{"id":58118,"date":"2015-05-18T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=58118"},"modified":"2015-05-14T16:42:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T15:42:19","slug":"drone-warfare-in-good-kill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/05\/drone-warfare-in-good-kill\/","title":{"rendered":"Drone Warfare in \u2018Good Kill\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good Kill opens<\/em> in theaters in the US on May 15[2015] and will also be available<\/em> from video on demand. A roundtable interview with writer-director Andrew Niccol and actor Ethan Hawke.<\/em><\/p>\n

Drone strikes carried out by the US military and CIA have killed thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries. The barbaric strikes, which have increased sharply under the Obama administration, are illegal under international and US law and amount to war crimes.<\/p>\n

According to Reprieve, the British human rights organization, \u201cTo date, the United States has used drones to execute without trial some 4,700 people in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia\u2014all countries against whom it has not declared war. The US\u2019 drones programme is a covert war being carried out by the CIA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a>

Good Kill<\/p><\/div>\n

An April 2014 article in Rolling Stone<\/em> observed, \u201cThe people of Yemen can hear destruction before it arrives. In cities, towns and villages across this country, which hangs off the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, the air buzzes with the sound of American drones flying overhead. The sound is a constant and terrible reminder\u2026 Over half of Yemen\u2019s 24.8 million citizens\u2014militants and civilians alike\u2014are impacted every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand-born writer-director Andrew Niccol has taken on the subject of drone warfare, with mixed but often intriguing results, in Good Kill<\/em>, featuring Ethan Hawke, Bruce Greenwood, Zo\u00eb Kravitz and January Jones.<\/p>\n

Major Thomas Egan (Hawke) is a former fighter pilot and Iraq war veteran, now operating drones over Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere from a trailer on a US Air Force base near Las Vegas. After killing people by remote control 12 hours a day he returns to his house and family in the tidy, slightly unreal suburbs. \u201cNow I\u2019m going home to barbecue,\u201d he explains sardonically after one murderous shift.<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a>

Good Kill<\/p><\/div>\n

His superior, Lt. Col. Jack Johns (Greenwood), is resigned to the endless conflict: \u201cDon\u2019t ask me if it\u2019s a just war. It\u2019s just war.\u201d Two of the four-member team parrot, in an especially vulgar fashion, the US government line, something to the effect that \u201cthe \u2018terrorists\u2019 hate us because of our freedom and our way of life.\u201d The fourth member, Airman Vera Suarez (Kravitz), is different. She comes to see through a good many of the lies.<\/p>\n

The film is set in 2010 and centers on the stepping up of drone strikes by the Obama administration and the transfer of control of the attacks to the CIA, represented by a disembodied voice (Peter Coyote) from \u201cLangley [Virginia].\u201d<\/p>\n

The atrocities accumulate. The crew, aiming for a bomb factory, kills two children. \u201cKeep compartmentalizing,\u201d Egan is told. But \u201cI pulled the trigger,\u201d he responds. The CIA, once it takes over, begins ordering \u201csignature strikes,\u201d i.e., bombings based on what US officials believe to be suspicious behavior or simply on the association of the intended victims at some point or another with alleged \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Good<\/a>

Good Kill<\/p><\/div>\n

When a strike goes wrong, the CIA official blandly tells the crew, as the US government repeats to the public, \u201cNo one regrets the loss of innocent lives more than us.\u201d After one deadly bombing, he orders a \u201cfollow-up,\u201d the notorious \u201cdouble tap,\u201d in other words, a strike on those responding to the first attack. \u201cIn our opinion, it\u2019s proportionate.\u201d He explains, \u201cpreemptive self-defense is ordered by the administration.\u201d The voice and the commands it gives are coldly monstrous.<\/p>\n

Following this attack, Suarez leans over and asks, \u201cWas that a war crime, sir?\u201d She suggests \u201cthat\u2019s what terrorists do,\u201d and points out bitterly that this is apparently what \u201cthey now give Nobel Peace prizes\u201d for.<\/p>\n

