The “Meeting” in the Dark Room

By Nicholas Charette, Darrin DeVito, Catherine Dore, and Garbrielle Gebo

[1] In one of the first scenes of Black Hawk Down, a Somali official referred to only as Mr. Atto is ambushed while riding in his convoy and taken in by the U.S. military for questioning. During his conversation with General Garrison in a dark room in a U.S. military base, Mr. Atto explains the Somali conflict from his perspective. The conflict is a civil war, he clearly states, and the U.S. troops have no business being in the country. Mr. Atto also warns that involvement in someone else’s war leaves no guarantees that everything will go as planned. The scene is important to the cohesion of the movie because of the precious glimpse into the rationale of the Somalis, one of the few scenes in which they are portrayed in a non-combat situation.

[2] During his time spent in U.S. custody, Mr. Atto is treated like a VIP, given tea and cigars, and allowed to sit freely. The latter part of Mr. Atto’s screen time is spent in a darkened room, with General Garrison standing in the light, asking Mr. Atto, the man sitting mostly in the darkness, about the conflict which is as of then still a mystery to the U.S. forces. The lighting plays an important role in the scene: the transition from the desert road under the bright sun to the cold room under shroud of darkness symbolizes the gravity of the situation. The desert under the hot African sun is his world; the world under the dim lights and creeping shadows belongs to the Americans.

[3] The goal of this specific scene is to give the viewer a bit of insight into the Somali perspective on American involvement in the war. The Somalis view the conflict as a civil war, while the Americans view it as genocide. During the questioning, Mr. Atto explains to General Garrison that the conflict is a civil war, while General Garrison insists, “Three hundred thousand dead and counting. That’s not a war, Mr. Atto. That’s genocide.” The Americans see the fighting not only as a military conflict but also as a humanitarian crisis. The desire of Mr. Atto and, presumably, the rest of the Somali combatants, is to solve their own problems on their own terms, a desire that runs contrary to the Americans’ intent.

[4] The scene represents a clear difference of opinion (not only politically but also culturally) between two high-ranking officials, a common theme in many films. This “encounter in a dark room,” complete with coffee and Cuban cigars, is the first injection of political commentary into the film, an attempt to clue the viewers in that Black Hawk Down is not a glorified wartime snuff film and that there is more than one side fighting this battle. Neither General Garrison nor Mr. Atto is explicitly stated as having the clear moral high ground (although the movie is skewed towards an American point of view) during the conversation. The strong differences in ideology, revealed in a dark room where neither side wishes to compromise, are made clear and carve a deep valley large enough for war to fit through. The entire scene urges audiences to form their own opinions on whether or not the United States should have been involved, opinions which are constantly tested through later scenes of hellish war and unrest.

[5] The scene, bloodless though it is, alludes to the movie’s future scenes of violence and chaos in the streets typical of a bloody civil war. Mr. Atto talks about killing as being part of a process, a natural occurrence, something that will not go away by being ignored and will be not be solved by foreign intervention or words, neither of which carries quite the same weight as a bullet to the head. The scene foreshadows the violence to come and hints that the mission in Somalia will not be the simple surgical operation the U.S. forces had intended.

[6] Despite the harsh words exchanged by General Garrison and Mr. Atto, the scene in the dark room contributes to the arcing themes of the movie: not only violence and detachment, but also brotherhood. The movie, despite acknowledging that there is a civil war occurring, falsely reduces the conflict to the U.S. soldiers vs. the Somalis. There is brotherhood and a sense of family, not only among the Army Rangers and Delta Force, but also among the Somalis, as evidenced by the Somali groups banding together to oppose the Americans. Mr. Atto, as harsh as he is, represents the Somali people truthfully and keeps the interests of his people during the interrogation, refusing to betray his countrymen. Similarly, the American forces act to protect not only their literal brothers and countrymen but also their African brothers. Their concern is not only to preserve world peace but also human life.

[7] The scene describing the capture and interrogation of Mr. Atto is important both on its own and as a politically-centric puzzle piece in the jigsaw puzzle of Black Hawk Down. It is the viewers’ first glimpse into the conflict from a Somali perspective, it is a plot advancement scene foreshadowing the bloody conflict to come, and it is a testament to how different the two cultures are. This “meeting in a dark room,” where the cold, metal room is both light and dark, is one of the few sanctuary scenes in the movie where no one dies or is wounded. Despite this, even one of the quieter scenes in the film has a role in “setting the stage” for the rest of the movie, a stage where guns fire, ideology clashes, and conflicts only end when everyone on the other side is dead.