DRONE

ANTI AMERICAN IDEOLOGY

Film Review by Fiore 

If you think America is the cause of the world’s problems, you’ll probably like DRONE.  It purposely evokes sympathy for Muslims who are currently killing hundreds, indeed thousands of people annually in horrific terror attacks, while purporting the rational for the violence is America, and therefore somehow justified. The script seems purloined from the pages of groups and movements that, despite history, feel a kumbaya socialism should be society’s playbook.

The film begins with the premise America is responsible for killing innocents in the Middle East. There is no mention, of course, of how terrorist, especially members of ISIS, use civilians, especially children, as shields and barriers.  The specific focus is on armed drones, and how they rain death from the sky.  

It also supports government classified leaks as a means of bringing America to justice.  Certainly, this film will make James Comey proud. 

Not content with sounding like the idiotic ideology of Californians, DRONE further supports infidelity in marriages, ignoring the elderly and alibiing terrorist attacks.  Frankly, there isn’t a theme DRONE presents that any true American would agree with; perhaps that’s why it was made in Canada, with the help of the Vancouver Film School. 

 

Sean Bean plays Neil Wistin.  He is an independent contractor charged with flying drones that seek out and destroy members of ISIS.  Patrick Sabongui plays Imir Shaw, a Pakistani whose family is killed in a drone attack that eliminated a key ISIS bomb maker.    Conveniently, there is a government leak which outs strategic members of the War on Terror and Wistin happens to be one of the names on the list.  Imir, rather than blowing up a teen concert, or mowing down visitors to London Bridge, opts to seek out Wistin and exact his revenge on the man who fired the drone missile.

 

Wistin is already in mourning, having just lost his father.  He not only mourns, but laments not spending more time with his dad as he withered away in a nursing home. The film clearly makes the connection between ignoring the elderly and bombing foreign countries indiscriminately. 

During this difficult time, his wife Ellen, played by Mary McCormack, decides it is opportune to have an affair, casually discarding the trauma her husband is enduring and ignoring the comfortable lifestyle he has provided for her.  Into this dysfunction, comes Imir with his own agenda.

1.1        KEY SCENES TO LOOK FOR:

1.       THE HOUSE RAID

2.      THE CAR HUNT

Director Jason Bourque orchestrates the film haphazardly.  He begins DRONE with a plodding pace, despite periodic shock scenes.  While the pace quickens in the final reels, the action is nonsensical.  When confronted with Ellen’s infidelity, Neil pleads for her life, even as she rails against him for being a CIA operative.  The message is clear:  Infidelity is permissible, while fighting terrorists is reprehensible. 

The climax is centered around the nobility of Imir and his people and the evil of Neil and America.  Sounds like something only Elizabeth Warren or Nancy Pelosi or those poor misguided souls who think Hillary lost the election because of Russian interference, could find plausible.

Scriptwriter Paul Birkett, working with Bourque, fills the tale with rather large holes.  For example:  While returning home from work, Neil hears a radio report detailing the leak and exposure of government operatives’ names.  He makes no connection between the report and the strange Pakistani man lurking around his house, mere moments after hearing the news.

Let’s take a look at the report card for DRONE:

1.2       ACTING = C

1.3       CINEMATOGRAPHY = C

1.4      LIGHTING = C

1.5       SOUND/MUSIC = C

1.6      SCRIPT = F

1.7       EDITING = C

1.8      SFX = C

1.9      ACTION = D

The great reveal in DRONE is too predictable.  Most viewers will be aware of it midway through the film.  While it’s beneficial for a film like this to provide teeth cutting for folks in film school, it’s not a film intended for American audiences.  Only a people with open border policies, who have not yet been involved in a terror attack could put any credence into the ideologies presented in DRONE.

Sean Bean is a solid actor.  He deserves more than this script provides.  In fact, we all do.