Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39821 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-10-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 138 minutes

Synopsis
On October 3, 1993, Army Rangers and members of the elite Delta Force participated in a covert operation in Mogadishu, Somalia that went horribly wrong. Sent to abduct two lieutenants of a vicious Somali warlord, the soldiers found themselves surrounded by hostile militia. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and many men lost their lives. Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer told the story of the battle in his exhaustively researched, critically acclaimed book, BLACK HAWK DOWN, and filmmaker Ridley Scott (GLADIATOR) and screenwriter Ken Nolan have done an amazing job of bringing the dramatic story to the screen. Like Bowden's book, the film does not thoroughly examine the context of the conflict, but gives a detailed and intense blow-by-blow account of the fighting. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Josh Hartnett as a competent but nervous Ranger sergeant leading his first mission, Ewan McGregor as a "desk jockey" who excels when sent into combat, Eric Bana (THE INCREDIBLE HULK) as a cocky and enigmatic Delta, and Ron Eldard as a downed Black Hawk pilot. The violence of the film is brutal and nearly constant. Scott unflinchingly captures the chaos and mayhem of battle with tremendous visual finesse.

Customer Reviews

An Assault on the Senses
Ridley Scott has frequently come under fire from critics as a director whose visual style overrides any attempt at characterisation, Blade Runner being a case in point. Of course we now know that this simply was not the case: that film has far more depth than it was initially given credit for. Scott began his career in advertising, producing that well known TV bread advertisement all those years ago and he still works in that field, so it's fair to say that visual style will indeed be strong. Those kinds of critisisms are unfair and unfounded.

I did get the feeling that Scott saw Saving Private Ryan and as a result thought, "I could do that". Private Ryan of course spawned several films which attempted to "show battle as it really is" by putting you into the heart of the action, at least as much as is possible on a screen and Black Hawk Down certainly does that. The story is simple: US forces enter Mogadishu to capture some bad guys and it goes wrong. Although it is nearly forty five minutes before the first helicopter goes down, once the action starts it does not let up and you are thrown headlong into the noise, fear and bloodiness of battle, with results which are likely to leave you with concussion.

It's often confusing but using the device of a spotter plane relaying infra red images to the commanding officers as well as to us allows us keep a reasonably clear picture of what is happening on the ground. This is no big star vehicle but some of the faces will be familiar, although it is often difficult to tell who is who. Scott helps us out by having the soldier's names written on their helmets. The cast do a stout job and characters are rounded enough to allow us to identify with them so that our own fear and horror is maximized. There's even a handful of American-speaking Brits.

While the events portrayed in Private Ryan were part of a huge and world wide conflict, those in this film were contained within a 24 hour period and this packages the film neatly. Scott avoids any political context although there is a bit of flag waving at the end and one or to other films came to mind while I was watching it. Visually the film is far removed from the slickness of say, Gladiator, with the colours being toned down to give a sense of desperation and grim reality. There is a good deal of unpleasantness and a few wince inducing scenes, some of which have been critisised for being gratuitous but hang on, how can that be in a film which sets out to show combat in a way which John Wayne could never have visualised? War is hell; it's terrifying, confusing and very noisy and these elements are presented here to maximum effect even though the soundtrack, while effective enough, sometimes becomes intrusive.

Scott has had a few misfires in his career but that description would not be appropriate here even though I don't think that this is by any means his best work. Needless to say, once my senses had settled down, I found this to be a film which did not stay with me, as did Private Ryan. Perhaps this was because, in the history of conflict, this event was not so significant. Or perhaps the war-reality genre has run its course. Anyway, you are a Ridley Scott fan and haven't seen this, grab yourself a brown bread sandwich, pop that DVD in and prepare for an assault on your senses.

Irritating 'Widescreen'
Was it the intention to look at this movie with 'Chinese Eyes'? The anamorphic widescreen with aspect ratio of 2.40:1 limits my view with possibly 40%. Further, the 'dts' sounds clearer and with more depth compared to 'Dolby 5.1' but the spoken voices are pushed back to a too small part at the centerspeakers. The movie is made very dynamic, beautifull, artistic, non-personal, realistic and predictable, compared with the static, cheaper, ephical, personal, fictional and astonishing movie 'Apocalypse Now'. Both movies are not sentimental like some well known Vietnam-movies: a good thing. I am still waiting for the best Vietnam-movies and, of course, Korea, Afganisthan and Irak. How about all these journalists who are killed in Afganisthan and Irak? I vote for Jerry Bruckheimer again!