Black Hawk Down

I finally got around to seeing "Black Hawk Down" today, even though its been out for somewhere around three years now. I have to admit that I was never in a hurry to see it, but it was a film that had always intrigued me. I thoroughly enjoy well done war movies, movies that take their time and really make you feel a part of the situation; part of the danger. "Saving Private Ryan" did this well, and I think it's more than safe to say that "Black Hawk Down" does as well.

I watched a making-of about the movie and I think Josh Hartnett (surprisingly) explained it very well. The Somalian conflict is something that most Americans don't know much about, beyond that it was a civil war in a country in Africa and lots of people were starving. In fact, most of you reading this probably learned everything you know about it (myself included) from Channel One. As far as the specific event captured in the movie, I probably could have only guessed that a Black Hawk goes down.

To say that this movie was well-made is an understatement. There are no single heroes or villians in it, only throngs of both. But you're also never made to hate the Somalis shooting at the Americans, indeed, there are very few scenes that show any of them in any detail, they're just shooting at the troops. I think that it does a VERY thorough job of showing us exactly what was happening on that day in early October, 1993. We see them briefing the troops and the original plan makes sense, and then we see the plans go wrong but we still understand their new objectives and have a general sense of where everyone is. That helps a lot when you're trying to depict urban warfare.

Although the film is obviously highlighting the American side of things, it certainly doesn't glamorize like it could have. We see the ineptness of intelligence and maybe some of the foolish pride in some of the treasured military traditions (Leave no man behind!). But as far as accomplishing its goal of education, I can say with certainty that I'm not likely to forget what happened that day in Mogadishu anytime soon...

posted by Brad @ 8:20 PM