GOOD KILL ESTABLISHES THE TITLE AS AN OXYMORON
Few anti-war films about Vietnam occurred until after the American military pulled out. The same appears to be the case with the “war on terror,” which (according to one line in the film) is doing as well as the “war on drugs.” But Good Kill, an anti-war film, is not of the caliber of an Oliver Stone blockbuster and has attracted much fewer filmviewers than the pro-war Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Directed and written by Andrew Niccol, Good Kill begins with a “successful” drone strike identified as a “good kill” by protagonist Major Thomas Egan (played by Ethan Hawke), who goes home after work to his family in suburban Las Vegas with a dour disposition that fails to please his wife Molly (January Jones). His commander, Lt. Col. Jack Johns (Bruce Greenwood), is committed to his role but is fully aware that the targets being bombed that have little military significance. Filmviewers are exposed to about ten drone strikes before the film ends along with lines so propagandistically anti-war that the message comes across very preachy amid a story that is increasingly predictable and dull. “Signature strikes,” which begin when the drone unit’s superiors are transferred from the military to the CIA, are identified as drone kills where none of the targeted persons are known but just seem suspicious. Nobody answers when Air Force officer Vera Suarez (Zoë Kravitz) asks, “What that a war crime?” Johns and others utter rationalizations (“better to kill one suspicious person than allow him to kill one American in New York”) to drive home the point of the absurdity and counterproductive nature of the drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. MH