Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1763 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-09-16
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Somali
• Subtitled in: Dutch, English, Hindi
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 138 minutes

Amazon.com
Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down conveys the raw, chaotic urgency of ground-force battle in a worst-case scenario. With exacting detail, the film re-creates the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993, when a 45-minute mission turned into a 16-hour ordeal of bloody urban warfare. Helicopter-borne U.S. Rangers were assigned to capture key lieutenants of Somali warlord Muhammad Farrah Aidid, but when two Black Hawk choppers were felled by rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. soldiers were forced to fend for themselves in the battle-torn streets of Mogadishu, attacked from all sides by armed Aidid supporters. Based on author Mark Bowden's bestselling account of the battle, Scott's riveting, action-packed film follows a sharp ensemble cast in some of the most authentic battle sequences ever filmed. The loss of 18 soldiers turned American opinion against further involvement in Somalia, but Black Hawk Down makes it clear that the men involved were undeniably heroic. --Jeff Shannon

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Disc One:
Features plus three Commentaries, including Director Ridley Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer
Filmmaker and cast biographies

Disc Two:
Eight Deleted/Alternative Scenes
Six Essence of Combat Featurettes
Seven Image and Design Featurettes including Jerry Bruckheimer's On Set Photography

English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Dutch, English, English (Hard Hearing), Hindi

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

"Its about the man next to you".
As everybody now knows, Black Hawk Down is the true story of the Battle of Mogadishu, which took place in October 1993, when an American elite force carried out their mission (to abduct two lieutenants of the notorious Somalian warlord Mohammad Aidid) and ended up in the longest post Vietnam land battle involving American soldiers. During this ferocious gun battle 18 American soldiers were killed and 73 injured, whilst over 500 Somali gunmen also lost their lives.

Ridley Scott, hot off the heels of Gladiator, pulls no punches in his direction of this tragic fiasco, as he provides us with 135 minutes of ear shattering, stomach-churning, war is hell, all out action. There to the story is that American troops are on a peace-keeping mission trying to support the supply of food to the people of Somalia, who are being starved as a result of the local warlords commandeering all the Red Cross relief efforts. However, as is usually the case, their efforts are compromised by politics and they have to watch on helplessly as the Somalian guerrillas turn their guns own their own starving people. As a result, a plan is formulated by the army to enter the hostile capital of Mogidishu in broad daylight to abduct two of Mohammad Aidid's most senior aides. However, even before the mission can begin, the plan is hamstrung by Washington politicians who limit the mission's aerial support and firepower. And so the mission begins with the Delta Force and Rangers but everything starts to unravel when one of the helicopters involved in the mission, the said Black Hawk of the title, gets shot down in the middle of the city and the whole mission begins to tragically unravel.

Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer have provided a 135 minute deafening assault on the senses. The cinematography by Slawomir Idziak is impeccable and in a strange way aesthetically pleasing and the cast, led by Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana (The Hulk) and Ewan McGregor, is perhaps implausibly good looking and McGregor's first attempt at an American accent is not altogether consistent or convincing. However, the aesthetic appeal of three of Hollywood's hottest young stars is balanced by the chunky Tom Sizemore and the so ugly (only a mother could love that face) Ewen Bremner of Trainspotting fame, who actually provides a stand out supporting performance and an American accent which impressively belies his Scottish roots. Also particularly impressive in another supporting performance is Jason Isaacs (Event Horizon, The Patriot) as Captain Mike Steele.

One of the most refreshing but also most frustrating things about Black Hawk Down is its lack of political context. There is no explanation as to whose decision it was to limit the mission and no finger pointing at those that inevitably made the decision to pull out of Somalia. There is also very little background character development about any of the soldiers with perhaps the exception of Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), who is presented as being somewhat pragmatic and anti-war. The movie does not follow the traditional formula of war movies that focuses upon ordinary men overcoming great odds through glorious sacrifice to triumph with flag-waving patriotism. Instead it focuses upon professional soldiers drawn together by a common aim to stay alive, free of the usual moral justifications of being a soldier in the first instance. It is neither anti-war, nor anti-army. It is about comradeship through necessity, kill or be killed and in Black Hawk Down there is plenty of both. Or as Eric Bana's character puts it "It's about the man next to you; that's all there is." Ultimately, whether you enjoy Black Hawk Down or not will depend on whether you like war movies and whether or not you like them to be gritty and realistic. Four stars ****

A Stunning Portrayal of a Desperate Situation
I wasn't a fan of war movies, having found them too much 'Hollywood' and not enough truth. Black Hawk Down doesn't fit this category at all. It's a visceral, non-stop, brutal account of what must have seemed like hell on earth. After seeing the movie I read the book and was both amazed and pleased to see that the movie did actually follow the book wherever possible, with little glamourisation added to appease the hollywood action movie buff.

For those of us fortunate enough to have never been in a situation like that, I can only guess that Black Hawk Down gives you some sense of what it must have been like. Barely halfway through the movie I found myself glancing at my watch, not through boredom, but because my heart had been steadily racing for the past 40 minutes and I wondered when the roller-coaster ride of action and horror was actually going to ease off. It doesn't, not until the very end and even then you're left with a sense that it's still waiting to pounce.

Black Hawk Down is not brutal or blood-thirsty just for the hell of it, it aims to depict the truth. Judging by the fact that the US military have apparently made the book compulsory reading for their soldiers, I think you can judge for yourself how accurate this movie is.

Gritty modern warfare
A stampede of adrenaline that could be listed amongst the top 20 great war films. As over a hundred rangers and delta ops invade a hornets nest we watch the unfolding events as the longer they're there the more the nest bites back.

There was talk of dressing up other helicopter models to look like blackhawks due to it being awkward to get the real thing but thank goodness they did it properly as the realism is what grabs you from the start with this movie. By the end of it you feel as though you need to kick off your boots, take a swig from your canteen, and get the bandaids out.

The acting is superb from everyone. If there's one gripe I've got with this movie it's that there are so many class actors with similar haircuts amongst the roller coaster action that's it's very difficult to follow who's who. But then that's where the extra viewings come in of which a couple may be required. All of them are worth it though.