Editing Black Hawk Down (film) (section)

===Critical response===
{{RT data|prose|Though it's light on character development and cultural empathy, ''Black Hawk Down'' is a visceral, pulse-pounding portrait of war, elevated by Ridley Scott's superb technical skill.|ref=yes}} {{Metacritic film prose|74|33|ref=yes|access-date=2025-03-02}}

[[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' gave the film four stars out of four, saying that films like this "help audiences understand and sympathize with the actual experiences of combat troops, instead of trivializing them into entertainments."<ref>{{cite web |date=January 18, 2002 |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Black Hawk Down movie review & film summary (2002) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/black-hawk-down-2002 |website=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] }}</ref> ''[[Empire (film magazine)|Empire]]'' magazine said that, though "ambitious, sumptuously framed, and frenetic, ''Black Hawk Down'' is nonetheless a rare find of a war movie which dares to turn genre convention on its head".<ref>{{cite web|last=Dinning|first=Mark|title=Empire's Black Hawk Down Movie Review|url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/black-hawk-review/|access-date=October 20, 2020|work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|date=January 2000 }}</ref> Mike Clark of ''[[USA Today]]'' wrote that the film "extols the sheer professionalism of America's elite Delta Force—even in the unforeseen disaster that was 1993's Battle of Mogadishu," and praised Scott's direction: "in relating the conflict, in which 18 Americans died and 70-plus were injured, the standard getting-to-know-you war-film characterizations are downplayed. While some may regard this as a shortcoming, it is, in fact, a virtue".<ref name="Clark">{{cite news |title=Black Hawk' turns nightmare into great cinema |url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/enter/movies/2001-12-28-black-hawk-down-review.htm |first=Mike |last=Clark |work=[[USA Today]] |date=December 28, 2001 |access-date=October 20, 2020 }}</ref>

The film has had a small cultural legacy, which has been studied academically by media analysts dissecting how media reflects American perceptions of war. ''[[Newsweek]]'' writer Evan Thomas considered the movie one of the most culturally significant films of the [[George W. Bush presidency]]. He suggested that, although the film was presented as being anti-war, it was at its core pro-war: "though it depicted a shameful defeat, the soldiers were heroes willing to die for their brothers in arms ... The movie showed brutal scenes of killing, but also courage, stoicism and honor ... The overall effect was stirring, if slightly pornographic, and it seemed to enhance the desire of Americans for a thumping war to avenge [[September 11 attacks|9/11]]."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Thomas|first=Evan|date=12 December 2008|title='Black Hawk Down' Arts and culture in the Bush era.|work=[[Newsweek]]|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/12/13/black-hawk-down.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127065201/http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/12/13/black-hawk-down.html|archive-date=27 January 2012}}</ref>

Stephen A. Klien, writing in ''Critical Studies in Media Communication,'' argued that the film's sensational rendering of war encouraged audiences to empathize with the film's pro-soldier leitmotif, to "conflate personal support of American soldiers with support of American military policy," and to discourage "critical public discourse concerning justification for and execution of military interventionist policy."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Klien |first=Stephen A. |date=December 2005 |title=Public Character and the Simulacrum: The Construction of the Soldier Patriot and Citizen Agency in Black Hawk Down |url=http://uncurledfist.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/black-hawk-down-and-down-and-down |url-status=dead |journal=[[Critical Studies in Media Communication]] |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=427–449 |doi=10.1080/07393180500342993 |s2cid=145086146 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319014402/http://uncurledfist.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/black-hawk-down-and-down-and-down |archive-date=March 19, 2012 |via=UncurledFist blog}}</ref>

In a review featured in ''[[The New York Times]]'', film critic [[Elvis Mitchell]] expressed dissatisfaction with the film's "lack of characterization" and opined that the film "reeks of glumly staged racism".<ref>{{cite news |last=Mitchell |first=Elvis |author-link=Elvis Mitchell |date=December 28, 2001 |title=Mission Of Mercy Goes Bad In Africa |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/28/movies/film-review-mission-of-mercy-goes-bad-in-africa.html |access-date=April 26, 2010 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> [[Owen Gleiberman]] and Sean Burns, the film critics for ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' and the alternative newspaper ''[[Philadelphia Weekly]]'', respectively, echoed the sentiment that the depiction was racist.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hornblow |first=Deborah |date=February 3, 2002 |title='BLACK HAWK' DOWNER |url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2002-02-03-0202030342-story.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210708120017/https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2002-02-03-0202030342-story.html |archive-date=July 8, 2021 |access-date=June 16, 2022 |work=[[Hartford Courant]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite news |date=July 2017 |title=Sean Burns: "Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer's latest is racist crap" |url=http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts/down-the-tubes/article_e1258c6e-d081-58a9-81ef-f244dc589057.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181012130651/http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts/down-the-tubes/article_e1258c6e-d081-58a9-81ef-f244dc589057.html |archive-date=2018-10-12 |access-date=February 21, 2011 |work=[[Philadelphia Weekly]]}}</ref> American film critic [[Wheeler Winston Dixon]] also found the film's "absence of motivation and characterization" disturbing, and wrote that while American audiences might find the film to be a "[[paean]] to patriotism", other audiences might find it to be a "deliberately hostile enterprise"; nevertheless, Dixon lauded the film's "spectacular display of pyrotechnics coupled with equally adroit editing."<ref>{{cite book |author=Dixon, Wheeler, Winston |author-link=Wheeler Winston Dixon |title=Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema |date=2003 |publisher=Wallflower Press |isbn=1-903364-74-4 |edition=Paperback |location=London and New York}} {{ISBN|1-903364-38-8}} (hardcover), see page 76, lines 11-15</ref> [[Jerry Bruckheimer]], the film's producer, rejected these criticisms on ''[[The O'Reilly Factor]]'', putting them down to political correctness in part due to [[Hollywood (film industry)|Hollywood]]'s liberal leanings.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite news |date=January 15, 2002 |title=Defending Black Hawk Down |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/defending-black-hawk-down |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091021121427/https://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,43076,00.html |archive-date=21 October 2009 |access-date=February 21, 2011 |work=[[Fox News]]}}</ref>