(reviewed at KOP with Annie on Monday, January 14th, 2002)
There has always been a stigma attached to any movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (and Don Simpson to some extent…although with Simpson along the duo seemed to produce better movies…go figure). All explosions and no heart. Or silly special f/x and no emotion. Or no script but plenty of car chases. You get the point. Bruckheimer is the king of popcorn. He produced Pearl Harbor last year, a popcorn action dud dressed up as an Oscar worthy drama, and he produced the cantankerous Con-Air and the over the top The Rock. But it seems that finally Jerry Bruckheimer has produced a serious film. Granted, a serious film with two hours of deafening gun fire, helicopter crashes, and shaved headed military men running towards sun splashed war torn buildings.
Black Hawk Down could possibly be the best Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film ever made. Why? Because while Black Hawk Down bombards the audience with explosions and gun fire and blood and guts and over the top militarism, there’s actually a point to all of it.
The film is based on an event that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. A war lord was keeping food from starving villagers and living like a, well…like a warlord. Clinton and the brass in the U.S. decided to do something about it. Well what happened was on CNN we got to see a white army guy being dragged through the streets by the Somalians. We failed the mission. And you would think that something so awry would never have gotten out, or at the very least, totally forgotten about thanks to the military. But no, Mark Bowden from the Philly Inquirer (yeah, I met him a year ago) brought back the story and published it in installments in the paper, then went on to publish a longer book version. And now, years later, Hollywood has Hollywood-ized it thanks to Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridney Scott. But the good thing is that what happened over in Africa in 1993 was a total fuck up…and the movie admits this. We fucked up. Even in such patriotic post-9/11 culture, a big, bad, blood soaked war movie can be number one at the box office that portrays a total and utter failure by the U.S. military. After Pearl Harbor, who knew Bruckheimer would reclaim his throne so swiftly?
Basically, the film features a two hour action sequence that takes place on the streets of Mogadishu. Some of the ‘big’ stars in the film include Ewan McGregor (who is horrible in this…I still can’t picture him in fatigues), Josh Hartnett, and Tom Sizemore (who we’ve all seen too much of). The military kids are young and dumb and most have never been in combat before. When the military sends a few black hawk choppers and jeeps filled with gun toting rangers towards the warlord’s point of location, things turn bad very fast. The best aspect of the film is the battle sequences. For at least two hours the action never lets up. We feel like we’re a part of it all. It’s confusing and chaotic and loud (thanks to THX…which does nothing but turn up the volume) and breath taking and realistic and wild. The battle scenes get so down and dirty that after awhile you want to throw your hands up and yell, “Kill the warlord and end it already!” But this is life, and there aren’t many happy endings in life.
The worst aspect of the film is the by the numbers script. Granted, this film barely has a script since the majority is guys running around and shooting (it feels oddly like a video game, since the Somalians aren’t really portrayed as characters…it’s a complete one-sided film, which is okay since the U.S. did make it). The dialogue in the film and the characterization is horrendous, though. There’s Ewan McGregor who makes coffee? Yeah, maybe it was true, but it’s ridiculous to even put into the film. It turns out that the only thing we learn about Ewan is that he likes coffee. Come on! That’s not a good character portrayal!
The characters are all shallow…they’re gun toting and firing and running around and trying to be heroes when it’s very hard to do so. The best scene is given away in the trailers, but it makes Ridley Scott look like a genius (and after Hannibal destroyed the book, I give him major kudos…even though Gladiator sucked). The soldiers are running the ‘Mogadishu Mile.’ They don’t have a car or a jeep or a tank. They’re alone with guns and are being fired at and want to be safe. They run through white smoke and see children dancing and see Somalians at the side of the road cheering for them. It’s a quiet moment in the white smoke while the solders run. It’s a great moment in a pretty good film. And yes, maybe the U.S. fucked up by ever going to Somalia…or maybe we were just trying to make a difference. This film doesn’t answer that question. And I’m glad. Jerry Bruckheimer may be the popcorn king, but it’s good to see him make a quality film finally. They don’t sugarcoat anything. This is the U.S. military. This is it. *** (out of ****)
