Black Hawk Down Review
by Karina Montgomery (cinerina AT flash DOT net)February 27th, 2002
Black Hawk Down
Full Price Feature
Between my awe at this film and the regrettable downfall of my cable modem service, I have been unable to share truly how impressed I was and am at this film. Opening the movie are some tight, gliding images of desolation and human suffering in Somalia, with the back story for the events of the film summarized. Right away, a filmgoer must ask, "How or where did they get this footage?" It's more real and immediate certainly than anything Sally Struthers ever voiced over. From this introduction the movie turns into a two hour plus knucklebiter of a true life action story masterfully painted by director Ridley Scott. It lasts longer than the time spent in the chair, as wellmy companions and I still discussed it later in the week.
I am certain I am not alone with Joe Blow American in knowing very little about the civil conflicts in Somalia in the 1990s, and less of course is known about Delta Force's actions therewith. While, as with most war movies, the facts are presented fairly onesidedly, as narratively required, the only, only dissatisfaction I felt walking out was still not really feeling fully up on the situation.
However, I am living proof that polictical ignorance will stem nothing of one's visceral and emotional enjoyment of this film. Intense is a word aptly describing Black Hawk Down, as is gripping. The horrors of this mission are both terrible and terribly moving. Once you get past the slew of familiar British, Irish, and Scottish actors playing cornpone Americans, you are completely swallowed by their perils.
Occasionally the smooth flow of intensity is obscured by the rampant jargon and difficulty differentiating characters while in more frenetic situations, which can take you out of the action for a moment. A battallion of baldies besplattered in blood occasionally blend together into faceless voices. I am loathe to use the phrase "in your face," but certainly no English idiom is as apropos for how this movie feels. It almost trivializes it to say that it was "highly enjoyable." It's frightening and disorienting and amazing. It never feels forced or fake or even like it can actually end. Oh yeah and what a spooky score!
Take the famous scene in Saving Private Ryan, the one that makes veterans shudder and Spielberg detractors tip a respectful hat, the storming of the beach at Normandy. That sequence is what, 20 minutes long? Then the rest of the movie is earnest soul searching and shiny Matt Damon's teeth. This film has about 20 minutes of shining hunks in white beefy-T's and then the rest of the film is bullet time storming of downtown Mogadishu. Exhausting but effective. Scott uses the pushed film technique (first noted in SP Ryan) as he had in the Gladiator scenes to effectively add a sense of urgency and lack of control, without overusing it. He peppers his tale with message but politely restrains himself from pointing it out. There is no need to tell when he shows so well.
The tension is miraculously maintained within beautifully framed shots. Scott has always known how to run an action-packed set (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, more) while not neglecting his actors. Michael Bay, arguably the Orson Wells of complex action sequences, never remembers to fill his characters with life or to direct his actors; most recently his guilt lies at Pearl Harbor. Yet Scott can juggle a couple dozen similar-looking men and still make them distinct and interesting. He integrates the people with the action events, and of course the result is Drama, not Action. Pearl Harbor's astounding action choreography is overshadowed and forgotten in light of the tissue thing human story.
Bay is not an actor's director. Spielberg succeeds in short bursts (The T-Rex car chase, Normandy) but he has always preferred the human experience over their surroundings, despite how spectacular he makes the environment. Scott, Bay, and Spielberg are all differently gifted filmmakers, but Scott's Black Hawk Down is a fantastic marriage of man and peril, until death do they part.
Most refreshingly, in the American flag-stickered aftermath of 9/11/01, Black Hawk Down is actually not a Team USA jingoistic tickertape parade. The soldiers are human and unapologetically so - and they do their jobs for deeper, truer, and more personal reasons than blind obeisance and willful ignorance. You can admire their bravery without feeling like someone is selling you something. What's terrible is the number of missions that take place like this all the time that we never hear about because of national security. It's the soldier armed with knowledge and this brand of fearlessness and duty that deserves such a paean.
You may have heard that bootleg copies of this film have been smuggled into Mogadishu, where understandably there has been a great deal of fury at the one-dimensional and animalistic portrayal of the hostile Somali people during this time. This is understandable, but I feel that the story that the director wants to tell is actually an apolitical one, told through the medium of an uncomfortable political climate. It is the intense personal drama behind these government-feudal events that makes this such an amazing film.
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These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. [email protected]
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