Black Hawk Down

Quite simply, we've never seen a film like Black Hawk Down before. Comparisons to Saving Private Ryan, the Steven Spielberg masterpiece and current benchmark for warfare realism, are apt. While not attaining quite the level of intensity that is achieved in Ryan's opening 25 minutes, Black Hawk Down comes remarkably close. It bears mentioning, however, that the combat scenes in Ridley Scott's latest near-masterpiece don't only take up a fraction of the running time. They are the running time. In a sense, the film is one giant firefight, one that in real life lasted for seventeen hours but here lasts for close to two. In the film's two-hour and twenty minute running time, the fighting takes place over almost all of it. Only the first twenty minutes are bullet free. As soon as the first machinegun is fired, the onslaught is relentless.

This isn't action for action's sake. This is realistic action meant to spur further thought from the audience. It's meant to get into your mind and stay there. It makes you realize, just as the best war films do, just what these soldiers do for our safety. While it's in no way possible for us to comprehend the feeling of brotherhood that spurns them into action, and why they voluntarily hop into the jeeps that could take them to torment and death, we're left on the sidelines, only able to appreciate their bravery. Black Hawk Down does an astounding job of allowing our sheltered lives to witness the heroics of a band of individuals who were lucky enough to live or unfortunate enough to die.

It was supposed to be a quick mission, one that would be over in close to thirty minutes. When they entered the city and the gunfire became to great, things fell apart. A Black Hawk helicopter was shot down. In the efforts to reach and then protect the crashed pilots, a melee ensued that the United States hadn't seen since 1968. It was the most extended firefight in 25 years. Many were killed, dozens more were injured, and everybody who took part in the Battle of Mogadishu wouldn't forget it. How could they? It was essentially a small unit of American soldiers versus a large chunk of Mogadishu's population, all armed with a wide variety of machineguns, pistols, and rocket launchers. The only thing the soldiers had was sheer desperation.

Ridley Scott's directorial showcase magnificently conveys their feelings of isolation amongst the remains of buildings sprinkled amongst the streets of the Somalian capital. It's a gloriously shot film, one that puts you in the ground battle and whirls you amongst the enemy and into the clouds of helicopters. Ridley Scott is truly a visual auteur and the look of Black Hawk Down is one of his finest achievements. He's able to captured fine performances from his whole cast, including an unexpectedly good Josh Hartnett. Not many of the actors are given much to work with, given the film's obvious emphasis on the battle scenes, but they're far from plastic characters.

Black Hawk Down is a fantastic achievement, a film of great power and incredible immediacy. Finding the links to today's world outlook isn't difficult, just look at the headlines of any newspaper. If you're able to put the two together, one's feelings for Black Hawk Down only rise. Already one of the best war films ever made, with its timeliness it becomes nothing less than unforgettable.

On a scale of 1 to 10 martyrs : 9