It is 1993. The location is Mogadishu - Somalia's war ravaged capital. The country has been torn apart by a bloody civil war. When United Nations Peacekeepers are targeted by one Somali faction the Americans decide (unilaterally) to 'take out' key advisors of the warlord Mohammad Farrah Aideed. Unfortunately the 'kidnap' goes horribly wrong when Aideed's militia shoots one of the Black Hawk Helicopters down. From then the mission becomes one of rescuing American soldiers trapped in a 15 hour long chaotic and bloody gun battle.

The film comes at a time when the trauma of September 11th is still fresh in the United States and as such the film finds fertile ground. Director Ridley Scott focuses almost entirely on the 'bond' between the American soldiers. Their honour, their bravery and the sacrifices they make to try and bring peace to less fortunate parts of the world. Admittedly, Scott has stated that Black Hawk Down does not seek to address the political issues that surrounded the events depicted in the film. But the concentration on only one side of the events gives the movie an extremely unbalanced vision.

Undoubtedly, the American soldiers showed great courage and bravery in a war that was not theirs. But while we are given ample evidence of this, the Somali point of view is barely given even token representation. Yes, one scene is dedicated to Josh Hartnett, the sensitive, thinking soldier airing his views on how the 'skinnies' need to be looked at with sympathy because they have no education or hospitals etc. Apart from that there is one further scene where a Somali warns an American soldier that the war is a civil war and not their business. That is all we hear from the Somali side. Unfortunately it is not enough for Ridley Scott to say that his attempt was not to address these deeper issues because the result is far too one-sided. So we see all the Americans as heroic. But more importantly, there is not a single positive Somali in the entire movie. Men, women and even children do their utmost to gun down the forces of good. When the helicopter crashes, animalistic hordes of Somalis converge on it like a pack of hyenas. They rip it and the surviving American soldiers apart with their bare hands. If only we knew why this hatred burnt so brightly in their hearts we could go some way towards understand their motivation. But without that, the audience is simply left with no sympathy for the Somalis. Even the 'innocent citizens' who are usually portrayed as the victims in these situations are not represented in the film. There is an unnecessary shot of an old man with a dead child in his hands. But his face is emotionless.

Where the excellent Three Kings dared to highlight the role of American self-interest in the Gulf War, Black Hawk Down simply does not entertain any such consideration. Perhaps the evidence of the one-sided nature of Black Hawk Down is that while we spend the entire film focussing on the heroic rescue of American soldiers by American soldiers we are told at the end of the film that 19 American soldiers lost their lives. The corresponding loss of Somali lives was over 1000.

On a more positive side, the film is an astonishing technical achievement. Ridley Scott's action sequences are brilliantly executed - on par with anything that Spielberg managed in Saving Private Ryan. The cinematography is superb and the battle scenes thumpingly realistic. I can only see Michael Mann bringing the same raw power to the action sequences. As a result the film never loses pace and is frequently spectacular to watch. A word also for the stunning recreation of Mogadishu and in particular the aerial shots of the crowds converging on the downed Black Hawk. The performances are perfectly good without their being any standouts. Josh Hartnett shows that he can act and he is well supported by that gnarled war veteran Tom Sizemore and a suitably edgy Sam Shepard. But despite the technical brilliance of Scott's film, the director falters when handling the script. Rather than depict the increasing chaos and desperation surrounding the ill-fated mission, which went from 'kidnap' to rescue, the film appears to lose itself in confusion. The number of characters also means that the viewers never really have a chance to 'feel' for those on screen.

Ultimately, Black Hawk Down's technical brilliance makes the film more watchable but at the same time more disappointing. Had some effort been made to present a more balanced view of events the film could have emerged with far more credit than it is due at present. To make a straight up action film is fine and it works well with brainless plots like that of Con-Air. But to take a real life event and give it such a one-sided spin is unsatisfactory, particularly from a filmmaker of Scott's standing. Even more galling is the fact that the film is being mentioned as a sure shot Oscar nominee in the best film/best director slots.