spy on people???

and i don't believe for a second that trained drone operatives would get emotional at the moment of firing

Slydice

Good Kill would probably be more realistic with the tech used:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Kill

I thought both films were good. I agree this one was more far fetched and seemed to aim at getting more audience.

Given this film made 30m and Good Kill made 1.5m... it seems to have paid off.

pixelburp

IIRC, dialogue at the start revealed how the drone operators were not military personal, but contractors with civilian flying experience. In any case, it's hardly completely unbelievable a soldier or pilot might have an emotional reaction when being asked to fulfill a morally questionable action and fire on a civilian / domestic location. It's easy to just presume soldiers as emotionless kill-bots, but were that true then the 100 years of evidence for shell-shock or PTSD wouldn't exist

Anyway, to add my own thoughts about the film, I thought it an effective, thrilling and a perfect encapsulation about the sort of tension that Hitchcock once remarked upon; that tension was about the bomb ticking in the background, not knowing when it was going to off - not the actual explosion itself. As it was, the film was just under 2 hours of nerve-wracking ticking, watching a probable disaster play out in approximate real-time, as those in power attempted to wriggle out of the responsibility the situation demanded of them. The squirming of the politicians in London was cringe-inducing, but in a fascinating, gut-wrenching way. A real 'bottle' thriller & a hidden gem.

It also kept itself broadly apolitical, which is somewhat worthy of applause; it would have been very easy to slip into one bias or another, but instead the narrative kept a 'just the facts' approach, never allowing any plot or character to dominate the tone of the film too much or betray an axe to grind. The audience was free to make up their own mind and by the time the credits rolled, it was arguable that everyone was right, and yet everyone was wrong at the same time. IE, perfectly human.

fryup

pixelburp wrote: »

IIRC, dialogue at the start revealed how the drone operators were not military personal, but contractors with civilian flying experience. In any case, it's hardly completely unbelievable a soldier or pilot might have an emotional reaction when being asked to fulfill a morally questionable action and fire on a civilian / domestic location. It's easy to just presume soldiers as emotionless kill-bots, but were that true then the 100 years of evidence for shell-shock or PTSD wouldn't exist
.

in fairness being on a battlefield and being in a room thousands of miles away from the actual conflict is a world apart

i reckon when the order comes through 99% would fire no questions asked

The Black Oil

fryup wrote: »

do they really use robotic beetles to spy on people???

Not far off it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQSkppYviw