:
Chuck Jeffries,
Eugene Collier,
Rob Inch,
more...
:
Ridley Scott,
Ridley Scott
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: 
: Columbia TriStar
: War
: 144 min.
: English, French
: English, French, Thai
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A quickly forgotten chapter in United States military history is relived in this harrowing war drama from director Ridley Scott, based on a series of Philadelphia Inquirer articles and subsequent book by reporter Mark Bowden. On October 3rd, 1993, an elite team of more than 100 Delta Force soldiers and Army Rangers, part of a larger United Nations peacekeeping force, are dropped into civil war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia, in an effort to kidnap two of local crime lord Mohamed Farah Aidid's top lieutenants. Among the team: Staff Sgt. Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight (Tom Sizemore), the resourceful Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson (William Fichtner), and Ranger Spec. Grimes (Ewan McGregor), a desk-bound clerk getting his first taste of live combat. When two of the mission's Black Hawk helicopters are shot down by enemy forces, the Americans -- committed to recovering every man, dead or alive -- stay in the area too long and are quickly surrounded. The ensuing firefight is a merciless 15-hour ordeal and the longest ground battle involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War. In the end, 70 soldiers are injured and 18 are dead, along with hundreds of Somalians. Black Hawk Down was voted one of the top ten films of the year by the National Board of Review prior to its limited Oscar-qualifying release. On the basis of his work in this film, co-star Eric Bana, a relatively unknown Australian actor playing Delta Sgt. First Class "Hoot" Gibson, won the lead in director Ang Lee's version of The Hulk (2003). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
You might also enjoy:
Three Kings
Much more darkly comical story set during Persian Gulf War is still equally powerful
White Squall
Director Scott continues to show his range with this compelling maritime adventure
Bravo Two Zero
British troops are sent on death mission behind enemy lines in Persian Gulf war; also based on a true story
 After the handover, Iraq is sovereign once again, at least technically. And yet US troops are still there, and they're still in Afghanistan as well. When we think of a film that attempts to grasp the politics and mindset that sent them there and what it's like for them, the people they're trying to help and the people they're fighting, we usually think of Three Kings. But PopMatters film critic Cynthia Fuchs suggests we take another look at an entirely different sort of movie: Black Hawk Down. Full article >>
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| War from the U.S. soldiers' point of view
by SBarnett
April 25, 2006 - 1:47 PM PDT
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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A terrifically successful film at what it sets out to do: show us and make us feel what motivates soldiers in today's U.S. Army, and give us a glimpse of what they go through in combat. Once the first bullet clanks into a Humvee, the film goes onto another level. Completely riveting to watch; by the end you will be exhausted. The characters work because they're familiar personas in military life. The film relentlessly focuses on the idea of not leaving any soldiers behind. You will definitely come away understanding that these soldiers won't hesitate to put their lives on the line for each other. Excellent cinematography and staging, which you'd expect from Ridley Scott.
However, the film simplifies a very complex situation in order to immerse us in the soldiers' point of view (read, for example, Mark Bowden's articles in the Philadelphia Enquirer, and Mickey Kaus's excellent criticisms in Slate). You can't sum up 30 years of history in three or four sentences at the beginning of a film. The result is to take an incisive story about the psychology and reality of warfare and add a layer of propaganda. The film should skip the attempt at perspective and begin with the black hawk flying over the city on the day before the mission. There's a lot more going on here than U.S. good, Aideed bad, Somalis dangerous, UN indifferent, but the soldiers must think this way in order to survive. The Somalis' movitations are ignored or misrepresented. Unlike the film "Zulu," which gave a sense of the Zulus' strategy and tactics, this film makes the Somalis seem more like rioters in south-central LA, just better armed and with some strong leadership. The film also largely ignores the racial aspect of the situation--a white army in a black country. Why are scenes of crowds of black people shown in a slightly speeded up form? Are they feeding the Fear of a Black Planet? And it what does is say about the army, and warfare, that a young American black man can be made to kill a woman who looks like his mother to save his fellow soldiers?
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| Honest & Beautiful
by JMVerville
October 21, 2004 - 7:30 AM PDT
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2 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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When watching Black Hawk Down, I could not help but observe how honest and beautiful the film was -- portraying, in the beginning, soldiers as how they are (often rowdy and good natured, ready to serve, wanting to serve); a portrayal that you often see, but was done especially well in this film; it takes a lot of the past depictions of war film's portrayal of soldiers and modernizes them, and turns them into something that we can relate to very well (NOTE: Nor did this film give an angellic, easily pallatable portrayal either; the soldiers still refer to Somalis as 'skinnies' and have the roughness about them that soldiers should have)
And above this, it took some painstaking steps to remain true to its' genre of war film through incredibly realistic portrayals of the calamity that is war; there are a few scenes in the film that truly show what war is, and what war can be all about. It had moments that were shocking and quite sad, and it really makes the viewer feel and sympathize with them. And, thank God, it takes no Hollywood side-bar love stories further than they ought to be taken (as in a film called Pearl Harbor).
In addition to this, the film makes a good effort to give historical background to the film and to show Somalia for what it was during this era of warlords. Although the film may not follow history to a T, it certainly follows it enough to give someone a good idea of what was happening so that we can properly understand a conflict that many of us had forgotten about, and that many of us were ill-informed about. So in addition to the very realistic portrayal of war, we see a very realistic portrayal of the event -- something honorable to the sacrifices that were made by those men.
Overall, as far as war films go, this was one of my more favorite films for a very graphic depiction of war as it is, and for a film that was not overly dramatized. The truth was not stretched, no real political message was made to clog the piping of the story/film, it stayed true to its' genre, and the execution of the script was grade A (Ridley Scott directed very well). It was a very honest and beautiful film.
(NOTE: if you are fundamentally anti-war, fundamentally anti-military, and find the mentalities of soldiers disgusting, you will not like this film no matter what) |
| A blow to the limited conflict
by BVandemark
February 27, 2003 - 5:06 PM PST
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4 out of 6 members found this review helpful
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| I thought this film was somewhat lacking in its story, and this had a lot to do with the lacking complexity of the event that it covered. Americans try to pull off a simple undersupported action with painfully obvious and ominous premonitions of the bad events to come..."we don't need canteens because we will be back in 20 minutes," etc. But in the process they get stuck in a vicious cycle of deepening peril that starts with one person going down and then rescuers become rescuees until many become dead and they finally drive a full column of tanks into the city. "Nobody gets left behind" was the honorable directive as well as the cause of the whole situation. The film depicts the failure of US combat technology in the face of overwhelming masses. The film demonstrates the need for the total force commitment for a successful military action and in the process puts down traditional "limited military action" as being inneffective. It also depicts the raw brutality of war with tremendous realism in the filmmaking, much like Saving Private Ryan and other war films in recent years. This is probably the film's greatest achievement although not quite as adept at it as Saving Private Ryan. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.74)
177 Votes
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