Eye in the Sky (1 Viewer)

[The Military Workshop]

Saw this today.

Detailed look at what happens prior to and during a drone strike. Target is Al Shabab extremists in Kenya and fits in with recent events such as the Westfield attack in Nairobi. This includes a white female who has been a target for several years.

Helen Mirren plays the Colonel in charge of the operational side. Alan Rickman is the General above her who is seated with the politicians (ie. Attorney General and Defence Minister) who have to give the go ahead. Iain Glen of Game of Thrones is the Foreign Secretary.

Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad is the American Lt in Nevada who is controlling the drone but under instructions from Mirren. Gaven Hood the Director of the movie also plays the American Colonel. There is also plenty of drama on the ground in the vicinity of the target. Barkhad Abdi who played the pirate in Captain Phillips features here.

Some interesting themes :

Lots of debate about the legalities of the mission as circumstances change.

What are the acceptable innocent casualties ? Bearing in mind all decision makers can see them from the drone.

Military v Political considerations

Questioning of orders

The time factor and "buck passing" of the decision making.

Examines all the various dilemmas well and a good final summary at the end with the General and the female Cabinet Minister.

None of the four lead actors—Mirren, Rickman, Paul, and Abdi—met each other during production, instead filming alone with Hood due to their characters' separate locations in the film.

Not on wide release in Australia and has had limited release in USA and about to start in UK. Cinema I saw it in was full but mainly over 50's.

I enjoyed it.

 

[nmrocks]

With my cable service I have tons of channels, too many to know really but I did catch a show a couple of months ago on Fusion channel called Drone: point, click, kill covering Americas expanding drone war.
President Obama has expanded the drone war to something unrecognizable in the world, substituteing the drone for boots on the ground through out the world. Working totally autonomous, with few to answer to we attack in souverin nations without consultation or true legal authority as few if any go before a judge. They estimated 3-4000 killed by drone in the last 4-5 years and that figure is highly suspect. They talk to drone pilots who tell that colateral damage ie innocent civilians are just part of the lay of the land on these strikes. They have killed all nationalities, including many americans without warrants or consulting legal authorities, Men, Women, Childeren. All secret, some day the scope of this will come to light and I believe at the least we will be ashamed as a nation, but more likely criminal, war crimes type of charges.
They talk of "new" drones the size of insect that they will be able to land on the head of a target and detonate or spray poison in the face, great!
I am not at all a moderate or pacifist but to run ruff shodd over the rule of law with no respect to national boundries or individual human rights of the world is arogannce beyond comprehension.
I look forward to seeing this movie.
Ray

 

[The Military Workshop]

Your views, particularly the legal aspects, are fully covered in the movie. The mission is originally planned as an arrest and capture alive. At the end of watching the scenario portrayed it will be interesting to know if you support the General's views or the female Minister. Given what they know and see would you give the order to pull the trigger ? I think you will find a drone the size of insect with some poison would have been ideal in this scenario.

You may remember Jihadi John :

On 12 November 2015, two United States drone aircraft along with a British drone reportedly conducted an airstrike in Al-Raqqah that targeted Emwazi as he left a building and entered a vehicle. US officials stated he had been killed, but his death had not been confirmed at the time and data was still being analysed.A senior US military official was quoted as saying, "we are 99% sure we got him." A US official called it a "flawless" and "clean hit" with no collateral damage and that Emwazi was "evaporated." On 14 December 2015, US President Barack Obama stated Emwazi had been "taken out".

That was a drone strike with no collateral damage but unfortunately there are some where innocents are killed. The movie illustrates the dilemma very well.

 

[Desertkiwi]

I'm keen to see this one myself. With the current state of affairs, it's very timely and in my opinion a brave movie to make.

Lets face it, regardless of how you look at things, terrorists don't play by the rules of engagement and don't give a rats about collateral damage and the loss of innocent lives. For them any publicity is good publicity.

 

[waynepoo]

Yes will have look a when it comes on line...as far as the likes of ISAS and terrorists go shoot 'em on sight as they're lower than vermin and gave up all rights to being human.

 

[TomNT]

Yes will have look a when it comes on line...as far as the likes of ISAS and terrorists go shoot 'em on sight as they're lower than vermin and gave up all rights to being human.

Agreed mate although I reckon it's better to shoot that ISIS mob as ISAS are Integrated Switchgear & Systems located up my way and in WA and they might not appreciate being targeted! {eek3}^&grin

Tom