Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner Directed By: Ridley Scott Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 99 Release Date: June 11, 2002 Running Time: 144 minutes Studio: Sony Pictures Theatrical Release Date: January 18, 2002
Product Description: When Army Rangers are dropped into Mogadishu to capture top lieutenants of a Somalian warlord, a brutal firefight ensues with hundreds of Somali gunmen and two of the Army's Black Hawks are destroyed, testing the courage and strength of the Rangers. Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure Rating: R Release Date: 7-JUN-2005 Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com essential video: 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
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
Saving Private Ryan Battle Scenes Meets a Michael Bay Movie, the good parts 80% ^ Props to both Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer for making this movie, which picks a more modern type of warfare and creates the type of depiction of war with bravado authentically, and ferocity that Roland Emmerich or Michael Bay could only dream of making. Saving Private Ryan is the only movie that comes close, but Private Ryan in itself is quite different from Black Hawk Down anyway. There at times when Black Hawn Down seems more like an action movie, but if this is an action movie, then it might as well be ranked in the same level of humanity as Die Hard. This movie feels authentic, and unlike movies like Armageddon and ID4, never feels tepid. It's not as powerful as other war movies are, but still a ferocious and rip roaring ride about a mission that took longer than expected and more lives than it should have.
I'm going to come out right now and say that this movie kind of is lacking in character (easily the weakest part of the movie), further screwed up by some flaws in the plot. The main problem with the plot is that it gives little introduction to the many. many characters, and on top of that throws the plot that easily gets confusing because it's episodic before the battle. Furthermore, the scenes before the battle are not explained very well for people who are unfamiliar (example: Why the hell did they put tape on the roof of the car?). the viewers little The characters are likeable and based on real people, but there are so many of them, and all of them look too much alike on first glance. It's not exactly the characters fault that they are hard to keep track of, but in my opinion, it doesn't really matter much after you take some effort to understand who everybody is. Too bad the characters really don't have that much of a personality to really draw you into the fictional characters, as the converstations between everybody are really not that interesting, ad not funny. I would almost say this movie suffers from third person syndrome, but thankfully for this movie, It spend little time on these characters anyway, instead focusing on the battle itself. That's either good or bad depending on your situation, but thankfully, I find it good. And to further show it's not that big of a deal, I still felt rather moved by the ending even though I didn't quite know who was who at the end.
Since this movie is more like one big battle and takes up most of the movie, I'm glad to say that this movie's battle, which is evident from the beginning to the end, is top notch, only second to the battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan and a step above Full Metal Jacket (which were great battle scenes but there wasn't an abundance of them). They are intense, and while they aren't as well made as Saving Private Ryan (not really an insult considering how high I consider the battle scenes in that movie to be), they are depicted as exilherating, and feel authentic, a problem that prevented older war movies had when depicting combat (witness the lame sound design of Platoon), Today's Hollywood, despite tons of blandess that comes out every year, can create some amazing gun fights, explosions, and creatures, and Black Hawk Down has that virtue and takes advantage of it. Every bullet and gun noise sounds off with ferocious sound, the explosions are deep and booming, the bullets spray like ocean waves, and yadda yadda yadda. If you like your action scenes loud and energetic, you won't be disappointed. Well deserved for best sound editing at the Academy Awards (why didn't Transformers win it?).
Even when the characters and plot cause confusion and apathy, and when there's no battle raging on, Ridley Scott's direction, the cinematography, and the art direction elevates this movie on another level and pad the movie's plot and characters shortcomings. It's a good looking movie on par with the look of Saving Private Ryan, Grave of the Fireflies, and Apocalypse Now. It's kind of looks like a Michael Bay Movie, at least in the high production values that all of his movies carry (especially later movies like Transformers or Pearl Harbor). Ridley Scott has been known for his attention to detail ever since he made Alien (carrying on from Gladiator to Blade Runner and Hannibal), and he delivers tons and tons of crisp and postcard worth shots at the beginning. The blue-tinged opening sequences, the slow motion sequence of some animal, the shots of the Mogadishu, the military equipment, the authenticay of the whole thing Ridley Scott Hans Zimmer composes a score that delivers to the films bleak and credible tone, and rock and rap is there for the less serious scenes. The most memorable uses for me would have to be the use of Faith No More's Falling to Pieces and Stevie Ray Vaughn superior remake (!) of Voodoo Child.
Given the extremely boring and painful Gladiator (one of the most overrated movies of the decade) that came out a year before this, it's great to see that the master of detail crafted a movie full of beautiful shots, practically the longest battle on film, and even some poigant emotional moments, with energy, style, and some sembelance to entertainment. While this movie may seem like a blockbuster movie of sorts, that's only because this movie is extremely polished and well done. Besides, the high production values are the reason why this movie is so great anyway. With that, film makers are able to make a war movie with tons and tons of resonance and ferocious, and it's thanks to movies like this and Saving Private Ryan. I really hope that film makers in the future will make more movies in the spirit of Private Ryan and this one. If so, the war film genre has a great future ahead of itself. Highly recommended watching.
Oh, and one other thing, it's regarding the end of the movie. I give a rejoicing, Shawkshank Redemption style spread in the air for this quote at the end :"1000 Somalis died and 19 Americans lost their lives in the conflict. " Take that, Steven Spielberg!
CHARACTERS 5/10 PLOT 7/10 DIRECTING AND STYLE 18/20 THE BATTLE ITSELF18/20
Blue ray review only ^ forget the story, we all seen this movie .. the Blue ray picture is fine ... the sound is fine though it is only 5.1 Dolby .. already in the cut rate bins so get it if you want to .. if you have the Superbit DVD with the excellent DTS sound track, stick with that .. dont know why it was not included ..
Awesome Movie ^ This will be a gift for my 16 year old son so he hastn' received it yet. He loves Black Hawk Down and has watched a zillion times. I think it will be a hit.
OH YA ^ I just recently saw this DVD for the first time and I am hooked! Move over Band of Brothers.
A little to much blood and guts ^ The movie it's self wasn't much and the quality of the Blu-ray was okay but, not impressive.
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