Movie 666

There is a scene in Black Hawk Down - Ridley Scott’s cinematic rendering of the bloody 1993 street battle that took place between elite U.S. solidiers and Somalia street fighters and militia - where inexperienced yet capable Sergeant Eversman is given some philosophical advice from Sergeant Sanderson, a battle-seasoned warrior from the Delta Force elite division. They have their brief conversation amidst the bloody, smoking carnage resulting from several hours of violent street warfare. Sanderson tells Eversmann that while on the battlefield, there is no room for questions about why they are fighting and that he should focus on the fight at hand. You’ll have plenty of time to ask yourself ‘why’ later,” he tells him.

Rockin’ and rollin’ for democracy: Black Hawk Down

This theme of “just focus on the fight” was apparently on the minds of the makers of Black Hawk Down as well, for director Scott has all but dispensed with cultural and historical background to focus on the spectacle and drama of combat. Although the film starts with subtitled info that sets the stage for the United States’ presence in Somalia, these overtures are quickly lost in a rock opera of bullets and rocket propelled grenades.

In fact, it seems almost irresponsible in lieu of the large number of casualties - 18 Americans dead and over 1,000 Somalis killed in less than 24 hours - that Scott takes such delight in crafting exciting, beautiful, terrifying images instead of presenting us with something more substantial to chew on. Instead of explanation, we get ghostly shootouts rendered via night vision, helicopter gunships firing hundreds of rounds per second, and soldiers diving in slow motion to avoid rocket propelled grenades. The virtuoso photography is complimented with a sound track composed of hard rock, curry-flavored hip hop, and good old fashioned Hollywood war score.

Black Hawk Down the movie is based on Black Hawk Down the book, a 1999 nonfiction account of the incident that describes the battle in such detail that military schools regularly contract author Mark Bowden to explain his findings to future warriors. Bowden’s book is about battle, first and foremost, not philosophy - nonetheless, the author gives us more than just the tinkling of bullets and screams of wounded men. Bowden gives us historical perspective as well as that great rarity in Hollywood war movies: a deepened portrait of the enemy. In Black Hawk Down, he describes not only the complicated arena of clan-based civil war that awaited American troops in Somalia, but the abject poverty of the country. Somalia, Bowden writes, is a land where one family member must always remain at home with a weapon to protect whatever meager property that family owns, and where violence is one of the few professions available.

In the movie, Americans do not fight against human beings, but instead battle “the skinnies” - faceless, black-skinned maniacs with dark sunglasses and yellowed smiles. Despite its exceptional production values, compelling regional iconography, and high profile director, this movie is at heart not much more than classic war movie exploitation, with mobs of screaming, nameless enemies getting gunned down by good looking kids from Texas who still call their parents “ma” and “pa”. It is an updated, Americanized version of Zulu, and about as culturally enlightening as that movie - which means, not very. Like its somewhat racist predecessor, insight into colonialism (or in this case, nation building) takes a back seat to the drama of close quarters combat.

Black Hawk Down shows great sympathy for the Americans who are killed, wounded, and otherwise humiliated in the street fight. The film concludes with a handful of soldiers limping through the streets of Mogadishu, surrounded by taunting children. The irony, of course, is that these children are the ones the American troops are ostensibly trying to help by removing dictator Mohamed Farrah Aidid from power. Absent from the movie, however, is any meaningful discussion about who Aidid is and what the U.S. hopes to accomplish by unseating him, not to mention any sense of the complex civil war wracking the country. Basically, we are informed that Aidid is the guy to root against and then we get busy with the fight itself.

Abstracting the situation in Somalia into an “us” against “them” scenario and then showing the ensuing shootout makes for an effective action movie, but irresponsible history. We are given the statistics that 18 Americans were killed to over 1,000 Somalis. The Americans are given a face in the film and documented by name in the credits, while the Somalis are for the most part faceless, anonymous and lumped together by the disturbingly large and rounded 1,000 number. Bowden’s book states that many of the casualties were women, children, and spectators who found themselves in the line of fire. Scott eschews showing much of the “collateral damage” which might detract from the heroism of American troops and compromise the crisp polarities of good and evil that are the norm in action movies.

Ultimately, Black Hawk Down exemplifies America’s nationalistic sense of worth that values American life over foreign life to a degree almost beyond comprehension - a Gulf War mentality that grieves for American lives but thinks little of massive foreign casualties. Was the true tragedy that day that 18 U.S. soldiers died? Or was the true tragedy that day that 18 U.S. soldiers died, countless Somalis died, and an already ravaged country was plunged even deeper into anarchy following the U.S. withdrawal? Black Hawk Down, with its focus on the fight, seems to choose the former.

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1. Black Hawk Down at the Multiplex
2. The Rules of Fight Club
3. Body of Lies
4. Day of the Dead Wastes No Time Wasting Zombies
5. Outlining Hegemony While Bowling For Columbine

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