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'Eye In The Sky' Will Keep You Guessing

The new drone warfare thriller Eye in the Sky is not only a first-rate suspenser but almost a police procedural about the use of drones in assassination attempts, with big drones the size of small airplanes, little drones the size of birds, and tiny drones the size of junebugs. 

The assassination involves five top terrorists and numerous nations all over the world, including the U.S., with everybody connected by smartphone, and is the culmination of six years' effort. But the whole effort is endangered by the unexpected presence of a little girl selling bread just outside that house where the bomb is to be dropped.

It might seem unlikely that the military would be much concerned about the killing of such an insignificant creature. But the chief concerns are political, legal, and propagandistic, not moral, and what everybody wants to do is pass the responsibility up the line one level above themselves, to protect their careers as much as to ease their consciences.

There is little effort to vilify the victims or to compare drone assassination with guerilla warfare; like such other recent movies as The Hurt LockerAmerican Sniper, and in my interpretation, Whiskey Tango FoxtrotEye in the Sky assumes that war is degrading to the character of everybody involved in it, and it simply assumes it without preaching about it.

And it's full of suspense and keeps you guessing, completely satisfying even as mere entertainment.