Page 1 of Eye in the Sky

with nothing of any interest on terrestrial tv again last night, delved in to Netflix, a title was recommended to me from my previous viewing history...

I had not heard of this 2015 film before,

Eye in the Sky, starrring Helen Mirren, and Alan Rickman (must have been one of his last films).  Essentially its a UK/US military mission to capture/emlininate El-Shibab Terrorists in Kenya, a friendly country.

Some interesting turns in the storyline, and really makes you focus on the politcial and moral dilemma's of those with the power of life and death over combatants, and civilian non-combatants.

Having taken the 'Queens Shilling' for a number of years and deployed overseas, this is movie that really brings a lot of things home.

If you haven't seen it, definitely worth a watch.

I have seen it and it is very good, as it shows the morality of modern warfare, especially when technically we are not at war.

1...Is the remote kill aspect of war, where it essentially becomes a video game, where there is no blood physically on your hands. Pulling the trigger comes easier to kill civilians and combatants. This is modern warfare.

2...Because some modern wars are no longer a war as such, but a 'policing action', and the fact that a lot of it is videod, with regard to soilders head cams, this puts the soldier in a moral delema whether to kill or not.

A recent action in 2011 by a British soldier (called Marine A) who saw his mates killed and maimed 'lost it' and shot an injured prisoner dead who had been shooting back a few moments before.  As it was videod, he got a prison sentence when returning to the UK.

This puts our troops in a awful situation, where they do not know whether to kill or not, as they could be put in jail.

Marine A got released early after a court battle with the army.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2807267/marine-a-sergeant-alexander-blackman-released-free/

Quote:
bandicoot says...
"A recent action in 2011 by a British soldier (called Marine A) who saw his mates killed and maimed 'lost it' and shot an injured prisoner dead who had been shooting back a few moments before.  As it was videod, he got a prison sentence when returning to the UK.

This puts our troops in a awful situation, where they do not know whether to kill or not, as they could be put in jail.

Marine A got released early after a court battle with the army."
To be fair, the decision to jail was the correct one based on the evidence.  The British Army does not execute unarmed combatants.

There is an argument that he was failed by his chain of command and that evidence of this should have been taken into account - which I think it was eventually.

The decision to kill his prisoner was a deliberate one and the filmed evidence showed that he quite clearly knew it was the wrong thing to do.

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com

Inevitably, we have to set higher standards than other nations might, and it can seem unfair when only we are playing by the rules, but this is how progress is made in the world. Using torture, 'revenge' killings and treating the enemy as inhuman - even though they might do it to us - will come back to hurt us in the end. Amen.

Also, Eye In The Sky is a good film...