..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
Black Hawk Down
Directed by Ridley ScottThe 2001 Ridley Scott feature, Black Hawk Down, which runs 144 minutes, plays almost like the last 10 minutes of The Wild Bunch, from beginning to end. In some ways it is an ultimate expression of where violence in movies has been headed, to a constant, relentless cavalcade of slaughter and destruction. The action is justified by a coherent narrative, based upon real events, about a 1993 American military mission that was staged in support of humanitarian aid in Mogadishu, the capital of the East African country of Somalia. An American helicopter was shot down in the middle of the city and attempts to rescue its occupants led to a day-long fight against anarchical combatants-one of the filmmakers describes Mogadishu as a city where everything that a gun can accomplish has been accomplished. The film pulls at your emotions and loyalties the way war does, leaving irritated with the commanders who don't foresee the consequences of their decisions but admiration for the soldiers who are trying their very best to fulfill their orders and watch out for their buddies. There are ebbs and flows in the action, but where a war movie in the past would have a brief battle, a long interlude of drama and reflection, and then another brief battle, here the proportions are reversed. Although there are video games that have preempted the film's volume and constancy of violence, from the cheapest exploitation features to the grandest epics, there has never been a motion picture that succeeds the way Black Hawk Down does in delivering such a marathon of intense mayhem, let alone justifying it dramatically.
In 2002, Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released a regular DVD (06766, $28) with no extra features except a 24-minute production documentary, but these days, every major studio film, at least the ones that didn't bomb at the boxoffice, comes out on DVD as a special edition of some sort, often with extra platters. Sometimes, the extras don't amount to much, but other times the DVDs are worthwhile elaborations upon a film's content and creation. There are a lot of them out there, and more get released each month, but even in this context, Columbia TriStar's new 3-Disc Deluxe Edition of Black Hawk Down (09288, $40) is exceptionally good.
The picture and sound quality are identical on the two releases. The image is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The image is crisp and flawless, delivering the complex washes and obscured nighttime images with exceptional clarity and precision. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound is more disappointing, unable to transcribe the full impact of the Oscar-winning audio mix. While the left-right separations are outstanding, the front channels use up all of the allotted bandwidth and the rear channels rarely make any impression at all. The battle stays with the images and never really surrounds you. There are alternate French and Spanish audio tracks in 5.1 Dolby, optional English, French, Spanish and Thai subtitles, and cast filmographies-along with its many other fine qualities, the movie is turning out to have one of those watershed casts that come along once or twice in a generation of movies, like American Graffiti. Not only have the top-billed Josh Hartnett and Ewan McGregor become better known since the film first came out, but Eric Bana has a big part, Orlando Bloom has a significant role, and who knows what other cast members will end up being the stars of next summer's blockbusters, or the summer after that.
Some films are better suited for special edition DVDs than others. Does anybody really care how they made Two Weeks Notice? No-even the stars on the commentary track have little to say about script development or camera angles. Black Hawk Down, on the other hand, is based upon a real historical event and was a massive, complex production that is amazing not only for the logistical effort that went into staging it, but even for the brilliance with which the film managed to organize a coherent narrative out of a nightmarishly chaotic incident. Hence, the DVD deconstructs the film's creation and enhances its narrative context, but it performs a third service as well. As much as the film is a testament to the American soldiers who died during the incident, the DVD is a more complete, permanent and accessible memorial to those soldiers, and it is worthy of that role.
The film appears on the first platter of the Deluxe Edition, and it is accompanied by three superb commentary tracks. One track features Scott intercut with reflections by producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Both have delivered very fine commentary tracks in the past, and their effort here is no exception. Scott describes his background in multiple-camera live television and how he felt relatively comfortable staging the complex fighting sequences. He supplies his interpretation of the film's historical background, talks about working in Morocco and the various locations he used, describes the military basis for actions depicted on the screen, and supplies a great many insights about the filmmaking process and the movie at hand, justifying, among other things, the film's avoidance of standard action film narrative contrivances. Bruckheimer describes his efforts as a producer to secure the cooperation of both the American and the Moroccan governments, and the bureaucratic problems he encountered along the way. He also gives his history of the project and its background, talks about the various individuals he worked with and discusses other challenges the project presented for him.
On the second track, the author of the book upon which the film was based, Mark Bowden, and the screenwriter, Ken Nolan, discuss their involvement in the film, analyze its artistry and detail its relationship to what really happened. Nolan was extensively involved with the production on a daily basis and has many anecdotes about the shoot. They also talk about the nature of war. "These are the lessons that soldiers learn about battle-that death is random. That you can be the best soldier in the world and you're going to get killed and you can be the worst soldier and you'll survive. It's just a really ghastly lottery, you know combat is, and its something any sensible person would never want to experience.
