Black Hawk Down

Review by Clint Morris

Straddled with a bag of explosives, a bag of cash and producer Jerry Bruckheimer in the passenger seat, acclaimed director Ridley Scott drives straight into a fiery storm of terror and war in the true-story Black Hawk Down, which features a bevy of leading performers including Ewan McGregor and Josh Hartnett.

In Australia, Black Hawk Down is equally famous for being the first U.S. movie to cast local boy, Eric Bana. At the screening of the film I attended, Bana was there - so any injustices I had about the film - only one or two - were spat back into my beer glass for the time being.

And, as quick as I may be now to backwash the truth, let me applaud Bana for being one of the most compelling and interesting new actors of his generation, as evidenced in the plum role he has here.

Realistically brutal and thought-provokingly real at times, Scott's film is a recreation of a time in 1993 when for 15 hours, a band of US Troops fought a bloody battle against Somali Fighters on the streets of Mogadishu, seen through the eyes of a quarter-dozen innocents of war.

The country's top war lord, Mohammed Farid Adid, is starving his people and restricting them to a life of deadly loss and punishment. Major General William F. Garrison (Sam Shepard) has been hired to kidnap those most close to Adid and use them as bait against the adversary. On October 3, 1993, a raid was commenced to pluck the evil out of the Bakarta Market area. What sounds like a unremarkably straightforward gig instead turns into one of the scariest real-life situations these men will ever experience.

Although an ensemble, there are a few familiar faces out to sell the film. Josh Hartnett, fresh off Michael Bay's similarly themed Pearl Harbor, has the chunky role as the idealist, Ewan McGregor has a second-fiddle part as a former desk jockey turned gun-toter, Tom Sizemore - also fresh from Pearl Harbor - is a convoy driver, William Fichtner (The Perfect Storm) and our own Bana are splinter-sharp Delta Force specialists and Jason Isaacs (The Patriot) is the Captain of said Rangers. Yet whilst there are 40 or so speaking parts - one only counts about 20 words in the whole movie, with the chunk of the lines going to Bana.

To an extent, it's a showcase for Bana actually. He's cool, calm and looking the part. He's evidently comfortable in the part - if sometimes a little strong in the Southern American accent department. This won't be the role Bana will be remembered for, but it's a first-class stepping-stone.

If there is a standout player of the ensemble it's the underused Sam Shepard as Major Garrison. Unlike the majority of the characters, we sense his anguish and plight, especially in scenes near the finale where he glances first hand the terrible outcome of such a war. Ewan McGregor is the unripe berry on the bunch - the actor is obviously out of place in the role, and his scenes are so small, you forget he's even in it.

What's good about Black Hawk Down is its action. Predictably, Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott serve up the goods like a rampage on a firearms store. There's guns a blazing, trucks exploding, chopper's falling, smoking buildings, and loose body parts everywhere. Scott's direction is also pro in some respects - in particular, the race for their lives style sequences across the dusty, shadowy streets of the Somalia village is the next best thing to Full Metal Jacket.

While the lads will be lapping up the endless action sequences - commencing almost immediately after the opening credits - the more fickle of viewers will be searching for story and body. Although it's a true story, and the movie has already been written, it would have been nice to have got to know some of these characters more.

A half hour more at the start of the film, introducing these characters a little more and we might have had someone to root for. In its current form, we sometimes even forget who is who behind the helmets, let alone stopping to pray for their lives.

On the outset, Black Hawk Down is an entertaining and pulsating action thriller - but Tigerland or Apocalypse Now it isn't.

3.5 out of 5

Black Hawk Down
Australian release: Commences Thursday 21st February across Australia
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Ron Eldard, Thomas Guiry, Jeremy Piven, Jason Isaacs.
Director: Ridley Scott.
Website: Click here

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