Collateral Damage

The post-9/11 action/terrorism movie is now a genre all of its own. If this movie is interesting at all, it's through the prism of September 11, a day that changed culture as much as it did politics. Our perceptions of Black Hawk Down, Behind Enemy Lines, and now, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage are shaped - nearly haunted - by the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan. Some movies - Black Hawk Down - are greatly enhanced by 9/11. Because it was true and well done, it hits us between the eyes. But for poor aging action-pioneer Schwarzenegger, whose movie was postponed for three months by his nervous studio, the opposite is true. This movie comes from another time, not enlivened by reality but diminished by it. Spoilage warning: plot discussed, not ending.

The plot is vintage Arnold. He plays firefighter Gordon Brewer, who is drawn into international terrorism when his wife and son are blown up in a bombing carried out by Claudio ("The Wolf") Perrini. In pre-9/11 movies, the U.S. is nearly as evil as the terrorists, as the perennial bumbling evil C.I.A./NSA secret agents do absolutely anything at all costs by any means to get their way -- just like the terrorists. At the moment, that plot line seems a dubious one. When Brewer figures out that the ever politically squishy U.S. government isn't going to catch the Wolf (to avoid ruffling the feathers of the Columbian government), he decides to do it himself, tracking the Wolf through Panama to the dense jungles of Columbia, where he spends as much time dodging evil U.S. agents as he does hiding from evil Columbian guerrillas.

The movie is full of the now vintage Schwarzeneggerian repertoire of narrow-eyed stares and clunky one liners and explosion after explosion. And let's face it, Arnold is no action adventure spring chicken. His face is lined, his visage distinctly middle-aged. We see him in relatively few action sequences, and he is undoubtedly keeping platoons of stunt men working, judging from the credits.

Watching the film, you can't help but identify with the helplessness of a man who sees his family blown to bits for no particular reason by murderous fanatics who use high-blown rhetoric to justify their butchery. I suppose there are lots of people who wish they could get their hands on Osama Bin Laden's throat.

What makes Black Hawk Down so jarring and effective a film is that it's about a real story. U.S. soldiers really did find themselves in a horrific shoot-out in Somalia, and really did behave heroically under awful pressure. These same soldiers are now crawling around the hills of Afghanistan, their cause clear and powerful. That movie is thus a terrific salute to ordinary people who have to take a deep measure of themselves in extraordinary situations.

But Schwarzenegger's clunky ham-handedness is diminished, not enhanced by reality. The movie is too long, the ending loopy. What was once an entertaining Hollywood cartoon figure now just seems a dinosaur, his sensibility outdated and irrelevant. Schwarzenegger has made some first-rate action stuff. His Terminator series was great (he's making another). He ought to ride off into the sunset while he still has his dignity and pride, and acknowledge that while he had a great ride, the reality of the world has finally overtaken him.

Comments

Re:Black Hawk Down

[Snow_Bonobo]

The accounts of Somalian people also "involved" should also be read. And maybe the accounts of historians, UN investigators and journalists?

"Black Hawk Down" is a propaganda film, based on real events in which real people died for stupid reasons. A real tragedy occurred, but the film only shows a distorted view of what actually happened, and a very distorted view of why it happened.

How much time does the film give to the massacre of 54 people by US forces during a peace discussion? Or the firing of missiles into civilian areas by the US?

Maybe you should read what the rest of the world can read, in articles like this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273 ,4 344998,00.html

and rely less on semi-official propaganda. Do you think "Zulu" and cowboy movies are accurate? They're based on true events too, you know.

Re:True?

[Snow_Bonobo]

Did the History Channel documentary mention the massacre of 54 people in Somalia by US troops while they were at a peace conference? Or the claims that the US soldiers took Somalian women and children as hostages? Any sympathetic shots of dying africans? How much screen time do the brave Malaysians get?

You can't wrap tragic events into entertainment without losing the truth.

Falsifying History

[mysty]

Black Hawk Down a 'true story'? Come on, nothing in that movie really happened that way. The film is completely propaganda, and paid for by the US army.

The US troops commited many war crimes in that country, not to mention their pullback triggered the Rwanda genocides.

But I guess if I critize the US foreign policies I'll be dubbed a terrorist, right?

The US crimes in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and their widespread disregard and destruction of the natural environment have everything to do with the fact that almost every people on Earth hold a grudge against the USA (including europeans).

The suffering that has resulted is the feeding ground and root cause for terrorism against the US.

Everyone is shocked and horrified by 9-11 for sure, nobody feels the US people deserved it, but in broader perspective, the US have only themselves to blame for it.

Black Hawk

[Coyote67]

Good call in the blackhawk down reference, ignoring the fact that the real leader of the group is in jail for raping a 12 year old girl during this campaign. OOps, there goes a troll mod for me.

Oh Please.

[clump]

You will complain that Katz is off-topic while you probably didn't even see Collateral Damage? Just be sure to paint yourself with that same hypocritical brush for using this as a forum for expelling your anti-war views, which (I may add) are a little too much based on speculation.

Re:Sure, it was started by the DoD, but...

[Zed2K]

Yes I got a problem with people like you. People live here because they like the freedoms the government gives them yet at every opportunity they piss on that very same government. You can't have it both ways.

Would you rather we go back to riding horseback and hurling rocks at each other in a war? Fucking hypocrites...I say we start strapping some of these people to the missles.

propaganda

[Tom]

What makes Black Hawk Down so jarring and effective a film is that it's about a real story. U.S. soldiers really did find themselves in a horrific shoot-out in Somalia, and really did behave heroically under awful pressure.

I guess you've seen the movie once too often. It's interesting to compare US and international reviews of Black Hawk Down. All US reviews I've seen go roughly along those lines, while the vast majority of international reviews points out that the actual events (to the best of our knowledge) where quite different - and much less heroic.
Almost all non-US reviews point out that Black Hawk Down is such an obvious piece of war propaganda that it almost hurts. So while we're at it with pointing out the heroism (perceived or real), let's not forget what then-president Bill Clinton said about the Mogadischu disaster, calling it "one of the darkest hours" of his presidency.
Maybe he just wasn't as much a war-monger as the current one.