Disc Reviews

Good Kill Review

29th Jul 2015

Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke) spend his working day remote controlling drone strikes against enemy forces, and the rest of his day with his family

At some point though Egan begins to question the moral issues relating to his job as he himself is detached from the job at hand (literally at hand). Instead he pines for the glory days of actually being a pilot in a physical plane. But orders come down that the military – and more importantly the CIA who become their new masters are happy with them where they are. And with the CIA handing down orders – so changes their package and the way intel is handed to them as they are ordered to deliver more intense and severe proportional actions upon enemy factions.

The toll of which starts to take on Egan’s wife (January Jones), his attitude at work and his constant drinking.

Writer/Director Andrew Niccol and Ethan Hawke are not strangers to each other having worked confidently together in the likes of Gattaca and Lord of War. Good Kill further demonstrates their good work together.

Focussing on drone warfare – which is a practice that saves on the ground military lives by having pilots work from a safe haven (ironically in this case Las Vegas!) is an inspired choice of subject for study – and leading into the pitfalls of such a role, exposing the less than ideal scenario.

Niccol shots his work with confidence with some inspired lensing, and Hawke puts in one of his most haunted performances to date and is a reminder that he is (and always has been) a solid choice of leading man and fully deserving of recognition in the future.