April 16th in Chicago. This film piqued my interest when I saw the trailer a few months back. Since it's release last month, it has received a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating and has grossed over $13 million to date (it hasn't been on that many screens). The film has a sold cast that includes Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman (in his final role) and a really good supporting cast. The film is directed by Gavin Hood, who's prior work ranges from not that good to really good.
There is a joint British, American and Kenyan operation to capture a known terrorist. The main players are Colonel Powell (Mirren), the operational commander; General Benson (Rickman), Powell's superior who is watching live feeds with the British Attorney General and some political types; 2LT Watts (Paul), who is providing drone surveillance; Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi), a Kenyan operative providing in close surveillance and Alia (Aisha Takow), a young girl just living her life.
The identity of the terrorist is confirmed and things start to get heavy when it turns out that 3 of the top 5 wanted East African terrorist are present as well. The tension goes up another notch when the in close surveillance shows that there is a suicide bombing mission in the works. The capture mission is now a kill mission. Knowing the stakes have increased, Powell desperately seeks approval only to change the mission but final approval keeps getting pushed off to someone else.
The tension mounts as the non-military types keep palming off responsibility (though there are 2 separate scenes where the United States chimes in with "why aren't these guys dead?"), the terrorists are closer to getting out in public, the on the ground surveillance team takes more chances to get info, Powell wants action and little Alia is selling bread in a bad spot. In the end, the order is given and the the terrorists are taken out. But there is a price.
This is a really interesting picture that tires to give the propaganda of both sides of drone warfare. For the anti-drone side there's collateral damage. The terrorist stronghold is in a public area with little kids playing and people going about their daily routine. Once the mission goes from capture to kill, it's a given that innocent people are going to die. On the pro-drone side you get the "look at all the hoops the good guys have to jump through in order to save lives" argument. Terrorists don't play by the rule but the the rule book for the good guys is long and tedious. The underlying issue is that there is a war going on. The battlefields have changed and the set piece battles are nearly extinct but innocent people still die. War is a shitty thing but this is the world we live in. It's a mean place.
