So ugly, you can't possibly look away

Rating: 9/10 (16 February 2002)

The presence of U.S. forces in Somalia was right and just. It's just that this particular operation was vastly flawed. Precautions that should have been taken were not, for the simple reason that is alluded to in the film: American arrogance. This mission was supposed to be easy. On paper, it all worked out. In and out in half an hour--wishful thinking, I'd say. Hindsight, though, is always 20/20 isn't it? Even as General Garrison (Sam Shephard) is telling his squad leaders not to underestimate this enemy, the sin has already been committed. By going in with no air cover, they've already got one hand tied behind their backs. Eversmann (Josh Hartnett) tells his men, this is what we do, we're elite, remember that' to build confidence, but with no basis on which to make the statement. The man had never seen combat before. Many of the hundred or so soldiers who drop into the middle of one of the most hostile, armed, dangerous spots on the planet at that time, Mogadishu, had likewise never seen combat. But this is what they are trained for. This kind of operation is what the elite armed forces live for.
Ridley Scott's direction is what makes "Black Hawk" work as well as it does. The script, more often than not, gets in the way, making what could really have been a masterpiece, just a great film. The sometimes ridiculous dialogue you know no one would ever say, is the only evidence that they were in any hurry to finish. I can't tell you how many times I said to myself, how in the world did he get THAT shot?' One of my favorites was what appeared to be done with a camera mounted on the front of one of the Black Hawks, pointed toward the back, filming as the copter flew through a dense cloud of smoke from tire fires in the streets below. Awesome.
I submit that Scott can't NOT make an intense film. Ask him for a women's film and he gives you "Thelma and Louise" or "GI Jane." Ask the man for an action movie and he gives you "Gladiator." I'm surprised it's taken him this long to make his first war film (GI Jane is a military movie, but by no means a war movie), but it's the kind of film we always knew he'd excel at once he finally got around to it.
I enjoyed this mostly because it's a well-executed film in most every respect. If the Mogadishu operation hadn't been flubbed so badly, such a well-executed film wouldn't have been made about it. It's a war film the likes of which we've never seen. It's so well made that you never fear that the director is going to slip up. You're not just interested in what's going on--you're riveted.
The actual events are more horrifying than any script writer could come up with, or would even dare to write. In this case, though, something rare: you don't feel like you're being lied to here. You don't feel like anything is being glamorized. Scott presses on, compromising nothing. This is not an interpretation of what happened, but a dramatization. This happened too recently to do otherwise, keeping in mind the families of the dead. I will say, though, that much seems to be left up in the air at the end. Despite Garrison's revised initiative, the rangers killed in the second helicopter crash were left behind. We're left wondering exactly how those bodies are eventually recovered. Maybe this is the film's way of saying this is as much as I'm going to tell you. If you want to know more, look for yourself.' The details of the operation are well documented by news organizations and in Mark Bowden's book. Grade:A-