Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1872 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

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.

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.

"No one gets left behind, you know that "
This is one of the best war movies ever made and winner of 19 major movie awards.

Ridley Scott went a long way to reproduce the setting of the battle and was lucky to get some nice Black Hawk helicopters , filmed in Rabat , on the other side of Africa , he even used sunsets to represent sunrises, as the sun rises from the sea in Somalia and sets in the sea in Morocco, nice touch.

Is based on the book written by Mark Bowden about the battle of Mogadishu in October 1993 between American forces and nearly everyone in the Bakara market district of the city. The American commander had 2 choices, to leave the helicopter crew behind or fight a battle which could result in the entire American force killed. He chose the latter and lost 19 soldiers, but the movie displays the desperate fight put up by the Americans to remain alive and try to reach the survivors on the helicopter.

Sadly the movie portraits almost exclusively the American side of the story offering no insight on the Somali side.

There are great moment sin the movie thanks to director Ridley Scott and some horrible ones thanks to producer Jerry Bruckheimer with patriotic music and the senseless heroism (young soldier and asthma inhaler)

The action scenes are as real as they can get, as good as Saving private Ryan minus the sound effects and the actors, a mixture of Brits (Ewan McGregor with an unconvincing American accent), Australians and Americans, underwent extensive military training.

The scene when a soldiers dies from a leg wound is very realistic and anyone involved in war surgery would accept that you can not get any more real than that.

The Extras are very interesting including Director Commentaries and deleted scenes, and a web link to the historical website of the battle.