Shades of 1898

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2002)

Like many things in life, one cannot very well complain about things that cannot be helped, things that you cannot change, and things that simply "are." So, I am not going to come in here and vent about the woes of American foreign policy; nevertheless, while Black Hawk Down might have been a well filmed movie, the false sense of patriotism that it portrays (in a place much like vietnam: a place we had no business sticking our noses in), it was hard to watch the movie, and see our boys being killed for something that does not even belong to us. I love America, but I cannot condone any action that leads to the senseless slaughter of our youth, while as a nation we are unprovoked by outside forces. Since the year 1898, when our forces were sent into Cuba to fight a conflict that was not ours, there have been only two wars that America had a right to become involved in. In WWI and WWII we were essentially provoked in to the conflicts and thus had some sort of meaning to be there. George Washington, in his farewell address, all but begged and pleaded for us to stay out of foreign affairs and wars, but we have never listened. Ok, that is the way things go, and I will not cry over split milk. Nevertheless, if there is any measure of patriotism to be found, it is in the wars where AMERICA'S freedoms were maintained, and not the freedoms of those countries that have made poor choices along the way. America has made enough poor choices of our own: things that we must swallow and move on. Therefore, movies like Black Hawk Down, are simply plasticine portraits of what patriotism is suppose to be. If you want a "feel good" American movie, watch "Ben and Me"(1953): the movie about that little rat that hung out in Ben Franklin's pocket. Sure, "Ben & Me" is a cartoon, but so is Black Hawk Down.