Good Kill Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Good Kill Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 29, 2015

The most dangerous thing I do is drive home on the freeway.

Modern warfare is a video game -- literally -- but real modern warfare, or at least the skies above it, has all but evolved into a video game, too, at least considering the manner and methods in which it is fought. And unlike the game, the death, dismemberment, and destruction don't end with the flip of a switch or a "game over" screen. The dead aren't brought back to life on a reloaded checkpoint or via new game plus, and there aren't infinite lives to spread around. Modern drone warfare, in which a pilot sits thousands of miles away from the battlefield and controls a deadly aerial vehicle that can kill with the press of a button via a control cluster that's not at all dissimilar from a game joystick, has become the new weapon of 21st century warfare. The vehicles are frequently piloted by people who grew up gaming, whose ability to stare at a screen, conceptualize the digital layout of the real battlefield, and press a button on a console are doing work that doesn't put them in harm's way but that can achieve the same result as could a pilot flying overhead, where the risk is substantially greater. But what about the consequences of their actions? Can these modern keyboard warriors compartmentalize what they're doing, understand that, even if they're killing from 7,000 miles away, they're still killing, and that with every button press comes an added tax on their conscience? Or is it, to this new generation of drone fighters, just another screen, just another job, just another game? Good Kill takes an intimate, and eye-opening, look into the the life of drone pilots and the very real burden they carry with them as they perform one of the most important yet unheralded but, at the same time, most soul-crushing and morally ambiguous jobs on the planet.

Fire.

For Major Thomas Egan (Ethan Hawke), fighting a war isn't about being shipped overseas, toughing it out in the bush, and hoping not to run into an enemy ambush or step on an explosive device. The former fighter pilot's war isn't conducting sorties over enemy territory or even aerial reconnaissance missions. His war takes no physical toll on his body -- at least no directly -- but it eats away at his soul. He's a drone pilot, stationed in Las Vegas, Nevada -- on a base within eyesight of all the glitz and glamour -- and literally works out of a box, one of many identical setups, each no bigger than a train car, inside of which pilots remotely fly unmanned vehicles over Middle Eastern skies and, when ordered, destroy targets with the push of a button and a 10-second delay. He works under Lieutenant Colonel Jack Johns (Bruce Greenwood) and is assigned a new partner in Airman Vera Suarez (Zoë Kravitz) who, like Egan, finds the morality behind the actions of drone pilots dubious at best. Yet they carry out their missions, which usually involves killing targets of military value that have been deeply vetted and shooting only when the risk of civilian casualties is at its smallest. If they're lucky, they provide overwatch for fatigued men on the ground and need do nothing more than observe and report. But when their unit is hand-picked by the CIA to carry out ever more reckless missions that see a spike in civilian casualties and a nonchalant, all-business attitude from their contact at Langley, Egan grows further into a state of personal despair and inner turmoil over his actions, actions which could threaten not only his career but his longterm relationship with his family, including his wife Molly (January Jones).

Good Kill sets out to look at the emotional toll modern drone warfare takes on the people who pilot the drones and, more important to the story, pull the trigger. In what ways, beyond physical separation from the battlefield, does it differ from traditional combat, which, of course, comes with its own moral and ethical consequences, its own burdens and ramifications from those who participate in it? How does one not only accept the responsibility of, but internally justify, death by the push of a button, particularly when pushing that button is so cold, outwardly calm, and physically and emotionally distant from the point of impact? The truth of the matter is that war is war, regardless of how it's fought. The reality is that there's a certain disconnect when one's perspective changes, both literally and metaphorically. In Good Kill, two of the people in Egan's team are gung-ho types who see their jobs as a service, of killing the enemy before they can kill a friend. It's not that they don't realize they're not playing a game, but they've chosen to accept their task as something for the greater good, creating a justification for their actions no matter the ramifications thereof on the ground thousands of miles away. For Egan and Suarez, that same level of balancing justification is there, as is their understanding of the relative safety of drone combat and its effectiveness as a combat tool. But they're forced to cross an ethical line that doesn't shift their understanding but rather moves the metaphorical goalposts further than makes the comfortable. No longer are they fighting the enemy, they're becoming the enemy, in their eyes, resorting to the same tactics used by the enemy. The difference is that their way isn't down and dirty and personal, but in a way, for Egan and Suarez, it becomes even more personal when they're asked to remove their consciences from the equation and become, essentially, drones of a different kind.

