Well, I’m back from hiatus. Been awhile since my last review, but I think I still have the knack for it. So, without further ado, here it is – the new review!
Black Hawk Down *** ½
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Mark Bowden (book), Ken Nolan (screenplay) and Steve Zaillian
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, William Fitchner, and Sam Shepard
Rated R (Violence, violence and violence. If you take anyone under the age of 17 to this movie, you are a bad person. Seriously. There’s also some language, but, given the situations in the film, ‘Poo!’ and ‘Darn!’ really wouldn’t work.)
When I first saw the trailers for this movie, I was torn. The first thing I saw was ‘From the producer of Pearl Harbor’. I would have filed this movie away under ‘Bruckheimer really needs to get a clue,’ had it not been for the next sentence: ‘From the director of Gladiator’. “Hmmm...” I thought. “Ridley Scott knows how to make a movie, but Jerry Bruckheimer seems to have lost touch with reality. This could be interesting...” And, it certainly was.
Some background on the two men, for those of you who don’t pay close attention to the credits. Jerry Bruckheimer is an incredibly successful producer. Along with his late partner, Don Simpson, his productions are pretty much classic guy movies. Top Gun. Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2. Days of Thunder. Bad Boys. Crimson Tide. Good, exciting, stuff-blows-up-real-good, summertime popcorn movies. However, since Don Simpson’s death, Bruckheimer seems to have been wanting to become something more than a producer of high-quality B-movies. It seems like he wants to make “important” movies. Which is why we wound up with the travesty that is Pearl Harbor.
Ridley Scott, however, is a fine director. An award-winning director. When his game is on, he makes movies that re-invent genres. Alien is probably the best monster movie ever made. Blade Runner, with all its sci-fi trappings, is an excellent piece of film noir. Gladiator re-introduced the ‘epic’ to Hollywood. He’s a director that knows what he’s doing.
So, what happens when these two work together on a picture? Something that is really good.
Black Hawk Down is based on actual events. In 1993, warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid declared war on UN forces stationed in Mogadishu, Somalia. US Special Forces were deployed to take Aidid out. The mission was supposed to last 3 weeks. The story here takes place during the 6th week. Things are already bad, on top of the 300,000 Somalis who have starved to death due to the civil war and Aidid’s interceptions of food. Special forces intel says that many of Aidid’s top advisors will be having a meeting on October 3rd. This intel is deemed reliable, since 3 sources have confirmed it. The good news? That many advisors in one place, if captured, should weaken Aidid’s power. The bad news? The meeting is right in the center of territory that Aidid controls. The plan is this: 1) land special forces troops, have them capture the advisors. 2) have 4 Blackhawk helicopters secure the building and surrounding area from the air. 3) move a convoy of humvees in to extract the prisoners. 4) get out in a hurry. Should take an hour, tops. It wound up being the longest sustained ground battle involving US soldiers since Vietnam.
The movie starts out as expected – we meet the principal characters, and see what they’re like. This wasn’t as effective as it could have been. The cuts between actors were too quick, and lots of them were yelling, making name recognition tough. Plus, they all had the same haircuts, and most of them were young and photogenic (meaning that they all looked the same). Fortunately, the film didn’t seem to be character-driven. It felt event driven. The beginning and the end of the film are the only places that Bruckheimer’s fingerprints are evident. Plenty of pop songs playing in the background, which I felt distracted from the film. Songs in a Bruckheimer production are only there to sell soundtracks. They don’t add anything to the film. The only other place I noticed the heavy hand of Jerry was at the end, when SSgt. Eversman (Hartnett) gives the ‘hero’ speech. You’ve all seen it in the previews – “... sometimes, it just turns out that way.” I don’t know if Eversman really said that or not, but it seems like something Bruckheimer would put in. If he really did make that speech, then he has my apologies, as he has seen things that I never, ever, hope to see, and has the right to say whatever he wants.
The main part of the movie is concerned with things after things hitting fans, literally and figuratively. We go from one bad situation to another, with scarcely enough breathing room to prevent becoming overwhelmed. Scott uses his Alien skills to great effect here. The tension never really lets up until the end of the movie. Sure, it’s quiet, but, you know that sooner or later another bullet or RPG is going to be screaming by, and people are going to get hurt.
Which brings me to the violence in this movie. Black Hawk Down is tough to watch. If you are squeamish, do NOT see it. Remember the Normandy scene at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan? Take the violence in that, but make it last for 120 minutes. Driving home from the theatre, I nearly became physically ill. People don’t just get hit with bullets and fall down, they get shredded, and their pieces hit the ground. Blood doesn’t flow, it shoots out of a body like a geyser. People lose arms and legs, and it is shown in graphic detail. This movie is not for the faint of heart. Do not let your children go to this movie unless you go with them. I can not stress this enough. This movie has the most violence I have ever seen on screen, which is why it is so good. War movies should be made as violent as possible, just to show what war does. During the Battle of Mogadishu, 19 American soldiers and 1000 Somalis lost their lives, and I’m fairly certain that they were all shown.
Black Hawk Down doesn’t get into a lot of the political issues surrounding Somalia and our involvement in it, which is probably for the best given what has happened since September 11th. It shows the futility of wars, and pays tribute to the soldiers who were involved in this one. It doesn’t pander, and it doesn’t demand that you stand up and shout “USA! USA!” It merely says “Hey. Here’s some stuff that happened. It was a bad, bad situation, but, these are Americans, and they were doing their job. It’s time to give them the respect they deserve.”
For the complete cast list, visit The Internet Movie Database For brief biographies of the men involved, visit the official Sony Pictures Entertainment site (note: this site requires Shockwave).
