Rating: 
Summary: Utterly Breath-Taking
Review: Forget about Platoon, discard Apocalypse Now, and toss Saving Private Ryan, and pick up Black Hawk Down!!! Sure the affore mention titles are great movies, and surely some of the best movies for their genre, but in my opinion Black Hawk Down is just that one more notch above. After finishing the book long before the movie, I can safely say its what I perceive to be afairly accurate retelling. I do not know what excatly the author Mr. Bowden thought, but its good none the less. The movie is simply marvelous and breath-taking. Yeah it may not have the deepest of characterization but anyone will immmediately attach themselves to anyone of the charcaters, and thus immersing you into the bullet-flying terror on screen. Josh Hartnett as a soldier? Yes my friend and he pulls it off along with anyone of the other numerous actors in the flick.
Ridley Scott's direction along with the hauntingly beautiful score by Hans Zimmer are simply amazing! Each one of Zimmer's scores are different, and this one is no different. It will move you to tears. Because I know it makes this 19 yr. old male cry, and that doesnt come easy, especially since this is the only movie that brings me to tearsand it still happens, even after seeing the movie a half a dozen times already!Whether you rent it or buy it, you owe to yourself to check out this excellent piece of film work. You cannot walk away dissapointed. Only filled with the admiration for those who fought and were able to give it all, their courage, their bravery, their brotherhood, their hearts, and some their lives. For those 19 men that died on that fatefull day in '93 this is their memorial, a living testament that "No One Is Left Behind".
Rating:
Summary: One of the year's greatest movies.
Review: Set in 1993 Somali Africa, a group of American Militant Soldiers are fighting against an enemy who has took all of the food supply and now it's up to them to save the starving but fighting against the enemy. An excellent, powerful and graphic War Epic that deserved the Nominees in everywhere. The settings were fantastic, editing was great, acting great and lots of violence and gore that was true to real life. A very accurate portrayl of an underrated war that happened years ago, a must see if you love war movies but not for the faint of the heart.
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of reviewers missed the point of this one:
Review: "Black Hawk Down" is a tremendous movie (all the more amazing when considering that about half the actors are either English, Scottish, or Australian...good job with the accents, mates!) that details the horror of close engagement in a manner that most people will (and in fact SHOULD) find to be very disturbing; as Clint Eastwood said in "Unforgiven", "It's a helluva thing, killing a man..." and with most modern, shoot-'em-up action movies that sense of death is never developed...victims are faceless extras whose only purpose is the same as that of the moribund red-shirted expendable crewman form the old "Star Trek" TV shows. A flash of light, a scream, some blood (maybe), and that person is sanitarily dismissed, never to be given a second thought for the rest of the movie.
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The violence in this movie SHOULD stick with the viewer...a person SHOULD understand the finality and the brutality by which a person's flesh is ripped from the body...because that is the reality of the event.
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Additionally, the supposed "lack of character development" that affects this movie is deliberate; this is not "Sergeant York", after all...it is not ONE MAN'S story of how he won the war...it is ONE TEAM of men strugling for survival under conditions for which the odds of doing so are rapidly diminishing...and in doing so become heroes, men whose service has to paralleled to that of the men who served in Vietnam...a generation of heroes trapped by their involvement in another unpopular war.
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In short, you will be hard-pressed to find a more realistic screen adaptaion of what the reality of war in its simplest context is truly like...watch this if you're at all curious. For those few thin-skinned liberals out there who have an interest in war films, you might wish to check out "Three Kings" instead.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting, incredibly moving depiction of recent history
Review: I couldn't get this movie out of my head after I saw it - what those men endured, how it didn't have to happen that way (if they had been given the equipment requested to back them up). The last movie that had that kind of haunting, physically gut-wrenching effect on me was "Schindler's List". People really need to see this film to get a true understanding of how serious military action on any level is, how quickly a "routine" mission can go terribly wrong and how political pressure from amateurs should never enter the equation. When they request backup, they should get it. They shouldn't be pressured to speed things up for political purposes if patience can better ensure success and prevent unnecessary loss of life. And when something goes wrong, you can't just yank everyone out of there because your pollsters tell you to since the long-term implication is that it sends a terrible message: in this case it encouraged Osama bin Laden. The film itself seemed quite realistic, the violence is graphic and gruesome but not gratuitous. Overall I thought it was quite well-done.
Rating:
Summary: Who's Who?
Review: I saw this movie the night that it opened, in a crowded theatre. The sound, video and camera work were amazing. But i could not tell who was who. everybody looked the same throughout the entire movie. And then i realized, wasn't that the point? Do we not give soldiers uniforms to make them look similar? Anyways, after watching the movie a few times, I can finaly follow each character, and it makes the movie easier to understand. Now i don't want to seem like a sadistic war freak, but i love watching this movie. Pay attention to the use of camera angles, sounds and background colors. You will be amazed by how Ridly Scott uses these simple composition tricks to creat a visual masterpiece. Overall, it is a good movie. good story and GREAT visuals. Now on to my pro's and con's PRO's
* Great cinamatography
* Good Acting
* Realistic action CON's
* Hard to follow story
* slow at some points
* Lack of character development
Rating:
Summary: The most realistic war movie ever!!!
Review: Firstly let me just state that I have never been in combat. However this movie more than any other made me feel as if I was in a battle. Its grittly realism allows one to feel just how dirty, dangerous, mind-numbing, confusing, chaotic and scary a real battle must be. Sure there wasn't much character development but this is not a love story. I for one was not interested in the characters and their personalities. I was more interested in what actually happened and how it felt to be there and this film really achieved that. This movie is almost like a documentary. It also showed that the US Rangers were a little to gung-ho and they paid the price. The more professional DELTA clearly knew what they were talking about and one didn't see them taking out the ceramic plates of their combat jackets or leaving nightvision goggles and extra water behind. Overall the music, sound and visual effects are the best ever in a war movie. This DVD is just superb. I take my hat off to the producers and director. Well done.
