Black Hawk Down

How this film uses it

Scott introduces dozens of soldiers in the opening sequences and gives none of them a backstory. You get to know each man purely by how he behaves under fire. The film trusts that behavior in combat tells you who someone is in a way a civilian life story can't.

Where to see it

The briefing sequence. You pick up names and faces from how the soldiers talk to each other. You learn who they are by watching them prepare for an operation they don't fully understand.

How this film uses it

The sound design by supervising sound editors Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers turns the Mogadishu battle into something you feel physically. The RPG impacts, the helicopter blades, the rifle fire and the radio traffic all pile on top of each other. Eventually, you get the sensory overload of long, sustained combat in a city.

Where to see it

The first helicopter crash. The impact, the rotors and the explosion all reach you before the image finishes. You experience the crash through sound before your eyes have caught up.

How this film uses it

Slawomir Idziak shoots the battle sequences with a narrow shutter angle, a camera setting that changes how motion is captured in each frame. It gives the violence a choppy, strobing quality. The motion is slightly wrong and the image skips frames. Combat comes across as a distortion of your senses and you never get a clear look at it.

Where to see it

The street battle sequences. The shutter setting makes the firefights feel too fast and too slow at the same time. That wrongness in the image matches how sustained gunfire scrambles your thinking.

How this film uses it

Idziak's handheld camera runs with the soldiers through the Mogadishu streets. It can't hold a steady frame and keeps losing and finding the action. You share the disorientation of men fighting in a place they can't map.

Where to see it

The street running sequences. The camera sprints with the Rangers through the alleyways and the handheld catches what it can. The image gives you the physical experience of trying to survive in a space where every direction is hostile.