It is early October 1993, Somalia in east Africa. The country has been the place for major problems; civil war and famine have wreaked the place and left several thousand civilians dead. The country is run by a series of local warlords, one of whom Mohammed Aidid Farrah has been taking food supplies from the red cross for his own use. The US Government did not like this, so sent the best of the best army troops to sort out the situation. They come up with a plan to get two of the warlords out of there in a quick hit and run attack. The whole thing should take less than an hour, but it goes wrong somehow. Black Hawk Down tells the real story behind an ...  Read the complete review

In the past, I have always tended to avoid war films. You know the type of thing that you end up watching on a Sunday afternoon, John Wayne or some such hero overcoming massive odds to save the bridge, beach head or whatever. They are all the same, a couple of guys up against a massive force who have yet to learn how to shoot straight. Then along came all the 'Nam movies and they brought a realism to the genre that had not been there before. People were savagely killed without the time to deliver a few pithy words for the folk’s back home. You left the cinema thinking how lucky you were not to have had to go there. Then for a long time there was ...  Read the complete review

(Film only) Ridley Scott's 2001 movie tells the story of the Battle of Mogadishu, an attempt by American special forces units to abduct two senior members of the Somalian militia, lead by General Mohamed Aidid. For the soldiers involved the initial omens are far from positive: Mogadishu is a geometric, planned city, seemingly designed for the purpose of staging ambushes. It is also filled with an angry, dissident, and heavily armed populous. On the contrary, the US mission is hamstrung by a Washington politik that refuses the mission's overt need for widespread aerial and ground support. The mission, originally due to last no longer than an ...  Read the complete review

It is always a curious insight when you get an American made film about a true American military incident where things go as planned. The cynic in me would hazard a guess at some of the more embarrassing moments being glossed over, but in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, we get a thorough, harrowing tale of camaradery that makes you proud to be on their side. The film is full of typical Scott gravitas and excellent filming, and a stellar cast that does a great job. The film centres on the crashlanding behind enemy lines of an American Black Hawk chopper in Somalia. The US involvement in conflict in Somalia was as welcome as many saw the overall involvement in ...  Read the complete review

I may as well say it at the start and get it out of the way - this film is nowhere near as good as Saving Private Ryan. Black Hawk Down is a decent film, but it is much more disposable than Saving Private Ryan, and didn't impact me in the same way. If you want a thrill a minute action flick, this is the film for you. The film has little in the way of a build up - the first thirty or so minutes are spent laying the foundations for the action sequence to follow. The film recreates a day's battle in the Somalian City of Mogadishu on October 3rd, 1993 to capture two Somalian dictator's assistants. During this, two of the US Army's 'Black ...  Read the complete review