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Black Hawk-Down: Adaptation and the Military-Entertainment Complex
Linnaeus University, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Languages. (Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3293-6324
Linnaeus University, The University Administration.
2017 (English)In: Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, E-ISSN 2000-1525, Vol. 9, no 3, p. 365-389Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article investigates the non-fiction book Black Hawk Down (1999) by Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down the movie (2001) directed by Ridley Scott, and the computer game Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (2003). The article suggests that while the movie and the game must be studied as adaptations of the first text, the tools developed by adaptation studies, and that are typically used to study the transfer of narratives from one media form to another, do not suffice to fully describe the ways in which these narratives change between iterations. To provide a more complete account of these adaptations, the article therefore also considers the shifting political climate of the 9/11 era, the expectations from different audiences and industries, and, in particular, the role that what James Der Derian has termed the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network (MIME-Net) plays in the production of narrative. The article thus investigates how a specific political climate and MIME-Net help to produce certain adaptations. Based on this investigation, the article argues that MIME-Net plays a very important role in the adaptation of the Black Hawk Down story by directing attention away from historical specificity and nuance, towards the spectacle of war. Thus, in Black Hawk Down the movie and in Delta Force: Black Hawk Down, authenticity is understood as residing in the spectacular rendering of carnage rather than in historical facts. The article concludes that scholarly investigations of the adaptation of military narratives should combine traditional adaptation studies tools with theory and method that highlight the role that politics and complexes such as MIME-Net play within the culture industry.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Linköping University Electronic Press, 2017. Vol. 9, no 3, p. 365-389
Keywords [en]
Game Studies, War, Empire, Adaption Studies
National Category
Cultural Studies Studies on Film
Research subject
Humanities; Humanities, Film Studies; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-70976DOI: 10.3384/cu.2000.1525.1793365Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85042195708OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-70976DiVA, id: diva2:1183555
Projects
Narratives of EmpireAvailable from: 2018-02-18 Created: 2018-02-18 Last updated: 2024-07-04Bibliographically approved

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Höglund, JohanWillander, Martin

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