Black Hawk Down
Black Hawk Down on DVD |
On 3 October 1993, 123 Army Rangers and
Delta Force commandos participated in a strategic raid deep into the city of Mogadishu,
Somalia with the intention of extracting two chief advisors to renegade warlord Mohamed
Farrah Aideed, who had been stealing humanitarian supplies earmarked for famine-starved
tribesmen.
The fact that they actually succeeded in this mission has
been almost completely overlooked in retrospect -- primarily because the tightly
orchestrated mission unraveled even before all the participants landed on the city's turf.
(In Mark Bowden's compelling book, which was the source for the film, that pivotal point
was when an inexperienced Ranger neglected to fasten his rappelling gear to the rope
exiting his transport -- he fell 90 feet, breaking his back; the film has him falling when
the helicopter initiates a defensive maneuver, shaking him off the evacuation platform.)
As a result, Chalk Four (the injured Ranger's squad) was on
the defensive before the mission even started. But this loss of momentum, as catastrophic
as it proved to be, was not the worst stroke of misfortune the Rangers encountered. They
discovered that the city, filled with armed men, survivors of a series of civil wars,
viewed them as interlopers. With a variety of weapons ranging from rocks to grenade
launchers -- not to mention a spectacular disregard for self-preservation -- the people of
the city swarmed to the defense of Aideed.
In the 24 hours that the mission lasted, over 1000 Somalis
were killed (and countless others wounded), two helicopters were brought down, 18
Americans were killed, and 73 others were injured.
Ridley Scott has done something in Black Hawk Down
that I would have believed impossible: He has made a realistic story about combat --
telling a confusing story clearly, and showing us acts of unbelievable bravery from all
sides without editorializing or sugarcoating battle's brutality. As the beleaguered
Americans fight their way, block-to-block, to safety, their sense of mission changes from
dreams of victory to the simple task of leaving no one behind.
Black Hawk Down isn't like the old WWII movies where
everyone was a "type" -- it's the story of professional soldiers who form an
efficient team, made up of individuals and motivated by their group pride.
In one of the most incredible scenes of the film (but one
deeply factual in its depiction), Delta Force commandos Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and
Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart volunteer to defend the wounded pilot of a downed
helicopter, knowing the mission is suicide. They had trained their entire careers for
moments like this; not to go would have been unthinkable.
The quality of the acting is remarkable. Josh Hartnett,
Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, and Sam Shepard are just the tip of the iceberg -- and, under
the Equity rule that no war movie can be made without featuring Tom Sizemore, he not only
appears, but manages to stand out once more as one of the best things about the film.
Scott tells the story with economy and precision -- there
is almost no back-story here. The soldiers don't really know why they are there, or care.
And there's no need to explain why the Somalis rose up against the hapless GIs, either.
They were defending their own. If UN forces came to Brooklyn to take John Gotti away for
trial, I'd probably do the same.
Scott has Major General William Garrison (Shepard)
following the action from satellite imaging miles away -- a move that helps the audience
keep track of the confused situation within Mogadishu. This is straight out of a Tom
Clancy novel and could have ruined the gritty realism of the film. However, it's handled
so matter of factly, it changes nothing -- the
battle is still a dirty, confusing, insane situation and the foot soldiers are still out
there on their own in the middle of all the madness.
What Black Hawk Down does so admirably is show the
synesthesia of combat. Time loses its meaning. Sights lose meaning. There's so much noise,
you hear nothing. And the colors just fade as the light dies and the shadows lengthen. The
only thing you can count on is the man beside you.
It's a pity that, in a movie that illustrates that lesson
so perfectly, Bana's Sgt. Hoot Hooten actually comes out and says it. I guess Scott, whose
ear otherwise never let him down, was worried that we audiences wouldn't get it.
The DVD is remarkable. The picture is frequently washed out
or full of deep shadow, but those were artistic choices, not failures of the film to
capture color -- after a lifetime of war, I'm not sure Mogadishu is bursting with color,
anyway. The picture is crisp and detailed. And fast moving -- the only slow motion
used here is at the film's end, depicting the fatigue of the troops as they approach
safety.
And the soundtrack is enveloping and deafening. For once,
here's a film filled with explosions and helicopters and small arms fire from all
quarters, where it all advances the plot. It seems almost silly to mention it, under the
circumstances, but Black Hawk Down is phenomenal demonstration material -- or it
would be if it weren't also so completely successful at depicting the horrors of combat
that it's a hard film to watch casually.
And that, of course, is precisely what makes it so great.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
|
