Successfully walks a difficult line...

Rating: 6/10 (12 February 2002)

Black Hawk Down could easily have devolved into a flag-waving Rambo-type affair very easily. All the elements are there: Good-looking, young, white American soldiers, faceless black Muslim enemies, a Vietnam-like setting, hyper-violent film-making, a young idealist Sergeant, an experienced heroic Colonel, a stern General, etc. One can imagine the damage that would have been done to this story in the hands of the wrong production team (say, Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay instead of Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott).
Like all *great* war movies, and most war movies in general, Black Hawk Down is an anti-war film. It does this by telling only one overall story: the true story of these soldiers in a fight against their "assigned" enemy. Whether the fight is just, or necessary, is basically irrelevant to the story. For what reasons things go awry is also generally unimportant. The fight is shown form the perspective of the American soldier, leading to a `good against bad' conflict. Within the American ranks, there are no `good' or `bad' players. Mistakes are made, to be sure, but there is no intent behind it. What matters is the ferocious fight the characters find themselves in and what it feels like to face that terror.
I'm not sure that Black Hawk Down is a great war film, but it can pack an emotional wallop on the order of All Quiet On the Western Front and Platoon, and its action sequences are as realistic and direct as those from Saving Private Ryan. If you saw it and didn't like it, reconsider why not, as you are depriving yourself of a powerful experience.