Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Homework Assignment - Due 21 April 2010 at 11 a.m.
Book chapter 17 reviews the film "Black Hawk Down" in a rather critical way and puts it into the broader War on Terror context. Here is a youtube link to see many relevant frames of the film (see the right column of the youtube page mentioned above for additional frames). Select one youtube clip and post a critical and original comment about 'how the film(or rather, the film frame you selected) portrays the war'. Your comment should be from 5 to 10 sentences maximum.
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Black Hawk Down - Part 7/16
ReplyDeleteThis scene in Black Hawk Down is one of many depicting Delta Force Commandos and Black Hawk Rangers engaged in explosive and bloody battle on the streets of Somalia. In the ten-minute clip, director Ridley Scott breaks our visual contact with the action only briefly to show the chaos and confusion also occurring within the upper echelons and disengaged troops receiving second hand accounts via radio. The filmmaker’s decision to “keep the camera rolling” (as if it were happening live, blow-for-blow) gives the viewer a feeling of inescapability. Many of the soldiers showed signs of duress early on in the conflict and sought opportunity to vacate their position. Those left behind were forced to deal with the ongoing violence – as well as we, the viewer. This “realistic” view of warfare is not meant to be enjoyable for the audience. Civilians subject themselves to films such as Black Hawk Down often in an attempt to relieve some sense of guilt by feeling able to “empathize” with those who serve and protect their country. “We understand what you have been through.” I believe those who have experienced war firsthand would tend to disagree.
Elizabeth Sobka
Victoria DeYoung:
ReplyDeleteBlack Hawk Down: All clips.
I watched the entire movie, and from beginning to end there is a constant form a pressure on the troops in the movie as well as the viewer watching it. That pressure being the cinematography the director had given to give viewers a feel for what war is actually like. During the film there were a few times where a Somalian or other individual mentions to a soldier that there is no reason for them to be in this war because it was a "way things were around there" and that they wouldnt change anything. The was the Somalian militia dominated and killed civilians because that was there way of living in that area and their form of "negotiation". The film is the gruesome truth of what soldiers must endure. Being left behind to find their own way alive. Holding on for the medivac that may or may not come. It has brought a new light on viewing war through media. There were many types of characters shown in this film that exist in the nature of war. For us as viewers this movie sheds a new form of sympathy to how we view war, although we don't understand completely because we lack the actual experience. In a sense it is as if us viewers watch movies such as this to get a taste of what the men overseas are doing. To understand why they really are there, and if they come home, what stories of trauma they are coming back with. It could relate to the war of today because it is if some people disagree for our reasonings of being overseas fighting a war that may be a civil dispute (although Black Hawk Down was seen more as a genocide). Overall my opinion stands as this movie being the depiction of what is really happening during all wars within the world.
Victoria DeYoung
After viewing the entire film all I can truly say is that the director portrayed the scenes to make them extremely suspenseful each in their own captivating way. From clip to clip the moments grow stronger the bond between viewer and actors continues to grow, thus making the film more true the nature of war and what the director is going for. Through the blood and gore nothing can quite be comparable to what is seen. This is not a horror or drama film is just about war. The clean-cut way war is to be viewed, unfiltered and untouched. Soldiers are not proclaimed heroes but rather each man looking out for the man next to him. How it turns out a hero is simply defined as a man who is idealized for the courage he puts forth and in this case on the battlefield. Where there is injustice there will always be war, it is inevitable.
ReplyDelete-Matt Borowick
I am biased against the film to begin with for--I confess--far less than academic reasons. When it came out, it was celebrated as a gripping, in-your-face answer to all of the watered-down and/or sensationalized war films of the previous decade. It was intended to do just what it's credited with: giving viewers a dose of "battlefield reality" and a deeper respect for the duties of the troops. As such, I was bitterly disappointed, because it looked to me like every other well-cut, flowing, big-budget WHEN COMPARED to the horrifying intimacy and realism of the 1999 novel it was adapted from. In the book, each character is given a long, long biography; we know where they went to school, what there backgrounds are, and then suddenly they are thrown into terrifying battles and some are lost, and the reader walks away feeling a true sense of loss and a true sense of respect. In that light, the film was a disappointment in addition to to being a box-office smash.
ReplyDeleteCallie Clark
The first couple of scenes seems to depict this was as many in the past few decades; as a war that should be intervened due to humanitarian crisis. The first few frames alone within just the first couple minutes into the movie, demonstrates a country that screams for help-the streets are filled with the dead including women and children, all bones of these corpses are visible insinuating hunger, men are getting shot trying to obtain food to feed themselves and their families, etc. These scenes seem to send the public various messages of responsibility as if to tell viewers that if they do not support war efforts, this continueing brutality will become their fault. Moreover, it originally seems to condemn American involvement as it portrays the UN of failing to intervene when unarmed innocent civilians are getting shot. Furthermore, it highlights the brutality of the situation thus, encouraging intervention when the general spits on the number of casualties, 300,000 people, and labels the this catastrophy a genocide.
ReplyDeleteSammy Rojas
Kasey O'Dea
ReplyDeleteThe first youtube clip of Black Hawk Down is extremely dreary. The music and the lighting are both depressing and eerie in a sense. The words that flash across the screen are very powerful and play off of human emotions.It creates a sense of unity among the men participating in the war. They are all united and working together to fight their cause. All the pictures and and words are focused on hitting human emotions. The combination of all the effects are what truly make this video as powerful as it is.
