Rating: 
Summary: Black Hawk Down
Review: A very intense movie regarding urban warfare, America is heroic
when dealing with an enemy of unforseen tactics.
All I can say is "God Bless America" , democracy and men of
honour-meaning the American military from private to general
and the men,women,children and political parties who support
them in a democratic way.
Rating:
Summary: Ridley Scott's vision of modern war
Review: To start things off, this film is not for faint of heart or weak of stomach. It is completely unbiased in its visual splendor and cuts no corners in telling the truth about modern war. If you have seen Saving Private Ryan imagine the opening sequence prolongued for an additional two hours and you will have Black Hawk Down. The nonstop action does not cut from the character storylines, a feat I think R. Scott pulled off very well. There is no real character development (J. Harshnett attempts this in his ending speech) but that is because this film is non-fiction and is centered around the battled in Mogadishu. The music is excellent, when it is allowed to be heard. Most of the time Hans Zimmer's score is very subdued, so as not to detract from the visual action. The one complaint that I have about the DVD is the absence of a special features. There are some, but they are uninspired and not in abundance. Overall, this is a fine film deserved to be seen in widescreen with the finest tools available.
Rating:
Summary: An Awesome Package
Review: By focusing without distraction on the mission at hand, Black Hawk Down breaks out of the pack in Hollywood's long history of combat movies. It does so, in ironic screen timing, by reminding us of a battle that turned many against American troop commitment.Ridley Scott's likely Oscar nominee, adapted from Mark Bowden's same-name book, extols the sheer professionalism of America's elite Delta Force - even in the unforeseen disaster that was 1993's Battle of Mogadishu. In relating the conflict, in which 18 Americans died and 70-plus were injured, the standard getting-to-know-you war-film characterizations are downplayed. While some may regard this as a shortcoming, it is, in fact, a virtue, given the nuts-and-bolts movie Gladiator/Hannibal director Scott and company have elected to make. If ever there were a story in which logistics should dominate, this is it - and besides, smart casting fills in the personality gaps. It's clear the movie is going to have all the human element it needs when we see that commanding Gen. William F. Garrison is played by Sam Shepard, who could have been a superstar in Hollywood's golden age of screen heroes. The midtown U.N. peacekeeping mission, intended to capture two lieutenants of Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, was billed as maybe an hour's assignment. Following debacles that afflicted both air and ground forces, the ensuing firefights escalated that time frame 15-fold. The movie runs an uncommonly intense and fast-moving 144 minutes, with the final 100 devoted exclusively to what happened when bad luck, confusion and technological limitations converged. No war movie I have ever seen so vividly shows battle from differing perspectives: combatants on the ground and on rooftops; others hundreds of feet above them under whirling blades; and officers in protected areas watching the debacle on video monitors, trying to figure out what to do. Plunked in the middle of all this are donkeys, cats and even children's swing sets, as if what is happening isn't surreal enough. Black Hawk's knockout photography, editing and sound are all state of the art, while the ensemble performers (Tom Sizemore, Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, William Fichtner), in contrast, are effectively subordinate to the material.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Movie
Review: I've never really enjoyed war movies. Judging by my rating, however, you can tell that I liked this one. Some reviewers have complained about the length of the battles and the "blood and gore." Um, yeah. This is a war movie. War involves long battles and "blood and gore." The battle sequences were long, but I think that the length helps set the mood. You get exhausted from it, as the soldiers must have been as well. We only watch an hour of battles; they lived a whole night of them.
As others have pointed out, the movie sticks to the events; Ridley Scott doesn't create a soap opera out of death. It's a very beautiful and visually inspiring film. It also inspired me. I've had a low opinion of the military, but this film...I don't know how to describe it, but this film gave me a new view of what it is to serve. Because of this film I have incredible respect for those who serve. A great film. Go see it (but don't bring the kids).
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie.... Realistic dipiction of modern war.
Review: This is the movie that marks the climax of Jerry Bruckheimer's Career. This was a great movie that made public knowledge an event that until the movie was released, few knew or cared about. This really made US military personell my personal hero, because until I saw this movie, I hadn't seen what it meant to defend freedom, and human rights. A life changing movie.
Rating:
Summary: Stunning movie for an ungrateful nation.
