The Tale about the Subhumans of "Mog"

Rating: 2/10 (16 May 2005)

"Black Hawk Down" certainly is an aesthetically strong movie. But that cannot justify such an oversimplification of the Somalian situation. "It's just a movie," one might say, but if there should at all be the need to produce a war movie with a setting so detached from reality and with enemy troops so dehumanized, then please let it take place in some made up banana republic. African people are not the brainless herd animals they are depicted as in this picture. I remember how I laughed out loud at the scene with the young, beautiful Somalian mother and her child, which Scott so bluntly used as an alibi to hide the racism that is being conveyed throughout the whole movie. Considering that the story of the movie is (at least to some extent) a real one, it is surprising, how little you learn about the war in Somalia. The only thing that comes across is that it seems to be a country inhabited by not-quite-human creatures, whose only purpose is to look absolutely insane and be shot dead in hundreds per minute. Oh, and to serve as a backdrop for serious questions like whether Navy Seals or Delta Force are tougher. Somalia seems like Vietnam in a desert with shabby houses instead of jungle. If you just want to see a technically well made war movie, you might like "Black Hawk Down". If you have a conscience, you won't.