Ridley Scott
Black Hawk Down

Somalia, capital Mogadishu, October 1993. The civil war has now taken on the appearance of a humanitarian catastrophe, and the general and "warlord" Mohammed Farah Aidid is considered the cause of everything that is happening in the extremely underdeveloped African state. The UN decides to intervene, and with it the United States, which sends several units, including the "Delta Force" and the "Rangers". It's time to put an end to Aidid's despotic and military regime. The achievement of this goal is decided in a singular way: no massive military attack, but rather a planned action lasting about half an hour with a minimal deployment of forces. A well-conceived plan, designed to avoid frontal confrontation and quickly capture Aidid and his trusted political men. It is the course of events that turns the situation upside down.

There is a humanitarian and war backdrop in "Black Hawk Down", another of Scott's "experiments", an extraordinary adapter of genres, as well as a versatile filmmaker, capable like few others of rendering complex situations visually grandiose for many other directors. The film in question is no exception, and one can perceive the hard work that Scott has undertaken to bring to the big screen in the most realistic way possible, a tangled event, complex from multiple viewpoints. Therefore, credit is due to dear old Scott that the test of realism, combined with the difficult story to tell, has been passed admirably.

A slightly different discourse regarding the actual cinematic effectiveness: "Black Hawk Down" is, all things considered, a choral film, not made of individual actors, but rather of the simultaneous union of a whole series of characters often entirely devoid of any psychological depth. If it is true that part of the criticism has identified war as the real protagonist of the story, it is equally true that from a purely "filmic" magnifying glass, the feature film loses compactness and effectiveness in its wandering without points of reference. The feeling perceived is that in wanting to bring History to the forefront, Scott lost sight of the linearity of his creation.

"Black Hawk Down" is a grandiose film in the simplicity of its plot: a story of war and above all of men, insignificant pawns in games and situations bigger than themselves. With this film from 2001, Ridley Scott confirmed his undeniable ability to adapt to many different genres in a multifaceted way, also managing to put together a film with perfect visual impact. The "problem" of underlying superficiality, unfortunately, remains, partly due to the choice to focus over two hours of the film on an action movie that at times seems forced and probably out of place. But a slight flaw of this kind can be forgiven to the director who gave us "The Duellists", "Alien", and "Blade Runner".

2 Oscars 2002: Best Editing and Best Sound.