A new type of war movie

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2002)

Like `Behind Enemy Lines', this is a movie rushed out in the aftermath of the World Trade Center horror, apparently on the assumption that it will make Americans feel better about themselves. It would seem that, in the US, there has been a `Let's kick ass' response but, to this British viewer at least, such a reaction is hard to fathom. Certainly the film is a celebration of comradeship and heroism, but it reminds us of an appalling military misjudgement by the Americans and a lack of political will by the international community.
It depicts in savagely graphic form the outcome of an October 1993 operation in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu when an attempt to detain henchman of the local warlord gave rise to a 15-hour `firefight' in which 18 American soldiers lost their lives and more than 70 were injured, while something like a thousand Somalians  men, women ands children  were killed. Elite soldiers of the Rangers and Delta Force regiments go in, supported by Black Hawk and Little Bird helicopters but, from the start, it is a mess, as one soldier falls from Black Hawk, resulting in it being downed by the local militia. This is war as we have never seen it before on the big screen: brutal and confused combat in city streets and houses where the enemy does not wear a uniform or fight by the rules and rescue is far from hand.
This was always going to be a better work than `Behind Enemy Lines' because it is helmed by one of the finest directors around and presents a very much less gung ho' depiction of war. Fresh from his success with the wonderful `Gladiator', British Ridley Scott  the son of a Royal Marine - has taken locations in Morocco and used magnificent camerawork to produce a stunning visual and visceral record based closely on the book by journalist Mark Bowden. Indeed such is the verisimilitude of Scott's action that one can't always hear what is said or understand what is happening.
As I left the London screen where I saw `Black Hawk Down', I found myself in conversation with the cinema attendant who incredibly happened to be a Somalian who was there in 1993. He assured me that the events were worse than shown in the film  we didn't see (fortunately) the parading of the dead Americans through the streets - and the situation is just as bad now as it was then, with four clans controlling different quarters of Mogadishu.

A year after the disastrous American intervention in Somalia, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and we all looked the other way until the appalling events of 11 September 2001. If Scott's film serves to remind us that we cannot forgot the injustice in Somalia  and other parts of Africa  perhaps it will have served a higher purpose than entertainment.