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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 3 December 2014
This article is a review of GOOD KILL.Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2014. (For more information, click here.)
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“They don’t call it ‘Hellfire’ for nothing,” Colonel Jack Johns (Bruce Greenwood)
Topical issues in a gripping, often sci-fi, setting have certainly made Andrew Niccol a filmmaker of ambition, whether writing or directing or both (THE TRUMAN SHOW, LORD OF WAR, GATTACA). The recent past – 2010 – and based on actual events is a step away from the norm for him. Re-teaming with an on form Ethan Hawke (BOYHOOD, BEFORE MIDNIGHT), Niccol looks at drone warfare.
Sitting in a cabin, protagonists perusing monitors, while manoeuvring a joystick and pushing buttons, has all the potential excitement of watching your mates play video games. That video game culture has seeped into warmongering is a controversial advancement worrying GOOD KILL – the titular term used for an accurate execution undertaken from a continent away. Whether the death is clean is the dominant question being asked.
“I miss the fear.” Ethan Hawke’s Major Tom Egan has gone all HURT LOCKER; unable to adjust to quasi-military life, i.e. instead of flying an F16 he clocks in a 9-5 routine as a desk jockey, remote piloting a robot traversing the atmosphere spying on insurgents. Professional disillusionment manifests as a shutdown father and husband. January Jones reprises her MAD MEN persona as neglected spouse Molly – perhaps her striking American dream beauty is meant to arouse further dislike of her protagonists (see also THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA). Jones does this role in her sleep. Moody at not flying, and cliché booze solace, Tom’s family bears the brunt.
Topical issues in a gripping, often sci-fi, setting have certainly made Andrew Niccol a filmmaker of ambition, whether writing or directing or both (THE TRUMAN SHOW, LORD OF WAR, GATTACA). The recent past – 2010 – and based on actual events is a step away from the norm for him. Re-teaming with an on form Ethan Hawke (BOYHOOD, BEFORE MIDNIGHT), Niccol looks at drone warfare.
Sitting in a cabin, protagonists perusing monitors, while manoeuvring a joystick and pushing buttons, has all the potential excitement of watching your mates play video games. That video game culture has seeped into warmongering is a controversial advancement worrying GOOD KILL – the titular term used for an accurate execution undertaken from a continent away. Whether the death is clean is the dominant question being asked.
“I miss the fear.” Ethan Hawke’s Major Tom Egan has gone all HURT LOCKER; unable to adjust to quasi-military life, i.e. instead of flying an F16 he clocks in a 9-5 routine as a desk jockey, remote piloting a robot traversing the atmosphere spying on insurgents. Professional disillusionment manifests as a shutdown father and husband. January Jones reprises her MAD MEN persona as neglected spouse Molly – perhaps her striking American dream beauty is meant to arouse further dislike of her protagonists (see also THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA). Jones does this role in her sleep. Moody at not flying, and cliché booze solace, Tom’s family bears the brunt.
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Working and residing outside Las Vegas, the desert locale is an eerie mirror of the Middle East theatre of conflict. At 10,000 feet, even if you know where to look, we couldn’t spot a drone. Death dealing sans risk, and without being on the ground assessing the important minutiae, raises the spectre of easy trigger pulling, conscience no longer a factor. “Prosecuting a target”, “surgical strike” are the phrases bandied about when given the nod to eliminate.
Specific moral quandary comes in two main forms:
- A civilian woman is spied being abused by a Taliban soldier. Egan’s drone squad do not have permission to cease her torment.
- The C.I.A., represented by a voice referred to as Langley (Peter Coyote), require the team to dubiously loosen the rules of engagement. Geneva Convention breach rears up.
Everyone refreshingly philosophises, from Gitmo to the right to bear arms. (Ken Loach might be proud?)
Politically engaged, GOOD KILL is not perfect, using the staid rookie hiring (Zoë Kravitz’s Vera Suarez) to be our entry; but it is still elevated beyond 2013’s weak mumblecore war flick DRONES. A killer script aids the classy cast of GOOD KILL. Dialogue pings. Bruce Greenwood, as glib superior, is gifted the choicest put-downs and wry observations. “Nothing explodes like explosives.” His Jack Johns could host a stand-up show and there’d be a queue to hear his misanthropic analyses.
Fumbling the ending weirdly typifies the jaded emotion epitomising the leads.
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