Review: Yet more evidence of an ungrateful nation; and I'm not speaking about Somalia. As an active duty service member, it doesn't take long before someone you know, someone you trained with, gets killed. In some ways it doesn't matter if it was in the line of duty, or some random off duty accident, it hurts just the same. And there's always some jerk who feels compelled to point out that that person knew what they were signing up for. I'm sorry, I didn't sign up with the intention of dying; but if that's what it takes to save a buddy, or people you may never meet, what would you do? It's a sorry state of affairs when it takes a movie to get Americans to realize that there are people out there dying all the time to make sure that those same Americans can sit comfortably in a theatre, eating popcorn, and carrying on as if there aren't really parts of the world where acts of unimaginable horror are common place. So oblivious have we become, that Hollywood is now our source of history lessons, and even our conscience. I read some of these negative reviews, and they make me laugh. What a fitting legacy to those who sacrificed their own lives, that there are people who will complain about the minutiae of a movie. Grow up. More importantly, I would like you to think long and hard about the fact that even though the movie ended, and you went on with your easy lives, those people who died, they're still dead. They still left widows, and they still left children behind that will never know them. Do you think they wanted to die? Do you think they wanted to die for a country of people who forgot about them as easily as last weeks lotto numbers? Americans scoff at the idea that freedom isn't free; well at least those who have never had to sacrifice a single thing for either, which is most Americans these days. So here it is, the movie a lot of us have been waiting for, a movie no less important, or significant than Saving Private Ryan. At least in that movie there was the bitter sweet satisfaction of one small victory in all the sea of misery. Not so in Black Hawk Down. There is no sugary ending for the vapid self absorbed movie-goer. I am grateful that just about all of you will never have to live through something like this, and can only hope that I won't ever have to either. I am grateful that there are those out there who put their lives on the line for people the rest of the world would just as soon let die. I am grateful to live in a country that helps countries like Somalia, until they spit in our face. Don't forget, the reason we were there was to feed the starving people of that country, and bring some kind of stability to it. But there are people out there with so little respect for human life, that they allow people to starve to death just to be able to control them. Think about that next time you're complaining about OUR gov. while you're on your way to [insert fast food restaurant here] to buy food that's probably going to give you heart disease anyways. You've got an easy life built upon the graves of others, so cherish the freedom they have purchased with their very blood. That was always the best way to honor them anyways. Oh, and if you've never been in combat, it's probably best not to comment on how realistic this movie is, because you insult those who have. Thanking you in advance.
Rating:
Summary: Oliver North Loves It
Review: I do not subscribe to "Soldier of Fortune", but someone passed me a copy which included Oliver North's review of "Black Hawk Down" (BHD). North gave great praise to it as one of the most realistic war movies he has seen. Of course, he trashed "Pearl Harbor" (who wouldn't -- okay movie, bad "war" movie). He also gave a bad view of "Saving Private Ryan" (SPR). He says that BHD is just like the real thing. His is not the first like that (I know some Special Ops people from the same time period). As for me, I could not say from personal experience, but it sure seems more realistic than the glamorized versions we see. Overall, it was a good movie (worth considering to buy, certainly should rent). I would put it at the same level as SPR.
Rating:
Summary: No Time For Popcorn
Review: Very good, and surely captures the feel of the "Fog of War". You can almost smell the gunpowder. Mr. Scott was relentless in the pace he set with this film but two facts were missed.
1, We lost 18 men there, not 19.
2, The "Skinnies" were much less dignified in their tactics then the movie showed. There was a lot of shooting from behind unarmed women, for example. There are fine web pages, including a .gov memorial to these men. Check it out for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Abysmal
Review: Black Hawk Down is probably the worst war movie I've ever seen, and its faults go beyond the bad acting, repulsive gore, insipid characters, pathetic storyline (all of which there's plenty of... in fact, I didn't fall alseep only because of the unsufferable noise and repellent depiction of violence). Black Hawk Down is, more than anything else, a mindless propaganda movie, which presents only one side of a war a hits us on the head with its laughable "message". It's the kind of movie that only a previous pseudo-liberal-now-all-the-way-conservative could make: a movie where the civilized troops of the US (but that could well be the "Western World") kill thousands to "bring good", and we're left crying with loud music for the 19 (contrasted to "more than 1,000") US soldiers lost. There's no discussion about morality in war and murder, it's all simply seen as "an act of heroism" and "doing good". And mind you, this does not come from somebody who wants to simply condemn war as a futile act of madness: there has been plenty of good or great war films where the most important part was the debate on where morality stops and where madness begins, the masterpiece Apocalypse Now being probably the most important; speaking of Apocalypse Now, there's another thing that was just fell flat on its face in Black Hawk Down: the music. Where in the former the mixture of rock 'n' roll fit perfectly, in Black Hawk Down it's just a mix of bad 90s pop/rock that, devoid of the atmospheric connection with the scenes, just feels awful...
Rating: 
Summary: Blood and gore
Review: First of all, I can't believe that the United States military would admit to making such a horrific and deadly mistake as depicted in Black Hawk Down. If this really is based off of actual events, I'm ashamed that it was made public knowledge. As for the movie just as a story - if you like blood and guts (literally) then this is just right for you. If you've got a weak stomach, skip this one. This movie gives you close-ups of severed limbs, gaping wounds, and exposed internal organs. While the story is gripping and rather suspensful (how are they going to get out of this mess?), it doesn't answer the question of how and why the mission was allowed to happen the way it did.
|
