Possibly The Best War Story Ever (Black Hawk Down (2 DVDs))

Member Name: vincent.buchan

Product:	Black Hawk Down (2 DVDs)
Date:	26/04/02 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: everything

Disadvantages: none

One of the strangest thing I noticed when I first walked into the cinema was how full it was and the amount of chatter going on. I hadn't seen that many people in my local cinema ever in my life. I thought that this meant two things. One was a good thing and the other was a bad thing. The good thing was that it was going to be a really good film (which it is) and the bad thing was that there was going to be a lot of whispering going on when there was a boring bit on (which there never was). Either everyone decided to fall asleep or was on the edge of their seat for almost the entire film. I chose the latter as I loved this film, and this will be in my collection for sure^_^.

The Plot

This is roughly a story about a simple mission that went badly wrong and a lot of action is involved to get it corrected.

In October 1993 a group of 123 Army Rangers and Delta Force raided the marketplace of Mogadishu, Somalia in order to capture two lieutenants of the warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid (sorry for any spelling mistakes). As you have probably already guessed, they got lucky and shot down two of their Black Hawk helecopters, hence the name of the film, and they have to secure the choppers from before the enemy get their hands on it. After a excellent fifteen hour battle, only 19 U.S soldiers were killed and 1000 Somalis were killed.

A few people that I have spoke to that have seen this film have criticized on the fact that the Rangers and Delta Force members mainly have blank expressions on their face, as opposed to the well-defined characters shown in, classics like Saving Private Ryan. I will go out on a limb and say that this was done on purpose by Director Ridley Scott, as the motto of the movie was the saying, "No one gets left behind." I think it is supposed to show that everyone is equal and they are all tough. Scott was trying to show the amount of courage that the soldiers have when the ti
me comes.

The motto was what made the two snipers, Master Sergeant Gordon and Sergeant First Class Shughart, ask to be dropped off at the second crash site to pick off as many attacking Somalis as they can before the rest of the unit drop in to rescue the others. This bravery gets them landed with Congressional Medals of Honor.

Surprising as it sounds, Black Hawk Down is actually a based on a true piece of history while the main part of Saving Private Ryan was mostly fiction. Characterisation played a massive part in Saving Private Ryan which made it so good and emotional, but there were only a half dozen characters which made it possible to do this. Black Hawk Down had nearly a hundred speaking characters. It would last somewhere in the regions of 40 hours if they tried to characterise them all.

Ridley Scott depicts war at an amazing pace. All the fear and uncertainly is definetly there. This film is really good and shows what war is really like and it has the bonds present between war soldiers.

Photography by Slavomir Idziak is pretty intense. Weapon sequences are particularly good with good weapon handling, fire discipline, and most importantly realistic weapons sounds, two thumbs up to the sound department! Incidental music by Jeff Rona and Mel Wesson has mysterious Middle Eastern sounds and has suitable heroic pieces as well.

Black Hawk Down depicts professional soldiers doing a professional job. I don't know any higher praise I can give than that. Other films that are recommended by me and my friends that liked this film are: Siege of Firebase Gloria, and Saving Private Ryan.

P.S. I apoligise if this review seems a little sloppy. Film reviews are not my strong points. So in other words, you'll just have to see it, I can't describe it.

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