Part 6 of Black Hawk Down
ReplyDeleteBy: Matt Higgins
The first thing that I noticed is the lack of communication between soldiers (even if it is because of the technology). This is an example that when soldiers are in war they have to improvise. It seems to me that the soldiers who are given the role as leader are the ones who remain detached and emotionless when in war. I say that because when the one soldier gets shot in the neck, the other soldier took over the machine gune like it was nothing. I hear that's one thing the army teachers soldiers to do. Finally, I got the impression that the soldiers were inexperienced because they were on a mission that was only supposed to last a a few minutes, but when it took longer and people were starting to be killed the soldiers panicked a little bit.
I did not originally intend to watch as much of the film as I did, but the storyline and the action were so gripping that I could not stop watching. The action scenes were very realistic and very "in your face" kind of action. The characters all seemed real and did not fall to too many stereotypes. The scene where the soldier fell out of the helicopter particularly struck me because it showed that unexpected mistakes can happen all the time during times of chaos. Whenever a crisis happened, they all pulled together in unity and tried to make the best out of their situations. All the soldiers seemed to care more for their fellow soldiers than for their own personal safety.-Sarah Lewis
ReplyDeletePart 1 of Black Hawk Down:
ReplyDeleteI have never seen this movie nor did I know much about this conflict but the first part of the movie begins with a very somber tone. The coloring is very dark, and the people are only shown in shadowed form. The music is very slow, and presents a gloomy atmosphere. The first scene portrays dead and sickly bodies lying around the dessert. The background, as well as the captions, foreshadow that a very intense story is to come. The middle of the first part portrays chaos, as civilians are murdered, while American volunteers are providing them with aid and cannot do anything about the terror. When the Americans finally capture one of Mohamed Farrah Aidid's workers, the film becomes more suspenseful. The viewer learns that they have been trying to capture Aidid for 6 weeks and it is going to be a hard battle to fight. When the captive states that the war is "ours and not yours," it brings to mind the idea of the CNN effect that we've talked about in class-The United States getting involved in other countries' conflicts for humanitarian reasons because of the horrific images of the conflict depicted in the media.
-Ricki Maybruch
Parts 1-4 of Black Hawk Down
ReplyDeleteBy Lindsay O'Brien
Right off the bat, the tone is dark and heavy. This is very different from most war movies that tend to start off on a lighter note, providing background information on the characters. In Black Hawk Down, the viewer is immediately confronted with horrifying images of death and devastation. Plato's quote ("Only the dead have seen the end of war") warns the viewer that this will certainly not be a "feel good" movie, and sets the stage for the violence, chaos, and destruction to come. The viewers are also presented with the feelings of helplessness and guilt that the soldiers are faced with in regards to the genocide in Somalia. They witnessed the chaotic riots for food and the ruthless murders of civilians, but were unable to do anything to help. These scenes force viewers to think about their social responsibility, and question America's role in foreign conflicts.
Based on the parts of the movie I watched, Black Hawk Dawn seems different from most other war movies I have seen. It does not try to glorify war, nor does it condemn it. It tries to give us a more "real-life" look at and perspective of war. I think Plato's quote in the opening--"Only the dead have seen the end of war."--helps the audience know what they are about to see. It is a gritty and realistic portrayal of the war. The movie also seems to make the argument that although war causes despair and tragedy, it is inevitable and sometimes necessary.
ReplyDelete--Grace Swock
I watched all of Black Hawk Down and thought the way Ridley Scott portrayed the conflict was very interesting. He tried to give a realistic view of the war showing it how it actually happened. In many scenes he would just follow soldier and continue to follow them through extreme moments of duress. It showed how difficult the conflict was for the soldiers especially because there were so many enemy soldiers coming out of the woodworks. It was truly chaotic and unorganized. The soldiers had to adapt to the situation. It was a gritty portrayal of the conflict and was almost filmed as if the camera were following the soldiers so as to put the viewer in the combat.
ReplyDelete-Zach Sullivan-Pickett
Rebecca Winston
ReplyDeleteI watched clip 3/16 of Black Hawk Down. The clip started off with a bunch of soldiers hanging out and playing cards. This already set the mood for a very casual connotation. The soldiers, for the majority, took the war very lightly while only one admitted to being there because he believed he wanted to help out. Through the rest of the clip, there was one scene that displayed a commander talking to his soldiers about their next task. The rest of the video consisted of upbeat music, some basketball, and soldiers casually speaking to each other. Overall, I would say that this clip portrayed a very nonchalant attitude considering they were on foreign land in the middle of a war. A war where many people were killed and lives were changed forever.
I watched nearly half of the movie. The way that the movie was filmed was to try and portray the emotions and suffering by the soilders. The violence was pretty high in the movie as well to help depict the seriousness of the situation. It shows the horrors of modern war, in this case Somalia. The problem i noticed is that the culutre of Somalian people was not incorporated in the moive. Such as there was no Somali language and music or anything else for that matter. The movie is supposed to portay the situation in Somali and I think it does a good job showing the terrible aspects of war, but there certainly are little details that could have been fixed or at least focused on a little bit more.
ReplyDelete- Edina Kadunic
The first youtube clip of Black Hawk Down intends to portray the war's reality in Somalia and the US intervention on it. As a I have watched the whole movie, the episode is presented as a tragic event where the US was trying to fight a warlord-dominated, poverty-stricken country. This is especially seen between Mr. Garrison and Sr. Atto, where the former tells him "300,000 dead and counting. That's not civil war, Sr. Atto. Thats Genocide", a disagreement which was going to embodied itself in the firefight that led to downed US black hawks.
ReplyDeletePatricia Lopez C.