Observing the abject futility of war, Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" is a dour contemporary epic that embraces the acts of heriosm and violence that undergird military conflict. On a visual canvas of blood, sweat, smoke, and sand, Scott's film unfolds as those acts cancel one another out, creating an unceasing whirlpool of death and loss. Not shying away from the tribal and personal costs of conflict, "Black Hawk Down" results in a searing experience.
Unfolding in Somalia, 1993, "Black Hawk Down" focuses on a group of Rangers thrown into action when a U.S. gunship is shot down. Facing intense fighting from groundforces, the American soldiers work to both survive and save their comrades.
The narrative is not necessarily concerned…