Evaluating the film “Black Hawk Down” and its Portrayal of Humanitarianism in Hollywood Films set in Africa
Black Hawk Down is based on the near disastrous battle in Mogadishu that took place in Somalia in October 1993. The movie specifically focuses on a group of US soldiers who go into Somalia as part of a U.N. Peacekeeping operation. The overall mission was for troops to capture leaders and the Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Aidid and his militia took Red Cross food shipments and pressured groups of people to cooperate leading to widespread famine, hunger and poverty throughout Somalia. As the US enters in to perform their ‘humanitarian’ acts, the mission goes quickly wrong as the Aidid declare war on western troops. As a Hollywood produced film, Black Hawk Down helps to portray an image of “Cowboy Humanitarianism.” In films involving Africa, Hollywood constructs an image that Western civilizations are humanitarians that simply want to provide charitable acts to the ‘uncivilized’ Africa. Films like Black Hawk Down, present an overall message that when Africans are in power, there is nothing but terror, violence and pain. But with the good deeds and humanitarian acts of Western intervene, order and peace is restored.
Films often portray vivid images of the negative things happening in Africa but blur the image of the west and how it may have contributed to the situations occurring. According to the book Hollywood’s Africa after 1994 (2012), “in the humanitarian interventionist’s rendering of the plot of rescue, ‘the international community is absent from the scene of suffering until it intervenes as heroic savior” (pg. 75). This idea can be seen during the first scene of the film. The scene begins with one of the Black helicopters flying above Mogadishu, as citizens are receiving food and materials from the UN and other outside resources. As the materials are being dropped down from the relief trucks, people begin to push and fight. Moments later, shots are fired and kills many of the unarmed civilians. A man then gets on a microphone and says, “This food is
Films often portray vivid images of the negative things happening in Africa but blur the image of the west and how it may have contributed to the situations occurring. According to the book Hollywood’s Africa after 1994 (2012), “in the humanitarian interventionist’s rendering of the plot of rescue, ‘the international community is absent from the scene of suffering until it intervenes as heroic savior” (pg. 75). This idea can be seen during the first scene of the film. The scene begins with one of the Black helicopters flying above Mogadishu, as citizens are receiving food and materials from the UN and other outside resources. As the materials are being dropped down from the relief trucks, people begin to push and fight. Moments later, shots are fired and kills many of the unarmed civilians. A man then gets on a microphone and says, “This food is