Page 31 - Aruba Today

PEOPLE & ARTS A31
Review: In ‘Eye in the Sky,’ drone warfare gets its close up
JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer
Omniscient high-definition
views from above have
done nothing to penetrate
the fog of war in Gavin
Hood’s drone drama “Eye
in the Sky.”
It’s a lean, Lumet-like thriller trolled beetle that flutters
that puts the moral cal-
culus of drone warfare
in its crosshairs. Playing
out compellingly in real
time, a strike against So-
mali terrorists in Nairobi is
plotted by the hawkish,
U.K.-based Col. Kather-
ine Powell (Helen Mirren),
whose operation involves
pilots, politicians and mili-
tary command in various
digitally linked remote lo-
cations, from the board-
room to the toilet. Drones
have begun to reshape
the war movie, and will
doubtless continue to pro-
liferate on our screens just
as they have over Middle
Eastern skies. “Eye in the
Sky” follows last year’s very
solid “Good Kill,” starring
Ethan Hawke as a drone
pilot based in Las Vegas.
Director Andrew Niccol’s
aim was principally about
the psychological toll such
disconnected battles take
on its far-removed soldiers.
Hood more thoroughly uti-
lizes the new perspectives
drones afford to filmmak-
ers. While much of the it
is composed of faces in
front of computer screens,
Leader of Eagles of Death
Metal apologizes for comments
The Associated Press
Eagles of Death Metal
frontman Jesse Hughes has
apologized for suggesting
that security guards at a
Paris concert venue were
complicit in the assault by
Islamic militants there in No-
vember that left 89 people
dead.
Hughes told the Fox Busi-
ness Network last week that
six guards at the Bataclan
venue never came to work
the night of the attack, and
“it seems rather obvious
that they had a reason not
to show up.”
This image released by Bleecker Street shows Helen Mirren in a scene from “Eye In the Sky.
some of the film’s most re-
markable images come
from the view of a hovering
drone or — most impres-
sively — a remote-con-
right into the suspects’ lair, The mission is to apprehend
alighting on the rafters to
provide a staggering close-
up, whether Mr. DeMille is
ready or not.
With such supreme powers
of surveillance, Powell and
her colleagues (including
the ever-droll Alan Rick-
man, in one of his last per-
On Friday, Hughes apolo-
gized: “I humbly beg for-
giveness from the people
of France, the staff and
security of the Bataclan,
my fans, family, friends and
anyone else hurt or offend-
ed by the absurd accusa-
tions I made.”
“My suggestions that any-
one affiliated with the Bata-
clan played a role in the
events of November 13 are
unfounded and baseless
— and I take full responsi-
bility for them,” he said in a to make sense of this trag-
statement.
The band’s performance at
formances, as a British gen-
eral) have become accus-
tomed to a previously un-
matched level of certainty
— or so they would like to
think.
a handful of highly ranked
terrorists, but when the trio OK. The collateral damage
— two radicalized British
nationals and an American
— are seen preparing vests
for a suicide attack, the
plan is ratcheted up from
“capture” to “kill.”
The clash of “Eye in the Sky” Paul), tasked to bring “hell-
the Bataclan concert hall
was turned into a blood-
bath when suicide bomb-
ers stormed in as part of
near-simultaneous attacks
on cafes and a stadium
around Paris.
Hughes blamed the linger-
ing effect of the attack for
his accusations that the
security team may have
been in on the attack.
“I’ve been dealing with
non-stop nightmares and
struggling through therapy
edy and insanity. I haven’t
been myself since Nov. 13,”
Tuesday 15 March 2016
fire” on the target, lays off
Associated Press the trigger, and numer-
ous levels of nervous gov-
isn’t on the battlefield but ernment officials “refer
in the chain-of-command up” the decision to their
debate over the rules of superiors while an agent
engagement that ping- on the ground (Barkhad
pongs around politicians Abdi, of “Captain Phillips”)
and lawyers who are pres- attempts to chase the
sured by Powell and Rick- girl away. The plotting in
man’s general to give their Guy Hibbert’s screenplay,
along with the quick cut-
calculations and emotion- ting of Hood (the South Af-
al stakes are changed sig- rican filmmaker of “Tsotsi”
nificantly when a young girl and a “X-Men,” who pre-
sits outside the walls of the viously dove into the sub-
target to sell bread. ject of CIA interrogation in
An American pilot (Aaron 2007’s “Rendition”), push
the movie’s intensity, mak-
ing “Eye in the Sky” more
riveting than preachy.
The film might have hit
home more if the tick-tock
of its plot allowed us to
better know its characters,
who sometimes come off
as mere mouthpieces of
different philosophies of
modern warfare. But “Eye
in the Sky” is nevertheless
a compelling case of how
moral precision doesn’t
necessarily match techni-
cal accuracy.
The debate that rages in
“Eye in the Sky” is perhaps
more than is always spent
over the fate of a single ci-
vilian casualty. But it could
hardly seem more topical.
On Monday, more than
150 Shabab militants were
killed in Somali in a strike
partially carried out by
drones.q
In this Feb. 13, 2016 file photo, singer Jesse Hughes of Eagles of
Death Metal performs at Debaser Medis in Stockholm, Sweden.
Associated Press
he wrote. “I realize there’s am sincerely sorry for hav-
no excuse for my words, ing hurt, disrespected
but for what it’s worth: I or accused anyone.”q