The Discourse of Ambiguity of Modern Drone Warfare in “Eye in the Sky”

Modern warfare is one of popular themes in Hollywood and western films especially after the discourse of “war against terror.” This British-production film, “Eye in the Sky” narrates war against terrorism in a unique and detailed way, instead of in black and white perspective. This paper argues that modern war presents many levels of ambiguity. It is aimed at discussing the discourse of ambiguity of modern drone warfare in the film “Eyes of the Sky.” This study applies Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, covering three levels of analysis, micro, macro, and mezzo. Micro level deals with language devices such as words, specific terms, metaphors. Macro level relates with social, political context, and mezzo level deals with the discourse bridging the language in use and social political context. The discourse of ambiguity can be found in many ways, ambiguity of modernness of the warfare devices and weapon when it counters the simplicity of real life of the people in Kenya that becomes ‘collateral damage.’ Ambiguity is also seen in decision making, in which Colonel Powell, the leader of the mission, changed the “capture” into “kill” terrorists and faces many ambiguities of the officers in charge of making decision for launching the missiles.