Ridley Scott is a hugely popular and well-regarded director who, for whatever reason, generally fails to impress me. I often see his films as being good pieces of entertainment but generally forgettable and almost always with hideously inappropriate music. (Exception to both of those thoughts - Alien.) But Black Hawk Down goes way beyond that - it's unforgettable - for all the wrong reasons. It is as vacuous, emotionless and boring as any film about war could possibly be.

It tells the story of the botched US attempt to kidnap various members of violent militia groups operating in the Somali capital Mogadishu in 1993. But what was the US doing there in the first place? Why was the country ruled by militia? Why did the Somali people despise Americans? This offered the opportunity for a fascinating movie, a background into one of the most horrendous and bloody civil wars in history. But instead Scott focuses on the few hours surrounding the botched kidnapping. It's never really explained to us who it is who's being kidnapped or what good it will do, but apparently that is besides the point.

The film has been described as jingoistic which explains its critical and commercial success in the United States given the current climate there, but watching the film I became increasingly uneasy because it seems to go beyond jingoism and actually comes across as being highly-racist. Somalis appear and get shot as if in a video game; none is given a name, none speaks, they just appear from doorways and get shot - appear from behind rocks and get shot - and so on. A caption at the end of the film tells us that eighteen American soldiers lost their lives and it lists the names of these poor gentlemen - and then says that a thousand Somalis lost their lives in the battle. A battle, it must be added, that was initiated by the Americans and included the indiscriminate slaughter of Somali women and children by American troops - surprisingly, an aspect that makes no appearance in the film. Why do the Somalis hate the Americans? Why were the Americans operating in Mogadishu? Why did they fail to inform their United Nations colleagues, also in Mogadishu, of their actions? It is these unanswered questions that are the most fascinating aspect of the conflict, not the battle itself.

The battle plays out predictably enough, with Saving Private Ryan cinematography, MTV editing, lots of shouting - and no discernable characters. The Americans all blend into one; the Somalis are all depicted as heartless savages. It's virtually impossible not to laugh when the dying Americans all give valedictory speeches to their colleagues begging them to tell their "momma" that they did their best, and so on. It's like watching a cartoon.

That said, there are good aspects of the movie - Tom Sizemore and Sam Shepard stand out for the acting nods, the movie does give a harrowing indication of what life on the front line is like, and Hans Zimmer's music is excellent. Zimmer's task was very difficult: traditionally a film score emphasises either the emotion or at least atmosphere of any given scene. But Black Hawk Down is not a film with any particular narrative structure - it's one long scene. It's not a film that showcases any emotions in particular, except perhaps despair. And it's a film with virtually no dialogue, save for the occasional shout of triumph or misery. These situations are rare in themselves, and to be presented together must have given Hans Zimmer a real headache.

Black Hawk Down is Zimmer's fourth score of 2001 and it's remarkable to look at how different each of those scores is, given that the composer is often maligned (unfairly) for being a one-trick horse. Hannibal was a stylised, pseudoclassical work that did little for me; Pearl Harbour a romantic look back at a tragic event; The Pledge a superb, quirky score for one of the best movies of the year; and now Black Hawk Down is... well, virtually indescribable!

Hans Zimmer is a particularly intelligent man and while publicly he has been highly-supportive of the movie, I suspect that he was well aware of its weaknesses. He overcame one of them by being the only member of the production to give the Somalis a voice - his use of an African vocalist (Baaba Maal, Senegalese rather than Somali but that isn't an issue) is touching, appropriate and quite emotional. Otherwise the score is mostly chaotic, performed largely by a small band assembled by Zimmer. Some of the music is composed, some is improvised, but all is highly effective and entertaining. The only real "Hollywood moments" come towards the end, when traditional melody and Zimmer trademarks make their first appearance in "Leave No Man Behind", featuring a touching theme that did appear more often in the film than it does on the album.

Decca must be applauded for their release of the album: none of the obligatory pop songs that make appearances for a few seconds each in the movie are on the album, and most unusually it features quite lengthy liner notes, featuring various quotes from Zimmer about the score, one of which is that "I have a sense that no-one's ever done a score like Black Hawk Down." And, my word, in a time when everyone is decrying the lack of originality and innovation in film music - he is absolutely right. Black Hawk Down is a unique score, one that pushes its film up from being atrocious to being (just about) acceptable.

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