'Black Hawk Down'

By Esther Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic

Hollywood has honed war to a science. War, that is, of the American variety. Past generations were weaned on black-and-white images of actors like John Wayne as brave, courageous and somewhat sanitized soldiers, even in battle. Of course John Wayne and crew were fighting The Good War, World War II, when no one had any doubt about the need to defeat Nazi Germany and halt fascism in its tracks. More than 50 years later, that war provided the setting for Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," which ratcheted up the intensity of cinematic combat with its on-the-ground, shaky and chaotic lens, piercing audio and unsparing, close-up carnage.

"Black Hawk Down," the second war film to be released since the September 11 attacks on the United States, owes a lot of its blood-letting intensity and sense of moral certainty to "Saving Private Ryan." With moments of slow motion and an almost balletic choreography of flying Black Hawk helicopters, director Ridley Scott also evokes moments of boding in "Apocalypse Now." Conversely, however, when it comes to mowing down hundreds of faceless Somali militia, Scott turns to the art of the video game.

While 19 American serviceman died in the 1993 raid in Mogadishu to capture that country's most powerful warlord, between 1000 and 10,000 Somalis lost their lives. With lots of text explanation at the start, this film builds the case that these Somalis were responsible for the continuing starvation in their East African country, which had already resulted in 300,000 deaths. The American, United Nations and international aid presence was designed to end the cycle of civil war and starvation. There is no time given to explain why many Somalis would hate the United States and consider this country as a contributor to its problems, rather than a savior.

Black folks, "the skinnies" as the soldiers call them, are the bad guys here and they are killed with both a ferocity and detachment typical of fight maneuvers on Nintendo, PlayStation or X-Box. Can "Black Hawk Down," the game, be far behind? The scene of one blue-shirted, not obviously armed, Somali being shot dead as he crossed a war zone evoked a burst of laughter at the promotional screening I attended in Washington, D.C. And in a pivotal moment, the only Black woman shown killed is shot by the only Black soldier featured in the film.

While Somalis are largely faceless, stars of this film fare only marginally better. Ken Nolan's screenplay does only a cursory job in the crucial beginning scenes to build a sense of the soldiers, including the staff sergeant played by Josh Hartnett, as believable. The idea, it seems, is the get to the main character, the combat, as soon as possible. In the heat of war, the soldiers bloom into shells of the World War II heroes this country has come to know and love.

As Somalia has been mentioned as the next possible target in the United States' "war on terrorism," "Black Hawk Down" is a powerful reminder that film and fiction are powerful companions, and that Hollywood's version of war, however, convincing, is not the same as the real thing.

Esther Iverem's film reviews also appear on the entertainment pages of BET.com

-- January 28, 2002

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