Black Hawk Down: "Two Thumbs Up"
As I mentioned in a post earlier today, last night I saw a preview of Black Hawk Down, courtesy of my business buddy, Robert Gold.
This masterpiece is a stunning descent into the darkness and chaos of urban warfare. Any political moralizing that may be apparent is drowned out by the deafening sights and sounds of discharging mini-guns, exploding RPGs, cascading bullet casings and spurting blood. Produced with full co-operation from the Pentagon, it's another Holywood tour de force -- even if a bit short on character development.
[READER CAUTION: Some detailed scene descriptions follow, skip if you want to see the film without prior impression]
First impressions were slow to form. The film opened with haunting images of the Somalia countryside and people. Actually, that's Morocco where the film was shot, since Somalia remains a lawless country (soon to welcome U.S. forces for some terrorist payback? So today's speculation goes). A subsequent scene involves a mess hall at a field base, and some banter among the young troops. Army grunts making fun of the Rangers; testosterone fuelled jokes, whatever. And a raggedly dressed Delta Force member who waltzes in with a locked 'n loaded, safety-off M-16 rifle slung over his chest. " This trigger finger is the safety", he comments menacingly to an officer who questions his weapon-handling discipline.
That's about as far as character development goes in this movie. I didn't really get a sense of who these guys were, other than that they were nice clean-cut white guys looking for adventure -- like an old John Wayne war film.
The descent into hell begins with mission planning. It was to be a snatch and grab raid into hostile neighborhoods of Mogadishu ("Mog" is how they called it), the capital of Somalia, held for the most part by warlords and rebels. But apparently the United Nations and Washington (the wimpy Clinton administration) are shy to show excessive force, so the Bradley APCs and assorted armored carriers remain at base. Just send the boys into the warzone with Humvees -- nice thin steel walls, windows on all sides. Oh -- and a few spotter helicopters and four Blackhawk choppers.
So off they go, in beautifully cinemagraphed flight scenes reminiscent of Apocalypse Now, minus the Wagner. There is something so cool in seeing a flightline of helicopters with troops hanging off the landing skids and doors. The airborne armada swoops over the colorful ocean, and the troops overhead eyeball some nice beach-breaking waves -- again, Apocalypse Now flashes to mind.
The swoop into the target neighborhood was extremely cool (and dramatically photographed). Very precise landing. Guys repelling off ropes dangling in the air. All goes to plan. The big-shot general back at base HQ is pleased. The troops sweep through the building, blow down doors, and achieve their target, to capture some dangerous Somali deputy warlord dudes. Then all hell breaks loose.
The swarming Somalis in the streets carry, naturally, Kalishnikovs and RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades). One of them takes a bead on a Blackhawk -- and misses. The chopper pilot swings to avoid the volley. But the next one takes out the tail rotor. There is nothing more pathetic than to see a powerful chopper spiral out of control after losing tail rotor control. The craft crashes into a rubble-strewn crossroads (again, excellent visuals) and silence surrounds both the immediate neighborhood where the crash occured, as well as in mission HQ where the general takes a hard swallow and shows a hint of panic in his deep-set eyes.
The convoy of Humvees is frantically commanded to depart the raided building and pick up survivors from the chopper crash. That means navigating chaotic streets and dealing with swarms of locals who are descending upon the downed helicopter. The shooting is real, it's a very hot landing zone by the time support troops arrive. The good guys get picked off, cut up and horribly wounded (a severed femoral artery being triaged is the most graphic sequence) in several dramatic battle scenes.
The street battle sequences are the most realistic I have ever seen, rivalling the D-Day beach landings in Saving Private Ryan. It's hard to control a machine gun on full automatic (it jumps around, pulls and draws in your grip), and both the Somalis and the US troops waste a ton of ammo, missing the mark quite frequently. Unlike some old war movies, there are no endless ammo belts, no endless rifle clips in this film. Lots of re-loads, lots of tossing of spent banana clips from M-16s. Very realistic.
So as an action movie, you can't miss. This is a two-thumbs up effort. But it's not an Oscar® contender in my view, because it lacks deep character development and emotive connection with the viewer.
10:51:15 PM 
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