Black Hawk Down (2001)

War Distilled to its Basic Essence

Black Hawk Down wastes no time in setting its scenario. Subtitles tell the story of how, in 1993, the United Nations sent food packets to famine-ravaged Somalia as part of a humanitarian world gesture. The shipments were intercepted and kept from the masses by a militant group lead by Mohamed Farah Aidid, who had gained control over much of the region as a result of the country's years of in-fighting. The United States then lead a military force in to the region to oust Aidid.

Once the scene is set, Black Hawk Down doesn't concern itself with the politics of the affair. Its goal is to zero in on one battle -- The Battle of Mogadishu. It took place after the U.S. had been experiencing embarassing setbacks in its attempts to capture Aidid. The U.S. then changed its strategy to focus on capturing Aidid's top lieutenants instead. On one such mission, American ground and air forces swooped in to Bakara, the marketplace of the city of Mogadishu. But all did not go as planned, and as a result 19 American soldiers and hundreds of Somalis, civilians and warriors, were killed, with many more on both sides injured.

By focusing on this one particular battle, the movie distills modern war to its most basic essence -- the experience of the soldier in a fight. One character summarizes the point quite clearly when he states that politics go out the window once the firing begins. After all the stances taken by governments, after all the planning and the strategy, it all comes down to soldiers. They follow orders and believe in the aims and goals of their missions, but when they are fighting all that matters to them is to get themselves out alive. Their lives as pawns in military strategy are expendable, yet their lives as people are a pity to waste.

Black Hawk Down, possibly unintentionally, draws attention to this particularly interesting paradox of modern war. For military effectiveness, armies must expect casualties and factor in the loss of men. Yet a major theme of this movie is the sentiment behind its tagline: "Leave no man behind." It is carried out beyond the point of rational military logic -- men's lives are risked to rescue downed comrades and even to retrieve the bodies of the fallen. From one point of view, seeing the loyalty in the men and the worth they place on the lives and honor of their teammates is heartening. From another point of view, losing more lives in the process of rescuing others, many of whom end up dying anyway, is extremely wasteful. This is a military weakness of the countries who stand by this code; contrast this with times of anceint war, when many soldiers felt it was their destiny to die on the battlefield, thus making their armies that much more fearsome. The perceived weakness is spotlighted in an interrogation scene, where a Somali warrior confronts a captured U.S. pilot and contemptuously says that Americans are afraid to die. Is the placment of high value on a human life ultimately a liability that ought to preclude the U.S. from getting involved in a war unless absolutely necessary? Black Hawk Down doesn't easily answer that question; it salutes the soldiers for not abandoning their mates while showing the dire consequences of sticking with that decision.

Intense, realistic battle sequences power this movie, magnifying the difficulty of the choice between valuing life and valuing war efficiency. This is a very stylish movie, with a pounding-beat soundtrack and washed-out, dusty cinematography -- not very original but effective as mood-setters nonetheless. It pulls no punches in its depiction of war, which features plenty of shooting, lots of bloodshed, and some extremely painful moments. It is noticeably one-sided since it chooses to show the conflict strictly from the American soldiers' viewpoint, in which the enemy is seen as a monstrous mass and the number of wounded and dead piling up on their own side is seen as distressing and alarming. The reason for this, of course, is to emphasize how the big picture becomes less relevant in the face of hordes swarming for the kill. However, I am not sure this is an overall wise choice, for although I see this as a strong way to depict a soldier's unfortunate mindset in battle -- an enemy is dehumanized (detrimental to one's humanity) while a comrade is extra-humanized (detrimental to one's military effectiveness) -- others may find fomenting within them the most dangerous form of patriotism, i.e. mindless patriotism. A few rather unsubtle moments that lend themselves naturally to American cheerleading (a trademark of many of producer Jerry Bruckheimer's movies) don't help.

For his part, director Ridley Scott, who has admitted that he views his latest work as an anti-war movie, does not glorify war in the least in Black Hawk Down. He sympathizes with the soldiers who found themselves in a panic situation and were not quite ready to deal with the sobering human fear and anger they felt, despite all their training. Ultimately, he commends them for getting their wits about them and showing strength in their resolve to escape. At the end of the film, one character says that no one signs up to be a hero, but sometimes situations force a soldier to become one. In other words, no one should be so unlucky.

Rating: 9/10

©Jeffrey Chen, Jan. 10, 2002

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