From the director that brought you Gattaca with its probing analysis of the possible misuse of genetics comes Good Kill, a probing analysis the U.S. Military's use of drones. Part political thesis, part character piece, even the very title indicates something about strange nature of a 'good kill' and how these good kills start to negatively affect the main character and his family life. When we observe him at his job, the film's riveting; it's the tiresome scenes on the home front that unfortunately drag this film down quite a bit.
Meet Major Thomas Egan, Taliban fighter by day, loving husband by night, although 'emotionally distant husband' would be the better way of describing him. Egan spends hours and hours every day in a booth in a military base in Las Vegas using drones to bombard enemies or 'possible' enemies. Afterwards, he goes home to his wife (played by Mad Men alumnus January Jones) and kids. However, he can't help but take the job home with him as he finds it increasingly difficult to 'compartmentalize' his troubling thoughts and feelings of guilt.
The film alternates between his job and his home life and how the former affects the latter. Needless to say, it's the scenes on the military base that are the most riveting. There we're treated to what Niccol is most passionate about: politics, moral dilemmas and so on. For instance, at one point a CIA spokesman orders Egan and his colleagues to bomb the building a suspect just entered. They do so, but afterwards they're ordered to bomb the ruins of said building again, in case any of the people trying to dig people out are conspirators as well. What do you do? These could very well simply be citizens trying to do the right thing. The CIA spokesman gives them his mathematical reasoning for why going for the second strike is the 'right' thing to do: that the long term benefit for the safety of America's citizens has been weighted against the risk of any Taliban conspirators surviving and so on. From a mathematical point of view, it seems like the logical thing to do, but try telling that to Egan All these scenes and many more form the heart of Good Kill and the number one reason why you should watch it. On the other hand the scenes at the Egan residence are the weakest of the bunch for sure. I get why they're there. They're supposed to add an extra layer to Egan's character. Just watching him struggling with his job wouldn't be enough; it has to affect a marriage as well. The problem is that the spousal scenes feel derivative, they don't have nearly the impact the should. The marriage scenes are supposed to prevent the film from just being about Egan, but ironically, due to the predictable nature of these scenes, that's precisely what happens. We know he's only going to distance himself from her more and more until their relationship reaches a breaking point; we know there's going to be a big fight, etc. It's not that the scenes are bad per se; it all just feels a bit 'been there done that'. What's worse is that even though the entire film's about Egan, we never really grow to like him. We mostly see him as a man who keeps his thoughts to himself, staring into the distance. I get that that's the point and that it's what's undermining his relationship with his wife, but the audience-character relationship is something else entirely. No director's out there going like, 'we have to make sure that no one will like the protagonist'. Because the film keeps Egan at a distance, so do we maintain our distance from the proceedings.
Niccol has a knack for creating entertaining, yet thought-provoking films (Christopher Nolan could learn a thing or two from him). Gattaca is a great example. Good Kill comes close to achieving the same balance, but the tiresome, predictable domestic arguments and our indifference toward Egan hold the film back a great deal. Still, it's nice to see a major filmmaker tackle the troublesome topic of military drones.
Meet Major Thomas Egan, Taliban fighter by day, loving husband by night, although 'emotionally distant husband' would be the better way of describing him. Egan spends hours and hours every day in a booth in a military base in Las Vegas using drones to bombard enemies or 'possible' enemies. Afterwards, he goes home to his wife (played by Mad Men alumnus January Jones) and kids. However, he can't help but take the job home with him as he finds it increasingly difficult to 'compartmentalize' his troubling thoughts and feelings of guilt.
The film alternates between his job and his home life and how the former affects the latter. Needless to say, it's the scenes on the military base that are the most riveting. There we're treated to what Niccol is most passionate about: politics, moral dilemmas and so on. For instance, at one point a CIA spokesman orders Egan and his colleagues to bomb the building a suspect just entered. They do so, but afterwards they're ordered to bomb the ruins of said building again, in case any of the people trying to dig people out are conspirators as well. What do you do? These could very well simply be citizens trying to do the right thing. The CIA spokesman gives them his mathematical reasoning for why going for the second strike is the 'right' thing to do: that the long term benefit for the safety of America's citizens has been weighted against the risk of any Taliban conspirators surviving and so on. From a mathematical point of view, it seems like the logical thing to do, but try telling that to Egan All these scenes and many more form the heart of Good Kill and the number one reason why you should watch it. On the other hand the scenes at the Egan residence are the weakest of the bunch for sure. I get why they're there. They're supposed to add an extra layer to Egan's character. Just watching him struggling with his job wouldn't be enough; it has to affect a marriage as well. The problem is that the spousal scenes feel derivative, they don't have nearly the impact the should. The marriage scenes are supposed to prevent the film from just being about Egan, but ironically, due to the predictable nature of these scenes, that's precisely what happens. We know he's only going to distance himself from her more and more until their relationship reaches a breaking point; we know there's going to be a big fight, etc. It's not that the scenes are bad per se; it all just feels a bit 'been there done that'. What's worse is that even though the entire film's about Egan, we never really grow to like him. We mostly see him as a man who keeps his thoughts to himself, staring into the distance. I get that that's the point and that it's what's undermining his relationship with his wife, but the audience-character relationship is something else entirely. No director's out there going like, 'we have to make sure that no one will like the protagonist'. Because the film keeps Egan at a distance, so do we maintain our distance from the proceedings.
Niccol has a knack for creating entertaining, yet thought-provoking films (Christopher Nolan could learn a thing or two from him). Gattaca is a great example. Good Kill comes close to achieving the same balance, but the tiresome, predictable domestic arguments and our indifference toward Egan hold the film back a great deal. Still, it's nice to see a major filmmaker tackle the troublesome topic of military drones.