A Drone Pilot Faces a Crisis in ‘Good Kill’

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2014 A drone pilot faces a crisis in ‘Good Kill’ t’s such a banal word: drones. Don’t be fooled. miles from the shell,” the director said during an inter- Unmanned aerial vehicles have changed the way view in Venice. The film gives insights into a largely Iwars are fought, turning some forms of combat hidden world, revealing that young drone pilots are into a computer game with flesh-and-blood victims. recruited for their skill as gamers, and train on a con- The ethical cost to a nation and the emotional toll on sole modeled on the Xbox. “I was told that some of individuals of America’s new weaponry are explored them would fly a mission, go back to their little apart- in “Good Kill,” a sobering 21st-century riposte to “Top ment in Las Vegas, and play video games,” the direc- Gun” that stars Ethan Hawke as a former combat pilot tor said. “I don’t know how you separate that any- reassigned to fly missions in Afghanistan from the more.” safety of a trailer in the Nevada desert. “I’m always interested in how humanity and tech- ‘I have no answers’ nology intersect,” said the film’s writer-director, One of 20 films competing for the festival’s Golden Andrew Niccol. The New Zealand-born filmmaker Lion, “Good Kill” is a claustrophobic tale, played out depicted one sort of high-tech dystopia in 1997 sci-fi inside the trucks where Egan and his team - including movie “Gattaca.” In “Good Kill,” he explores the impli- Bruce Greenwood as a pragmatic commander and cations of waging war while staying home, a develop- Zoe Kravitz as a skeptical young volunteer - conduct ment that - for the drone operators - has blurred the surveillance missions and airstrikes on orders of the border between front line and home. militarily and, with less enthusiasm, the CIA. In their The film, which has its world premiere Friday at the down time, the characters thrash out the ethical Venice Film Festival, suggests that the ability to kill issues: Is it justifiable to kill innocents when targeting from thousands of miles away is profoundly disorient- a terrorist? Is it acceptable not to intervene against ing. “I feel like a coward every day,” says Hawke’s char- atrocities if it’s not part of the mission? acter, Maj. Thomas Egan, a veteran of several tours of The director said he saw the film was “a cautionary duty as the pilot of an F-16. tale in some ways, of what you can do and maybe Now grounded, he’s adrift, drinking too much and shouldn’t.” He avoided coming down for or against expression and thousand-yard stare to convey much From left, Actors Ethan arguing with his wife, played by January Jones. When the use of drones. “I have no answers,” he said. “There of Egan’s inner turmoil. Niccol said the actor, whom he Hawke, January Jones and a convenience-store clerk asks how his day went, Egan are great things about the drone program. These directed in “Gattaca” and arms-trade drama “Lord of Zoe Kravitz, and director says: “I blew up six Taliban ... and now I’m going things are really precise. If you hit the right house, that War,” was perfect for the role. “I’ve cast him as an Andrew Niccol pose for pho- home to barbecue.” The clerk doesn’t believe him; the missile’s going to go there. The question is, are you astronaut, an Interpol agent and now a fighter pilot,” tographers during the Good film suggests many Americans are oblivious to the hitting the right house? Niccol said. “He wouldn’t last five minutes in the mili- Kill photo call, the 71st edi- reality of drone warfare. Niccol said former drone “Are we going to have an armed policeman over tary, but I see him as this figure of authority.”— AP pilots he interviewed felt ashamed, like Egan, to be this part of the world forever? Because that’s what we tion of the Venice Film waging a war without any personal risk, but still suf- can do and that’s what we are doing. When the troops Festival in Venice, Italy, yes- fered from the emotional strain of combat. eventually pull out of Afghanistan, the drones aren’t terday. — AP “You’ve got shell shock but you’re thousands of going to leave.” The film relies on Hawke’s flinty Actor and director James Franco, center, actor Scott Haze, second from right, actor Jacob US actor and director James Franco poses with actress Carmen Chaplin , director of the Venice Loeb, third from right, actress Ahna O’Reilly, third from left, and actress Janet Jones Gretzky, Film Festival Alberto Barbera and Jaeger-Le Coultre International communication director left, pose for photographers prior to James Franco receiving the Glory To The Filmmaker Laurent Vinay after he receives the “Jaeger-Le Coultre glory to the filmaker” award before the Award and the screening of The Sound and the Fury at 71st edition of the Venice Film Festival screening of his movie “The Sound and the Fury” presented out of competition at the 71st in Venice, Italy yesterday. — AP photos Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2014 at Venice Lido. James Franco shoots ‘Zeroville’ at Venice Film Fest ames Franco-directed film “Zeroville” used “The Sound and the Fury,” based on the William the Venice Film Festival’s red carpet and Sala Faulkner classic. “Zeroville” is instead based on JGrande theatre which doubled as a set yester- Steve Erickson’s 2007 eponymous novel which day. Franco, with a shaved skull sporting tattoos follows Ike “Vikar” Jerome, a 24-year-old student of “A Place In The Sun” stars Montgomery Clift and who arrives in Hollywood in 1969 with dreams of Elizabeth Taylor, pranced in front of real frenzied breaking into the movie business, which is in the fans and received both faux and real awards from midst of a seismic shift as the decline of studios fest topper Alberto Barbera, who put in a cameo. leads to the rise of independent directors. Jerome “It’s a little movie we’re doing. Maybe we’ll becomes a successful film editor and embarks on show it here in Venice next year,” said Franco, a Hollywood journey that ends in both tragedy who was ostensibly on the Lido to receive the and discovery.—Reuters Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker 2014 US director James Franco and Ahna O’Reilly arrive for the screening of the movie ‘The Sound prize and also to bow his latest directorial effort and the Fury’..

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