Rating:
Summary: The best war movie ever made.
Review: This movie is about the Soul of Combat Soldiers. In contrast to most Hollywood war movies, Blackhawk Down is highly respectful of the series of moral decisions that human beings make in allowing themselves to be placed into a Battle such as this. Early in the movie Ranger Sgt. Eversman is talking to his fellow Rangers about their presence in Somalia, 'It seems to me that we can either watch the country destroy itself (the famine and coexisting anarchy having resulted in 300,000 deaths) or we can try to help.'
After the battle Delta Sgt. Hooten, talking with
Eversman, simply and honestly describes the morality of the professional warrior. Hooten recalls he was asked by his civilian friends, "'Hoot, why do you do it? Are you some kind of war junkie?' I don't say a damn thing because they wouldn't get it. It's about the men next to you. That's all." This moral position may be mentioned in other movies but the makers of Blackhawk Down have eloquently captured it in the behavior of the soldiers in the film. There is even an empathic portrayal of the rage of the Somali militia at the American implication that their culture was so simple and so defective that foreigners would believe they were entitled intrude as they saw fit. There is also an ironic reference to the moral judgement of the Clinton administration. General Garrison is speaking with his officers about the tactical plans for the American action, "I requested gunships and armor to provide additional back-up, but Washington, in its infinite wisdom, declined, saying it would be 'Too High Profile.'" This is a very stirring and powerful movie.
Rating:
Summary: WE DID NOT LEAVE A MAN BEHIND !!!
Review: What can I say ? I am a former Soviet Airborne Special Forces member . 621 days in Afghanistan . 217 in combat missions . I had to write a book , to get reed of the faces ! To get reed of the memories ! I did not want to se the movie !!! But , I had to !
What can I say ? We did not leave men behind ! Different war ... Different Soldiers ! ONE RULE !
This movie hearts ! It brings back , what I do not want to feel ! But I did !
Do you want to know , what I felt ?! NO , you don,t ! But I will tell you :
1. Us , sleeping in pairs under one blanket ( just not to frease to death in the mountains ) .
2. 4 of us , carring one dead body ... the little hole in his side ... the blood , keep spealing from there ... my thought : just a little hole ?!? Why ?!
3. The hand , which grabbed me and pulled me out of the fire .
4. The first morning , when I woke up at home - the pain ! I miss you guys ! What am I going to do now ?
5-6-7...A 1000 of us , looking for one dead body . We did not leave for over 30 hours ... WE DO NOT LEAVE A MAN BEHIND !!!
AIRBORNE!!!MARINES!!!Different war ... Same pain...
If you can not handle the pain - don,t watch this movie !
Rating:
Summary: The space between... hoo-ah?
Review: You know the story. On october 3rd, 1993, a group of Delta Force and Ranger soldiers got trapped behind enemy lines in the hostile territory of Mogadishu, Somalia, while they were trying to bring down a cruel warlord. With angry somalies shooting at these soldiers from every direction, they only could protect themselves by shooting back and running through the sandy streets. The rescue, that was suppoused to take less than 30 minutes, actually took over 15 hours, leaving several dead american soldiers and hundreds of slaughtered somalies. True, you may not get a lot of character development, but I don't think that was the point of the movie. I've always thought you got to watch a movie in its own context and if you see this one as in interesting experiment of almost a documentary it's quite terrific. Cinematography couldn't be better and I think Hans Zimmer's score is quite simply marvelous: it really makes you feel tense and in certain moments, certain vocalizations by Lisa Gerrard are quite macabre, just like the movie. It is not a gross movie, it's just creepy, scary, macabre in its own way, because you definately can feel what's going on. And you get to see how things get even more complicated as the hours go by and the team begins to dissolve. Ewan McGregor does a funny job as the desk-boy Johnny Grimes, and I'd have liked to see more of him, preparing coffee and running around screaming. Josh Hartnett is practically himself (don't get me wrong, I like him, but he always acts the same way). Sam Shepard has a very interesting role and probably the best developed one, as the leader of the whole situation. Tom Sizemore is great, as one soldier leading the wounded out of the hostile territory, but you can actually see he's terrified, the way he sweats, the way he's cursing all the time but that look in his eyes that says he just wants to get out as soon as possible. Eric Bana, Jason Isaacs and William Fichtner are the brave soldiers, they are not scared of anything and they just keep fighting and trying to protect their men. Orlando Bloom, Richard Tyson, Jeremy Piven, Ron Eldard, Kim Coates and Ewen Bremner also star in this non-stop battle, beautifully directed by Ridley Scott, in a way that you can actually forget about the world and you are allowed to get into the movie. I give it 4 stars and not 5 because of the lack of screentime for Ewan McGregor and especially, the lack of special features. It only features a behind-the-scenes and two trailers from Spider-Man and The One, but no trailer for this movie. Kinda silly, ain't it? Fortunately, somewhere in early 2003 Clumbia TriStar is going to release a 2-disc set for this one, hopefully including the chilling trailer featuring the Dave Matthews Band song, The Space Between. If you're really interested in this movie, I'd recommend waiting for the special edition, hoo-ah?
Rating:
Summary: BLACK HAWK DOWN
Review: BEING A EX VET THIS IS ONE OF THE NEARIST YOU WILL GET TO THE REAL THING,THIS IS THE VERY BEST OF A WAR FILM, THE INTENCE GUN FIGHTS ARE VERRY REAL TO LIVE,AS YOU CAN GET.
ITS MY KIND OF FILM MY STAR RATEING IS *****
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