Small Quick Wars are as Dangerous as Small Quick Bullets

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2002)

The wonder of Scott's storytelling is overpowering. We see the Somali mission quickly bog down in the politics and befuddlement of a civil war, played in the photographic beauty, golden light and mid-eastern music that frames this marvelous film. This is one of the few films I can recall that is better than the book, more clearly illustrating the confusion, dirt and bloody fright that the young soldiers experienced.
Many films have been made about modern war, but few have had the solid ring of truth that Black Hawk Down emits. In "Saving Private Ryan", Spielberg brilliantly played the awful chaos of combat against the fact that there was a truly noble cause, a clear goal, and a path to true victory. For the US Army troops in Somalia, there was no solace in such hope for great outcomes, only the need to survive and bring your buddies with you. Scott shows us what all combat veterans know - gallantry in combat is fueled by camaraderie, even when the initial nobility of just cause becomes a fetid wish to simply escape unharmed.
`Black Hawk Down' is raw, violent and brutal. Through this art, we armchair strategists are forced to pay some fraction of the price that we so easily ask our youth to cough up. This movie is a thrilling, fearsome lesson for us, as entertaining as that sudden few seconds when your out of control car takes you backwards across the highway and onto the grass, and as likely to make you sit quietly afterward and thank your stars that you escaped unharmed.