Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2770 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

'Nobody gets left behind'
Black Hawk down is a brilliant war movie that follows a team of American special forces & army Rangers as they fight for there lives in the city of Mogadishu for 1 day & night against pretty much the whole city. They were sent into to capture rwo lietuents of a bloodthirsty miltia leader, it was only meant to last an hour but after one of the black hawk helicopters was shot down they get pinned down in the city fighting against all odds. I've read the book by Mark Bowden (which I reccomend) and most of the battle sequences and even dialogue are just like the book.
Black Hakw Down is a gripping, moving, exciting, adrenline fueled war film that you watch over & over again, I recomend it.

Great!!
Great film, a refreshing change to this genre of film! Although this film is probably a bit far from the truth it can down as one on the best war films!

Shock and awe
The reviewer who described this film as a deafening assault on the senses was not wrong. It is a raw and bloody shock and awe version of the war for Mogadishu, employing many of the honed techniques for depicting battle scenes. Remember Saving Private Ryan's depiction of Omaha beach? That's right - the same grainy, washed-out cinematography, the flash/thud/fade sound of sniper fire, the shouted scraps of conversation, the casually gratuitous portrayal of death, injury, gore and guts, arterial sprays, the shell shock, you name it - it's all there.

Bear in mind also that this is a film told from the American standpoint. Every American life is treated as sacrosanct, every death and injury an act of unforgivable betrayal. Only at the end do you get a true sense of perspective, when the titles reveal that 19 Americans died.... and over 1,000 Somalis! African lives are evidently far cheaper. The American commander got this operation badly wrong, and many paid with their lives, on all sides.

That said, this tells the story, warts and all, and tells you in a way that you will never forget. British viewers will smile to see the partial recreation of Trainspotting (the reuniting of Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner), but don't expect too much humour - this is a harrowing slack-jawed explosion of a movie.