In a later scene, the CIA orders the bombing of a group of men near a market. Johns asks incredulously, \u201cYou want us to kill a crowd?\u201d The men, he is informed, represent \u201can imminent threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a good deal of this, quite powerful material. As the film\u2019s publicity suggests, Egan starts \u201cto question the mission. Is he creating more terrorists than he\u2019s killing? Is he fighting a war without end?\u201d It becomes increasingly difficult for him to carry on, both at work and at home.<\/p>\n

In perhaps Good Kill<\/em> \u2019s most moving sequence, out in the backyard at home, Egan asks his wife, Molly (Jones), \u201cYou want to know about my job?\u201d He proceeds to describe how he and his crew blew up a house, although the supposed Taliban official was not there. \u201cI watched as neighbors started carrying bodies,\u201d then we \u201cblew up the funeral.\u201d A tear runs down her cheek and she puts her head on his shoulder.<\/p>\n

There are weaker sides to the film too. A subplot about Egan\u2019s desire to return to flying actual warplanes is not especially compelling. The crisis in the Egans\u2019 marriage that develops, while no doubt\u2014or perhaps precisely because it is\u2014based on the real-life accounts of military personnel, has something a little formulaic and predictable about it.<\/p>\n

Most significantly, the recurring presence of a Taliban-rapist character is an obvious concession to the official propaganda campaign. Opposition to the horrendous war crimes committed by US imperialism is not predicated on support for Islamic fundamentalism or any of the regimes the American government sets out to bring down. Dealing with these reactionary elements is the responsibility of the Afghan, Pakistani or Yemeni people; it cannot be subcontracted to the US government, military and CIA, which have, in many cases, incited and funded such movements or regimes.<\/p>\n

Writer-director Niccol\u2019s invention of this Taliban \u201cbad guy\u201d in Good Kill<\/em> forms part of the rationale for arguing, as he did in the round table interview included below, that US drone warfare has certain \u201cbeneficial aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it\u2019s to his great credit that Niccol (the writer of The Truman Show<\/em> and writer-director of Gattaca<\/em>, S1m0<\/em> ne<\/em> and In Time<\/em> ) undertook this project, in the face of considerable odds. This is the first major US feature film that has attempted to represent this criminal policy and its consequences both for the targeted populations and for the American people, even if the filmmakers (also see below) are not inclined to work out the full implications of their own effort.<\/p>\n

A conversation with Andrew Niccol and Ethan Hawke<\/strong><\/p>\n

I participated, along with a number of other journalists, in a roundtable interview in Toronto September 9 with Andrew Niccol and Ethan Hawke. The following is a slightly edited version of that conversation:<\/p>\n

Journalist 1: Was it [<\/em>Good Kill] hard to get made?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/a>

Andrew Niccol at the 2014 Toronto film festival [Credit: WireImage\/Getty]<\/p><\/div>Andrew Niccol: Yes. It\u2019s hard to make a military movie without the support of the military. So it means that all of the machinery you have to come up with yourself. I had drone consultants who I would speak to, and I was very lucky to get those ex-drone pilots.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 1: So did you approach the US military, and they presumably said, \u2018No, thanks\u2019?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: They just said no. They were polite, but they politely declined.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 2: In the film, there are \u201csignature strikes.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: This is well documented. I didn\u2019t make up the language, that\u2019s the language of the CIA. To go, as the character says, from a \u201cpersonality strike\u201d to a \u201csignature strike.\u201d All that means is, if you\u2019re standing next to a terrorist, you\u2019re most likely a terrorist, so you\u2019re fair game. That\u2019s your signature.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 3: There is a parallel between his [Egan\u2019s] home and his work. Was there an attempt to show how detached we are from the consequences?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: This is the new reality for our pilots, our soldiers. They have this schizophrenic life. We\u2019ve never asked soldiers to do this before in the history of warfare, to go to war from nine to five, and then go home. You have no decompression time, you\u2019re going to get up the next day and do the same thing again. So what that does to a pilot\u2019s psyche is unimaginable to me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 1: Did you talk to drone pilots who had done what Ethan portrays in the film?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Ethan<\/a>

