Black Hawk Down Essay 2

This is the opening scene from the film "Black Hawk Down" Directed by Ridley Scott. The Film Black Hawk Down is based on a true story of a civil war in somalia - East Africa 1992, pretty much everything that happens in this film actually happend in real life. Before the scene starts you hear what sounds like African singing, but not upbeat, very depressing even though you cannot understand what he is singing you can tell from the music and the way he's singing its depressing. The scene then goes onto writing saying "based on actual events" capturing the viewers interest, followed by a quote saying "Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato" this implys that humanity will always be facing wars until they die. As the scene starts, the image is dark, gloomy and depressing. It seems they are in a desert of some sort, where bodies of dead humans are covered up by what looks like sheets or cloths. when the images flash up they fade away then writing appears explaining whats happend why  their are dead bodies. the first scene showing of the body you see what looks like a relative of the body who is extremely skinny who looks like they havnt eaten for months, covering the body up. when the scene fades it shows another body covered up by a sheet or cloth of some sort tied to cart. the next scene then shows more writing about the civil war then fades and shows what looks like an aid truck driving past starving civilians carry or pushing dead bodies on carts, showing you the reality of man kind and war with writing then saying "300,000 civilians die of starvation". the scene then goes onto show more bodies being carried followed by writing saying "Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the most powerful of warlords, rules the capital of mogadishu. He seizes international food shipments at the ports. Hunger is his weapon" this clearly explains why in the scenes there are starving civilians and dead bodies everywhere being carried by their own family. The next scene then shows what looks like a missionary trying to help a starving man followed by writing saying "The world responds. Followed by 20,000 U.S. Marines, food is delivered and order is restored." this writing fits in perfectly with this clip as it shows a missionary helping a starving man. the next scene shows more writing which explains the situation and then goes onto say "In late August, America's Elite Soldiers, Delta Force, Army Rangers and the 160th SOAR are sent to Mogadishu to remove Aidid and restore order....The mission was to take 3 weeks.... but 6 weeks later, washington was growing impatient" in this scene for the last 20 seconds or so, you can hear what sounds like a helicopter, and the music then starts to build up after the writing fades away to then show the title "BLACK HAWK DOWN" the music builds up even more when this appears and then you hear the Helicopter and see it flying over a shanty town which almost looks deserted to then a close up on the main character or one of the main characters "Josh Harnett" in the helicopter looking out to then what would seem like a POV shot showing what he can see which is hundreds possbly thousands of civilians which may have well run from the deserted shanty town previously to running up a hill to what apparently in the film is called "Red Cross Food Distribution Center" to then a close up on the ground of a heavily armed vehicle and man driving towards the scene of where the commotion is starting which then showing a truck which seems to have plenty of food, to then showing heavily armed vehicles driving around the back of the people to have a better view, these men are "Mohamed Farrah Aidid's Militia", which what you then see is an allied (American) Black Hawk helicopter circling the area. The music by now has picked up even more keeping it upbeat with all the people rushing to the area. this then changes to a shot of the helicopter circling the area showing a new character pointing out whats going on and also pointing out that there are Militan troops down there. the next scene shows people desperately trying to climb aboard the truck and take food, but there are people around the truck and on top of the truck with what looks like bamboo sticks hitting the starving civilians who are trying to get food, trying to stop them from taking it. there is a massive commotion of people shouting which then gets out of control to then the trucks gate opening to then all the food falling out, which you then see people trying to take the bags of food which then suddenly a hurl of bullets and loud gun fire is shot into the croud by the militia killing innocent civilians, which then there is a over shoulder shot of the gunner who is firing into the crowd, which then goes into slow motion at a mid-close up shot, showing women and men being slaughtered helplessly even though they are un-armed they are still slaughtered like animals, but thid successfully disperses the crowd, which then is followed by Josh Harnetts reaction who is almost in dis-belief in what hes just saw and points out what happend, who then tells his pilot who then contacts command and explains that there are un-armed civilians being killed, request permission to engage, the command replies with, Super 6 4 (name of helicopter unit) are you taking fire over, negative comman the pilot says, command responds then by saying, negative jurisdiction 4 we cannot intervene over. there is then a close up on the pilots face who as you can see is annoyed or hacked off. to then a long shot of the helicopter flying away. you then see actor Josh Harnetts face who is still in disbelief about what he just saw and cannot believe that they cannot intervene and help the innocent civilians from being killed. you then see a close up on a militan soldier pretending to fire a rocket and the helicopter which is then followed by laughing to himself.