Black Hawk Down (Blu-ray) - UPC 043396150232

Plot Outline:
123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis. This film is based on the novel Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, by Mark Bowden, which tells the true story of the Oct. 3, 1993, Battle of Mogadishu during the Somalian Civil War. This battle was the longest sustained ground attack involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War. The mission to abduct two of Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's lieutenants was designed to take 60 minutes but ended up lasting 15 hours. The attack resulted in two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters being shot down and the deaths of 18 Americans and hundreds of Somalians.

Certification: Canada:13+ Malaysia:18SG Argentina:16 Australia:MA Australia:R Brazil:14 Canada:18A Finland:K-15 France:-12 Germany:16 Hong Kong:IIB Netherlands:16 New Zealand:R16 Norway:15 Peru:14 Philippines:PG-13 Singapore:NC-16 South Korea:15 Spain:13 Sweden:15 Switzerland:16 Switzerland:16 UK:15 USA:R Iceland:16

Comments:
Code Orange Alert #38095: Black Hawk Down

This film is built on a strong sense of importance and urgency; it spills out of any rational thought pattern. Here is a moment in history that should be documented and rehearsed; a topographical map that showcases how one bad decision created a domino-effect on top of itself. Basically, it reflects and shadows the continuity of one's own life in metaphor. The film is a platform achievement in Ridley Scott's career. He's a 70s stalwart, still able to outperform his cinematic peers. At various degrees, Scott continues to give something new to the market place that is worth not only his time and effort, but ours as well. Coppola, in the meantime, retreads his Apocalypse Now, while DePalma fiddles with old, well-used, worn-out tricks.

One of the most compelling aspects of the film is the way it uses its first thirty minutes in setup. We are introduced to a young recruit named Blackburn. The conceit expels a lot of time and energy into this kid's back story, devoting its weight in characterization to him. In any other film, he would be our protagonist; a catalyst for things to come. In a way he is, but not figuratively speaking. Through Blackburn, we see how fragile the outcome of warfare can be; its unpredictability. After letting audiences get to know this guy, and care about him, the script throws Blackburn a mishap that takes him out of the story and sees him as good as dead by the tail end of the film. Right away it creates a sense that Black Hawk down isn't playing by the numbers. Anything can happen and war is faceless. It fails at playing favorites. It is real. Through a great deal of its running time, it's hard to tell the soldiers apart. A lot of the actors here are Veterans of past movie wars. Tom Sizemore tore up the shores of Omaha Beach in Saving Private Ryan, and worked as a grease monkey in Pearl Harbor. Actually, with the exception of Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale, Pearl Harbor's entire cast has shown up for double-duty in Mogadishu (yeah, this too is a Bruckheimer film). Amongst other recognizable faces from that World War II epic, its two stand-out aces are Josh Hartnett and Ewen Bremner.

Black Hawk Down contains one of the most horrifying scenes I've seen in a great while. Soldiers in one of the fallen helicopters are trying to fend themselves off from the gun-totting locals. These Africans come on like the Return of the Living Dead. This mass of bodies attacks, one after the other, like a swarm of ants. They just keep coming. After they manage to kill off the Americans, they drag the bodies through the street and parade them in the air. It's hard to watch, it's even harder to go back to the book this movie is based on and see that this is an accurate depiction of what actually took place.

Those are exactly the elements that make this a hard entertainment. Some people will get off on its viciousness. It's a difficult film to enjoy for enjoyment's sake alone. Especially when you know that all of these soldiers did, in fact, die. The same is true for Saving Private Ryan. The most I can express to you is that; if you didn't see Private Ryan because of its realistic gore, or you couldn't finish watching the movie, or it made you sick, don't go and see this movie. It's twenty times more impacting than Spielberg's previous effort. With that said, though, this is a film that should be seen.

Josh Hartnett	...	Eversmann
Ewan McGregor	...	Grimes
Tom Sizemore	...	McKnight
Eric Bana	...	Hoot
William Fichtner	...	Sanderson
Ewen Bremner	...	Nelson
Sam Shepard	...	Garrison
Gabriel Casseus	...	Kurth
Kim Coates	...	Wex
Hugh Dancy	...	Schmid
Ron Eldard	...	Durant
Ioan Gruffudd	...	Beales
Tom Guiry	...	Yurek (as Thomas Guiry)
Charlie Hofheimer	...	Smith
Danny Hoch	...	Pilla