Ethan Hawke at the 2014 Toronto film festival [Credit: WireImage\/Getty]<\/p><\/div>AN: Yes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 1: And what sort of effects did they say it had on them?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: There\u2019s an interesting aspect to it. I spoke to one sensor operator [who works in tandem with the pilots] who definitely has PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], and admits it.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are others who almost feel ashamed admitting that they\u2019re affected by it. They claim that they can compartmentalize. There are younger drone pilots who would use a joystick, perform their mission over Afghanistan, they\u2019re obviously not in Afghanistan, which is another point, then they go back to their apartments in Las Vegas and play video games at night. How do you possibly separate the two? I couldn\u2019t do it. Then you\u2019re really desensitizing yourself to war.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ethan Hawke: What\u2019s interesting to me is that this film is about something real. Perhaps the next movie Andrew and I will do together will be a video game. That\u2019s where it\u2019s going.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m always very interested in where movies are going, where they will be 30 years from now. And where warfare will be. Will all major countries have drones? Will Obama be scared to walk out of his house? Where is this game going?<\/em><\/p>\n

No one is talking about these issues. I think it\u2019s a very good moment when Zoe [Kravitz] says, \u2018So, they\u2019re handing out [Nobel] peace prizes for this now?\u2019 A very good moment.<\/em><\/p>\n

David Walsh: I think it\u2019s important you\u2019ve raised these issues. The scene where the CIA official says, \u2018These operations never happened,\u2019 that\u2019s an acknowledgement that these are criminal activities, that these are illegal activities.<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: It\u2019s not necessarily that. The military will say that it\u2019s \u2018national security.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

DW: They say that, but your film, whether or not you\u2019ve worked out all its implications, is saying these are or may be criminal activities.<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: It\u2019s well documented that the US has struck funerals intentionally. For me, that\u2019s a step over the line. Of course, they justify it by saying, \u2018Who goes to a terrorist\u2019s funeral except other terrorists?\u2019 For me, that\u2019s beyond. Also, to strike first responders, something the IRA used to do, that Hamas does, is beyond the pale for me. That\u2019s too much.<\/em><\/p>\n

I try to tread a straight line, because there are also beneficial aspects to the drone program. The fact that they are so precise, we\u2019re not carpet-bombing people any more. If we get the right address, and hit a legitimate target, I understand that.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you look at ISIS, for instance. There\u2019s probably nobody sitting here that would say that the guy who beheads somebody, if you get the right guy\u2026would you not order a drone strike on him?<\/em><\/p>\n

DW: But who created ISIS? Who incited Islamic fundamentalism for 50 years, going back to the Muslim Brotherhood?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: Right. That\u2019s the other thing that really interests me; Afghanistan is the US\u2019 longest war, 13 years. Vietnam was 10. The Iraq war was eight.<\/em><\/p>\n

DW: Now there\u2019s a new Iraq war.<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: Exactly, there\u2019s a new one coming. When are we going to decide that we shouldn\u2019t be in that part of the planet? Or are we ever going to decide that? Is this going to be an endless war? It\u2019s a very complicated question and I don\u2019t have the answer, but at least we will discuss it, which I think is important. To know what\u2019s being done in your name is important.<\/em><\/p>\n

EH: With the so-called \u201cwar on terror\u201d you really get into Orwellian territory, because who\u2019s defining what freedom is and freedom for whom? The people there certainly don\u2019t feel free.<\/em><\/p>\n

I have a brother who\u2019s in the military, and my mother was in the Peace Corps and she works in Bucharest fighting racism against gypsies, trying to get kids in school. One of the things she often talks about is that if you just took all that money, and you just taught all the kids over there, you\u2019d end terrorism so much sooner than by bombing them. That\u2019s the kind of peacenik dialog that a lot of people don\u2019t want to hear.<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: When you speak of the \u201cwar on terror,\u201d we are terrorizing to achieve those aims. In Waziristan [in northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan], people won\u2019t gather together in groups, even for town hall meetings, because it could be perceived that they\u2019re plotting against Western interests.<\/em><\/p>\n

So when Ethan\u2019s character talks about people being afraid of blue skies because that\u2019s when the drones fly, it\u2019s true. People don\u2019t want to step outside, they don\u2019t want to rescue people from a strike\u2026 They don\u2019t show up, because they\u2019re afraid they\u2019re going to be hit again.<\/em><\/p>\n

