Black Hawk Down: Hollywood joins Bush's war
Black Hawk Down
Directed by Ridley Scott
Written by Ken Nolan, based on the book by Mark Bowden
Starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Tom Sizemore
REVIEW BY STUART EASTERLING
Black Hawk Down is a war movie that hopes to ride the wave of post-September 11 US patriotism to box office success. The story is based on a 1993 US special forces raid in Somalia, which intended to capture several associates of Somali "warlord" General Farah Adid. But the mission quickly goes awry, with helicopters shot down, soldiers separated from one another and convoys lost on the streets of Mogadishu — all the while facing unremitting hostile fire.
The real-life battle, and ensuing rescue operations, lasted through the night. Eighteen US soldiers and roughly 1000 Somalis died.
Director Ridley Scott developed the art of cinematic spectacle and visual imagery in films such as Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator. In Black Hawk Down, he uses his talents to depict the fear, violence and confusion of battle.
The protagonists are equipped with an array of modern weapons that can reduce another human being to a pulp, and the bulk of the film is devoted to showcasing their effects.
Ultimately, all of this is in the service of patriotism. It's true that there are very few scenes in the movie for flag-wavers to cheer. The sentiment Black Hawk Down most evokes is horror. Young people — filled with a mixture of fear and bravado — leap into war and meet with barbarism, as their friends are literally blown to bits.
The film has been criticised for its cardboard cut-out main characters. Yet watching someone weep as his friend bleeds to death, or seeing someone ask another soldier to say goodbye to his daughters for him, immediately humanises them.
The cardboard cut-outs in the film are the thousands of Somalis. While Black Hawk Down expresses the fear and tragedy faced by the people in US uniforms, the Africans seem to feel nothing. Wave upon wave of them come at the US soldiers, their faces twisted with rage and cruelty.
Whether the daughters of dead Somalis will miss them isn't something the film dwells on. The US soldiers don't think much of them either — they disgustingly refer to the famine-stricken Somalis as "skinnies".
Like countless war movies before it, Black Hawk Down systematically dehumanises "the enemy". Meanwhile, the Somalis' reasons for fighting seem to make no sense. We're left asking: Do they not want to be fed by their American saviours?
The general in charge of the operation fears for the soldiers' safety, because by nightfall, "the whole city will descend on them". But why would a city attempt to destroy its benefactors? Black Hawk Down carefully dodges this issue.
Meanwhile, we get the usual formulas of Hollywood war movies: the unwelcome meddling of politicians in military affairs; the harmful rivalry between Â鶹´«Ã½ of the armed forces; the problem of US troops who want to do good having their hands tied by the United Nations.
This shouldn't be surprising, given that the filmmakers worked hand in glove with the US military to make Black Hawk Down. The film's gala opening in Los Angeles featured generals along with celebrities.
Black Hawk Down briefly toys with the issue of whether the US should have intervened in Somalia. That the US might have stepped in because of Somalia's oil reserves and strategic location — and not to help the hungry — is not considered.
After watching Black Hawk Down, US viewers are meant to ask: Can we really do any good in trying to pacify natives as hopeless as these?
In the end, Black Hawk Down seems to want to convince us that "war is hell". But it's far from an anti-war movie. Rather, it's a story about a mission that went wrong in a "good war".
Meanwhile, the film studiously avoids the bigger picture. In doing so, it helps to provide yet another justification for US intervention abroad, despite the brutal consequences it portrays.
[From .]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, January 30, 2002.
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