NOTE: Published in The Kansas City Kansan newspaper, January 18, 2002. At the screening a month earlier, several heroic veterans of the battle were in the audience. We critics got to meet them following the viewing. It was truly a privilege. 

By Steve Crum

Based on the actual 1993 Battle of Somalia in Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down stars Pearl Harbor’s Josh Hartnett, as well as Ewan McGregor and Tom Sizemore. This is a movie that when your friends ask, “Who’s in it?”, you answer, “There are no big stars here, but this is a big movie.”

Superbly directed by Ridley Scott, the film serves as a historical document of tragedy that occurred when U. S. Forces were sent to the region to aid the United Nations in the distribution of food and supplies to literally starving Somalis. Over 300,000 had already starved to death due to local warlords hoarding the food to assume control of the city. 

As one Black Hawk helicopter is shot down over the heart of the city—and soon followed by another, the Americans are drawn into an unplanned battle, virtually with the entire city.  

The storyline is segmented, focusing on many strings of happenings: a ranger falls from a copter, and is rescued under fire; a soldier has to reach barehanded into another’s insides to pinch off an artery—and there is no morphine available to cut the pain. A grunt is deafened when a buddy fires too close to his ear. A soldier picks up a fellow soldier’s severed hand, and dutifully stuffs it into his belt pack. 

Ridley Scott’s excited camera juts to a rocket screaming toward two soldiers who crouch near a doorway. And the air is full of battle pollution, looking like volcanic ash, looking like the air images of New York City and the Twin Towers hell.

All the while, the cool-under-fire strategists, safely back at base camp, relay straight-on orders through ground leaders’ high tech head sets. 

Black Hawk Down jerks you around, slaps the side of your head, and kicks your butt back up to keep moving on. It is as close to interactive as any movie…ever. 

GRADE on an A-F Scale: A