Good Kill (2014) Review!!

Synopsis – A family man begins to question the ethics of his job as a drone pilot.

My Take – Looks like due to the major success of American Sniper (2014), a lot of films surrounding the lives of soldiers suffering from PTSD are being made! This Ethan Hawke starer is the 1st one of the lot! Well is it any good? Well, not really! Probably made about twenty years ago, this drama about military unmanned aerial vehicles from writer-director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War, The Host), could have made for an intriguing piece of science fiction. In 2015, though, Niccol’s not so much late to the party in making such a film, as he is the wrong man to host it. The story follows Major Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke) is a fighter pilot in the US air force, with years of combat service behind him. All he wants is to get back in the cockpit, but now he spends his days ensconced in a portacabin outside Las Vegas, ‘flying’ UAVs – better known as drones – over Pakistan and Afghanistan. Joining him on this mission is his superior, Lt Colonel Johns (Bruce Greenwood), Airman Vera Suarez (Zoë Kravitz), Ed Christie (Dylan Kenin) and Specialist Zimmer (Jake Abel). Johns and Tom come from a different age, when their dream was to fly and to serve. Now they are surrounded by rookies recruited from shopping malls where they showed their skills on video games and not in the sky. Unfortunately his wife Molly (January Jones) an ex Vegas dancer and now mom, struggles with her husband’s reticence and increasing distance & seems to be facing the wrath of his depression.

While the plot could use some additional creativity and depth, and the acting is somewhat shallow, the film explores a fascinating subject. Actual strikes, from Wikileaks, add an extra dose or realism. The initial portacabin scenes are fascinating. We learn a great deal of just how this war on terror is being fought, and get an idea of how this group interacts and how it copes with spending 12-hour shifts blowing targets to smithereens. We see them watching over US soldiers while they sleep and watching as a woman is raped, powerless to help her (“he’s a bad guy; he’s just not our bad guy”). When the squad is contacted by the CIA, Langley wants to change the rules of combat: they are no longer merely interested in eliminating known Taliban members, but are now looking at liquidating possible suspects. And if this involves civilians, then that’s too bad. As we see the team taking out their targets, we also see their reactions: Johns is initially disgusted with the CIA (though later surprisingly backtracks); Tom is increasingly conflicted; Suarez is the mouthy conscience clearly stating that they are committing war crimes and acts of terrorism; and Zimmer takes the simplistic view of “if we don’t kill them, they’ll come and kill us”. This is a disappointment: Suarez and Zimmer are more like conduits for opposing political statements than characters with a real identity. There is also the cliche of the young and beautiful Suarez being attracted to Tom, a troubled man twice her age, with a family and a drinking problem to boot. But yet something is missing about the film. We never happen to connect with the lead Tom Egan as we are never given a reason to empathize with him. Its hard to see a drunk like him flying around without shooting down his fellow flyers or crashing himself on the U.S. Air base itself. Maybe it was because Hawke underplays the repressed role so well, it adds extra negativity to an already depressing subject.

The main negative aspect of the film was the moral conflict among some drone troops over the killing they were doing. The fact is the military can’t force people to do this type of work. It even the supporting characters exist to chime in with ethical discussions about their work, which would be all well and good if their work were science fiction. But the dialogues are written with such snappy patter they border towards hilarity rather than thoughtful debate. And as we head towards the final act, Niccol rolls out more tired cliches, as Tom pours his vodka down the sink and searches for redemption. Niccol has made a film that should be admired for bringing the minutiae of this dirty war onto the big screen. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t quite hit the target. On the whole, ‘Good Kill’ seemed to have an imaginative idea behind it with, which aims to affect our conscious about war, but yet ultimately misfires.