While the movie is fairly straightforward in content, it's much more complicated in context. The film chews through some seriously deep moral and ethical quagmires but does so with a fairly one-sided approach, reducing those who are less conflicted to overblown caricatures and leaving the heavy dramatic lifting to the people who see shades of gray rather than black-and-white. That's unsurprising, and they're the people one would expect to find central to the story, but the counterbalance is practically nonexistent, leaving the movie sometimes feeling preachy and one-sided rather than more robustly complex. Still, the movie leaves enough dramatic wiggle room to explore with some depth all the questions it asks, and because it does so on a more intimate, personal level -- this is the story not of the greater drone program but rather its effects on a single man -- it carries more weight and immediacy and relevance than would a broader documentary-style approach to the subject. The film also suffers from a severe middle stretch slowdown in which the filmmakers effectively bludgeon the audience with the same scenes time and again that are meant to reinforce the sense of personal inescapability from the task and the growing sense of disconnect at the top of the chain of command. They also reinforce the counter, the growing state of discontent, instability, and burgeoning rebellion at the control stick. Unfortunately, such scenes only grow repetitive for the audience, even as they serve a greater dramatic purpose. They don't kill the momentum or the story, but they do get in the way of it. Otherwise, Good Kill is a good film, a thinking man's film, a film that challenges its audience to consider the toll war takes on a new, practically uncharted battlefield and the disconnect that may potentially exist in the age of personal and emotional distance from reality.

Good Kill Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Good Kill features a top-shelf 1080p transfer. The digital shoot never pushes too far flat or lifeless, instead revealing an attractive and richly complex surface that showcases broad and intimate textures alike with ease. Sprawling overheads showing Vegas proper and its cookie-cutter suburbs are strikingly clear and detailed, while close-ups of faces, military jump suits, and leather jackets showcase even the finest textural nuances. Colors sparkle, particularly out in the daylight. Clothes are bright and natural, green grass -- at least the few feet of green grass seen in the movie -- dazzles, and the cold gray and blue sterile drone command center interior all looks marvelous. Blacks are deep and pure. Flesh tones capture natural complexions. The transfer show no egregious examples of macroblocking, noise, banding, or other eyesores. Overall, this is a rock-solid presentation from Paramount.

Good Kill Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Good Kill arrives on Blu-ray with a grounded and stable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The sound design isn't particularly dramatic or deep, favoring instead low key details that heighten deeper, rather than surface, emotion. Little bits of atmospherics -- computer beeps and whirrs in the drone control center, light exterior atmospherics like chirping birds and distant traffic -- are nicely integrated with natural placement around the stage. Musical definition satisfies, again playing with good spacing. The film is primarily a dialogue intensive one, however, and it unsurprisingly reproduces the spoken word with natural command and center placement.

Good Kill Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Good Kill contains only one supplement. 'Good Kill:' Behind the Scenes (1080p, 15:06) is a simple piece that examines the core story, the realities behind it, character definition, performances, Writer/Director Andrew Niccol's work, and the importance of crafting an authentic film. Buyers will also enjoy a DVD copy of the film as well as a voucher for a UV/iTunes digital copy.

Good Kill Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It was recently revealed that a new Russian tank will be operated with a control pad modeled after PlayStation's famous DualShock controller. That's another example in the growing trend of the modern battlefield slowly, but surely, blurring the line between fiction and reality. Good Kill is a timely, pointed film that examines the ethics and morality of long distance killing that also comes around to question the balancing act between following orders and following one's own sense of self awareness and discernment between morally right and wrong actions. It's a fascinatingly complex film that will leave audiences reflecting on the story, impressed with the filmmaking, and in awe of the nuanced performances, particularly from Ethan Hawke in one of the best roles of his career. Paramount's Blu-ray release of Good Kill unfortunately contains only a single supplement, but video and audio qualities impress. Highly recommended.