Intensity abounds in 'Black Hawk'
Scott brings strikingly realistic portrayal to the big screen
by Jeanine Gajewski / senior writer
Director Ridley Scott, who brought blockbusters like "Gladiator"
(2000) and "Alien" (1979) to the big screen, has created
another intense, often disturbingly graphic portrayal of survival
and heroism with his latest release, "Black Hawk Down."
Adapted from the true war story told in journalist Mark Bowden's
book of the same title, the film takes place in Somalia in 1993.
As part of a United Nations peacekeeping operation, the United States
sends forces to bring food and humanitarian aid to the starving
people who suffer at the hands of warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid.
In an effort to quell the civil war ravaging the country, young
U.S. Rangers and veteran Delta Force soldiers are sent to the Somali
capital of Mogadishu to abduct several of Aidid's lieutenants.
This mission is expected to last only an hour.
However, when two Black Hawk helicopters are shot down in the middle
of Mogadishu's most hostile district, the soldiers become trapped
in the city for over 18 hours. The number of dead and wounded rises
under heavy gunfire as the heroes wait for a rescue convoy.
The majority of the movie is one intense battle after another in
which bombs explode, body parts fly and soldiers and Somalis alike
are shot to pieces, often resulting in scenes almost too horrifying
to watch.
In one scene, soldiers attempt to save a gunshot victim by reaching
inside his leg through the wound to find the severed artery and
clamp it.
If the explicit depiction of the suffering and death resulting from
military combat is intended to stir even the most hardened viewers,
it is the same reaction produced by witnessing a terrible car crash.
Audiences will recognize famous faces including Josh Hartnett as
the idealist Staff Sargent Matt Eversmann and Ewan McGregor as the
unlikely soldier Grimes.
Unfortunately, the thick morass of blood and gunfire leaves little
room for character development. Many are blasted away before viewers
have a chance to remember their names.
To it's credit, "Black Hawk Down" is a strikingly
realistic depiction of the horrors of war. However, Scott produces
an intensely violent and bloody action film thinly disguised as
a tribute to fallen war heroes.
Perhaps blending in more about what made these ordinary people worthy
of praise would balance the violence and better do them justice.
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