"One of the most terrifying aspects of this battle is the three hundred and sixty degree nature of the battlefield. Traditional battlefields, the enemy is in one place and you're in another, and you have at least a safe spot to your rear. You know that if you focus in a certain direction that you don't have to worry about something coming up behind you, but these solders were fighting in the middle of the city and people were shooting at them from all directions. It just had to be so terrifying not to know where to go to be safe."
On the third track, three of the officers and a sergeant involved in the original incident good naturedly point out the differences between the movie's depiction of the event and what actually happened, using the movie, really, to illustrate how the American armed forces go about their business and how they respond to unexpected occurrences. Despite the level of minute detail the commentators occasionally descend to, it is a good, informative talk that gives you a decent picture of military operations and supplies an excellent, fathomable link between the necessary fictions of the film and reality.
The first two commentaries and one individual's commentary on the third track have default Spanish subtitling, but the option can be suppressed by returning to the subtitling option menu after selecting the desired commentary track.
The second platter contains a conglomeration of production featurettes that runs a total of 166 minutes. There is an introductory piece that looks at how Bowden and then Bruckheimer became involved in the project and what they wanted to accomplish; a look at the elaborate preparations the actors went through, each group visiting the training grounds of their respective units and undergoing an abridged version of that training (though nothing about the Moroccan actors playing Somalian fighters-we suppose it was assumed that the training of their characters would have been haphazard); a terrific look at Hans Zimmer working on the musical score, sort of without a net; a look at the elaborate production design that went on to replicate Somalia in Morocco; a decent explanation of how digital effects were employed (to accentuate the danger the characters were in); and reflections on the film's accomplishments. There is also a 7-minute look at the storyboards with a cogent analysis of their purpose by storyboard artist Sylvain Despretz; a 7-minute look at Scott's supplemental storyboards with another good Despretz commentary; a 6-minute look at Bruckheimer's well composed snapshots from the set with a Bruckheimer commentary; a 3-minute look at the design of the opening title sequence; a good still frame collection of production designs; and another good still frame collection of production photos.
The second platter also holds a 20-minute collection of deleted and alternate scenes. The collection does precisely what a good collection of removed footage ought to do-it makes an excellent epilog to the film without leaving the impression that it should have been included in the actual drama. Most of the material comes from the end of the movie, where the conclusion ultimately had to have a rapid pace to conform to the rest of the film. There is also character development from the movie's beginning and some interesting battle sequences, including a friendly fire incident. Scott also provides a commentary for this segment, not only explaining why the sequences were removed, but ruminating upon their original conception and inspiration. He had one day to shoot the final sequence, he explains, so he just shot everything that was going on as if he were filming a documentary, and figured he would worry about how it would come together once he got to the editing room.
The third platter contains two excellent documentaries about the incident itself, a 92-minute History Channel program from 2002 and a 55-minute PBS Frontline episode from 2001. Both programs look at the background of the incident and then describe the details of its unfolding and resolution. Since different participants are interviewed in each program and different approaches are utilized to illustrate various events, both shows are rewarding even though some of the material in them naturally overlaps.
It is worth pointing out that every attempt to provide historical background for the film on the DVD, in both the documentaries and the commentaries, begins with, "Somalia was in the middle of a civil war," and does not analyze the sorrowful history of colonialism and the subsequent game of international checkers played by America and the Soviet Union with Somalia and Ethiopia that preceded that 'civil war.' Nevertheless, from that point forward, the depth of the DVD's coverage is highly satisfying, detailing the background of the relief efforts that were instigated to offset the horrible famine the civil war had created, and the various incidents and shifts in policy that led to the ill-fated mission (one that the military commentators on the DVD insist was a complete success except for the casualties). It is also made clear on the DVD that America's subsequent, hasty withdrawal from Somalia, after the incident, could well have helped to define the strategies that instigators such as Osama bin Laden subsequently employed to harass American interests.
Also featured on the third platter are 33 minutes of questions and answers with the filmmakers following screenings of the film at several different venues, and suffice to say that despite all the DVD's other extra features, the segments are not redundant. A key, 6-minute sequence from the film is presented from the six different camera angles that were used to shoot it, with an option offering each angle or all six at once and with an explanation of the staging by assistant director Terry Needham. Even the minor extras on the DVD are outstanding-there is another segment on the third platter, in still frame, that shows you the different poster concepts that were developed to market the film, and they go on and on, each one distinctive in its own way, so that you imagine yourself in the shoes of Scott and Bruckheimer, trying to decide which design best conveys the essence of the film.
August 6, 2003
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