The specific events
of October 3, 1993 will live longer in the human psyche than the more
vague recollections of that nasty little east-African engagement in which
Australia was an early participant.
Western involvement wasn't terribly well covered
at the time, and was quickly forgotten by both the world's media and the
world after the withdrawal of Western interests - an interest that, in
the end, changed little in the ancient feudal nation that is Somalia.
Thanks initially to the newsworthiness of American
casualties, followed inevitably by the book and now the movie, we will
never forget when two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in
Mogadishu.
Nor should we.
Black Hawk Down, the movie, is harrowing - make
no mistake about it.
Think back to Saving Private Ryan. There, our
senses and sensibilities were assaulted in half-hour blocks, interspersed
by brief respites of tear-jerking Hollywood fiction.
In Black Hawk Down, however, (and get this straight
in your head before you decide to see it) there is no let-up.
In the first twenty minutes of this 2hr-20min
epic, we meet the soldiers who will take us with them through America's
single biggest firefight since Vietnam. Not heroes, just regular soldiers,
doing as soldiers do in any war zone - playing cards, writing letters,
horsing around and, above all, fighting boredom.
Twenty minutes later we are in the air on what
seems like a reasonably straight-forward, well-equipped, well-planned
mission to capture and retrieve two targeted bad guys.
And then it's on. Full on.
For the next two hours, without a hint of Hollywood
schmaltz, you will be transported into the thick of the action - action
which (in real time took 18 hours) ends with 18 American KIA, 73 WIA and
more than 1000 Somalis dead.
Black Hawk Down opens in cinemas across Australia
on February 21 but I had the privilege of seeing it early and in the company
of a dozen colleagues, thanks to Heather Millard from Hoyts. Thanks also
to the distributer, Columbia Tristar Picture for 60 double passes they
gave me for competition give-away (Army Newspaper only).
That motley dozen comprised a good cross-section
of gender, age and occupation. And, I have to say, reactions and ratings
of the experience were equally diverse.
"Brilliant. I'll have to see it again" versus
"Oh God, I feel sick."
"This will be the movie that replaces Platoon
in the lines," versus "You wouldn't take a girlfriend on a date to see
this - unless you wanted to get rid of her."
But how does the Big Irish Git rate this movie?
Let me put it this way -- if movies are supposed
to be entertaining then BHD is entertaining in a disturbing, mind-altering
kind of way.
If movies are supposed to make you feel good and
satisfied at the end - fail.
But, as a story of an event, told without all
the Hollywood trappings, this is the best ever.
It tells, after all, a story of a real event,
with real soldiers and real death.
Check out the official Black
Hawk Down web site
|