DW: That raises the question, is it about \u201cterrorism,\u201d or is it about terrorizing an entire population?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: Right.<\/em><\/p>\n

EH: Or holding an entire population guilty for what a few have done, which is oftentimes what people there do to us as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: Every time you kill one terrorist, if you give birth to ten more, it\u2019s surely counterproductive.<\/em><\/p>\n

DW: Can I ask, is it difficult to make critically minded films? Is there something emerging, or is it just as difficult as ever?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: Oh, it\u2019s probably more difficult. Ethan and I were just discussing Gattaca [1997 science fiction film, written and directed by Niccol and starring Hawke], we couldn\u2019t get that made today at a studio. No way.<\/em><\/p>\n

EH: No way. You couldn\u2019t even begin to try. It wouldn\u2019t matter who was involved in it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 1: Why is it so difficult?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: It\u2019s so much easier to make money, big money, by making comic books.<\/em><\/p>\n

EH: It started with Jaws [1975]. Much has been written about this. They\u2019ve learned how to inundate and saturate\u2026 It\u2019s funny, these Transformer movies make a ton of money, and I\u2019ve never met anyone who liked one. There\u2019s a case to be made about the power of advertising, and the power they have to create this sense that this is what we\u2019re supposed to see.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an essay by [Czech writer Milan] Kundera, in which he says during his lifetime he witnessed the birth of an art form and then he saw it eaten by big business. He makes a joke that what qualifies for an art film today is far inferior to what qualified as an art film in 1960.<\/em><\/p>\n

In 1960, they were pressing the boundaries of realism and storytelling; it was a thrilling art form. Whereas literature has found avenues for this. The film industry hasn\u2019t found a place\u2026 I\u2019m a dramatic actor so I\u2019ve almost been feeling run out of the business over the last ten years because there are action movies and there are thrillers. Most studios don\u2019t make dramas any more. They\u2019ll make a drama if they think it might win an Academy Award, if you have [Steven] Spielberg directing it or something.<\/em><\/p>\n

DW: And yet when I go to the movies, I don\u2019t find a lot of satisfaction in the audience itself.<\/em><\/p>\n

EH: I don\u2019t either. They all leave the movie unhappy. You don\u2019t feel good after. I have to try to do enough things that make money so that if Andrew wants to hire me for this he can. If Andrew could get the guy who was in the last Marvel [comic] movie in it, he would get more money.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 1: Have you been offered one of those?<\/em><\/p>\n

EH: I\u2019ve been doing this since I was thirteen. They\u2019ve offered things here and there. When I was younger, I was incredibly cocky and I thought those offers would always come. If you don\u2019t make people money, they don\u2019t like you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Projects like this are worth trying. There\u2019s so much pull toward mediocrity your whole life. Everybody just wants you to follow the rules and cash out. It\u2019s worth it to try. We showed the movie at Venice [the film festival] and it was way more work than anybody wanted it to be, but this is the movie Andrew wanted to make and it exists, and it\u2019s hard to get people to want to talk about serious subjects. It\u2019s a lot of work.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a great pull\u2026if Andrew would just use his imaginative mind to have it be, instead of a drone pilot, [someone] who could fly himself and have super-powers\u2026 My point being that I feel very blessed and grateful, and I believe at this moment in my life, I believe again, that it\u2019s worth trying. Sometimes the world beats you down, and you feel like nothing could ever work.<\/em><\/p>\n

Journalist 2: I don\u2019t know if all the drone pilots are in Nevada. Could you tell me something about Las Vegas?<\/em><\/p>\n

AN: There\u2019s a very practical reason why the military put a military base near Las Vegas. The reason they do it is because the mountains near Vegas look very much like Afghanistan. And that\u2019s how they can train. Also, when you are driving to Vegas from Los Angeles, they actually use your car just for fun, in practice, just to follow it. You can\u2019t see the drone, but they can see you.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 wsws.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Good Kill\u2019 opens in theaters in the US on May 15 [2015]. A roundtable interview with writer-director Andrew Niccol and actor Ethan Hawke. Drone strikes carried out by the US military and CIA have killed thousands of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries. The barbaric strikes are illegal under international and US law and amount to war crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}