2 different faces of war

Film reviews: Black Hawk Down and Spy Game

The Brothers Scott – British directors Ridley Scott and Tony Scott – have long been in tune with what audiences like to see on the big screen. From Alien to Gladiator, Top Gun to Crimson Tide, these two former commercial directors have consistently delivered visually-striking films that reflect the times. It’s Ridley, though, who has gotten the lion’s share of Oscar attention: films like Gladiator and Thelma and Louise have racked up nominations and awards, though the director himself remains unhonored.

Tony Scott, on the other hand, is known for slick-looking, testosterone-driven thrillers (Beverly Hills Cop II, Days of Thunder, True Romance). There’s a distinctive, backlit gloss to his ’80s camerawork that set the pace for action films to come.

These days, both the Scott brothers seem to have war in mind, with Ridley’s Black Hawk Down currently playing in town, hot on the heels of Tony’s Spy Game. Considering the recent swift US military deployment in Afghanistan (and, incidentally, here, too), it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing a lot more Hollywood films about brave US troops coming down the pike. There are already plenty of WWII flicks on the way, thanks in part to the success of Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.

The problem with such films following 9-11 is that they can’t be too simplistic or too smug, yet they must portray US interests in the best possible light. Yes, the US troops are expected to win, but only after certain tests are met, and after crucial moral superiority lessons are laid down by the storyline. In Black Hawk Down, for instance, US troops awaiting their orders in Somalia are shown to be a bit too relaxed early in the film: you know their lack of vigilance is going to cost them later. What happens when a US mission to capture warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid goes spectacularly wrong is a textbook lesson in How Not To Be Too Complacent. Two US helicopters are shot down by Aidid’s rocket-wielding men in Mogadishu, and the rest of the film’s two hours concern the recovery of the fallen US troops.

Loosely based on actual events, Black Hawk Down deploys a mixed cast of grizzled veterans (Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore) and young mavericks (Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett), all eager to drive home the lesson that war is all about protecting your buddy in battle and not leaving anybody behind.

That this is hardly a fresh perspective on war is part of Black Hawk Down’s problem. During the chaos unfolding in Mogadishu’s streets, Ridley Scott does a fine job of establishing how things go wrong: the scenes of Aidid’s men firing rockets and emerging from rubble-strewn buildings are tense, scary and fast-paced. He is less successful, however, in showing how things go right. It takes forever for the Humvee convoy to "secure" the downed choppers and rescue the crash victims. Everywhere, confusion, doubt and bad directions make the soldiers’ mission seem next to impossible. In the wake of 9-11, this is probably a not-so-coded message about the need for resolve, cooperation and clear thinking to survive an enemy attack. However, very little actual "face time" is given to the enemy, with most Somalis depicted as rifle-toting riffraff, the exception being two of Aidid’s men who cynically maintain that the fighting will continue long after the US has left the country. And they’re right.

Unfortunately, the script doesn’t adequately develop most of the young characters, leaving you unclear about who’s saving who at times, and even who’s dead or dying. All that’s left for the youngish cast (many of them Brits) to do is mouth platitudes about "looking out for your buddy" and facing your fears ("It’s what you do right now that matters!" is the sum wisdom of Black Hawk Down). Honestly, a single episode of Band of Brothers packs more nuance and realism than this undeveloped script. Let’s just say, Gladiator it ain’t.

On the other side of the family tree, Tony Scott pulls off one of his more humane endeavors, casting Robert Redford and Brad Pitt in the CIA thriller, Spy Game. Redford is the older CIA mentor to trainee Brad Pitt, a former Boy Scout who always manages to entangle himself in sticky human relationships which threaten to jeopardize his mission. Redford is wry, funny and likeable as a wizened CIA vet ready to hang up his cloak and dagger (well, he does look well over 60), but lured back in to help out a friend. Told in flashbacks which establish the characters’ earlier missions in Berlin and Beirut through the ’70s and ’80s, Spy Game is daring enough to slow down and take its time telling the story. Not everything needs to be bam, rattle and boom in this Tony Scott flick, and the raconteur’s pace set up by Redford serves the story well. Gone, too, are the glossy slick surfaces of earlier Tony Scott movies: Spy Game is grainily filmed, full of grays and washed-out skies. Though the conclusion to Spy Game is ultimately a bit too neat, the script is complex enough to add layers of realism and ambiguity to its characters.

And, unlike Black Hawk Down, Tony Scott’s film takes an even bolder step in questioning the governments involved in such secret dealings – especially the US – rather than taking easy sides or delivering pat, simple messages about war. It’s a much more humane film, finally, than the boom-boom, rah-rah heroics of Black Hawk Down.