March 2002 Volume 83 Number 3 "serving the protectors"
Edited by John Ballantyne

Black Hawk Down is a gruesomely realistic portrayal of war, very much in the Saving Private Ryan tradition.

It tells the true story of an American covert military operation in Africa which went horribly wrong.

In October 1993, the US sent a squad of Army Rangers and members of the elite Delta Force on a desperate mission to kidnap two lieutenants of a renegade warlord in Mogadishu, Somalia.

The expedition was a disaster.

The American soldiers found themselves surrounded by hostile militia. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and many men lost their lives.

This no-holds-barred war movie is based on Mark Bowden’s exhaustively researched and critically acclaimed account of the Battle of Mogadishu.

Filmmaker Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and screenwriter Ken Nolan have brought these events vividly to life, and portrayed especially the incredible camaraderie that existed among the combat troops.

While Black Hawk Down is sympathetic to the American soldier’s view, the film also attempts to depict events even-handedly.

The special effects will leave audiences stunned and reeling.

A strong cast includes Josh Hartnett as a competent but nervous Ranger sergeant leading the mission, Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge) as a “desk jockey” who excels when sent into combat, Eric Bana (The Incredible Hulk) as a cocky and enigmatic Delta, and Ron Eldard as a downed Black Hawk pilot.

Spy Game

Robert Redford stars as veteran CIA agent Nathan Muir in this thriller from Tony Scott (Top Gun, Enemy of the State).

Set in 1991, Muir expects his last day before retirement to be uneventful.

Instead, he learns his protégé, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), is being held on spying charges in a Chinese prison and is due to be executed in 24 hours.

A seasoned agent, Muir has played spy games for a long time and immediately suspects the CIA may not be acting in Bishop’s best interest.

Muir – even while he is being interrogated by his employers – is secretly devising a way to secure his former charge’s freedom.

Action-packed flashbacks depict the relationship between the two men: their first meeting during the Vietnam War, Muir’s recruitment of Bishop following the war, Bishop’s training and early missions in Berlin, and an important operation in Beirut. Similarly, the flashbacks trace the evolution of Bishop from an eager, brand-new agent in 1975 to a disillusioned veteran who, in the mid-1980s, is at odds with his mentor, Muir.

This last layer of conflict adds extra suspense to Spy Game, as Muir must decide whether to help his old friend or cut his losses.

Spy Game is a good suspenseful drama, with a tight, well-edited screenplay, and good dynamic interaction between the two stars.

Iris

Based on the book Elegy for Iris, by John Bayley, this biographical film tells the inspiring and heartbreaking story of the author’s 40-year-old marriage with English novelist Dame Iris Murdoch.

The film switches from the 1950s when young Iris and John (played by Kate Winslet and Hugh Bonneville), were in love at Oxford, to later times when the elderly couple (played by Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent), are struggling with Iris’ decline, as her brilliant mind is ravaged by the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

Winslet and Bonneville are especially well cast as the younger Iris and John.

Judi Dench, it goes without saying, gives an outstanding performance as the older Iris.

Her deterioration from a prolific literary genius (Murdoch wrote 26 novels), to a second infancy in which she loses her speech and memory, is particularly heart-wrenching.

Broadbent matches Dench’s brilliance with an impressive performance of his own as Murdoch’s husband for 40 years.

He has adored the spirited Iris since they met, but his relationship with her had always seemed to fall short of the closeness he eventually experiences towards her tragic end.

Directed by Richard Eyre (artistic director of Britain’s National Theatre), Iris is an honest, moving and painful portrait of a marriage, without becoming cheap and maudlin.

The Shipping News

Two-time Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey plays the lonely, battered hero, Quoyle, in this film adaptation of Annie-Proulx’s Pulitzer-winning novel, The Shipping News.

Quoyle is a New York newspaper journalist, recently widowed, brimming with grief and in search of his roots.

He has grown up with loveless parents who told him he’d never amount to anything. More recently, he has endured a stormy marriage with the beautiful but temperamental Petal (Cate Blanchett).

After the simultaneous passing of his parents and the sudden death of his wife, Quoyle sets out on a journey of self-discovery to his ancestral home in wet and wind-swept Newfoundland – an island off the eastern coast of Canada.

There, in a fishing port, Quoyle, with his young daughter (Alyssa Gainer) and starchy Aunt Agnis Hamm (Judi Dench), have reclaimed their ancestral home, which has stood vacant for 40 years perched over the raging Atlantic on the edge of a cliff.

The fresh air and the mundane routine of the sleepy village act as a balm for Quoyle’s wounds.

He gains confidence and pride through his colleagues at the tiny local newspaper. He strikes up a relationship with Wavey Prowse (two-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore) – herself another of the “walking wounded” who, as a widow and mother of a brain-damaged son, carries her own burdens of guilt and grief.

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