Adapted from the best-selling non-fiction novel by
Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Mark Bowden, "Black Hawk
Down" (BHD) depicts one of the most intense ground
combat engagements fought by U.S. Forces in recent time. In
late 1992, U.S. Forces were deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia
to support a humanitarian effort to aid the thousands of
starving people who have endured years of civil war among
the rivaling clans. Once the U.S. presence left the Eastern
African city, 24 U.N. peacekeepers were butchered by warlord
Mohamed Farrah Aidid.
In early 1993, America went to war in Mogadishu in an effort
to capture Aidid and his top officials. The war in Mogadishu
claimed the lives of 18 American soldiers and wounded 84
others. It was estimated that there was at least 500 Somali
casualties and well into the thousands wounded.
After reading the book about 6 months ago, I was psyched to
learn that BHD was going to be transformed to the big
screen. The book provided the most descriptive account of
combat that I have ever read -- it actually felt like I was
there. The book is centered around a mission to round up
Aidid's top officials. This mission was only supposed to
last an hour but ended up to be 18 hours, with heavily
outnumbered Special Operations Forces pinned down in a hail
of gunfire by Somali militia and civilians in the heart of
the city.
The movie primarily follows Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann
(Josh Hartnett), and Company Clerk John Grimes (Ewan
McGregor) throughout the mission but revolves around many
characters. Unfortunately, without reading the book you will
not really get to know anything about the other 20 soldiers.
In particular Mike Durant, who was held captive for 11 days.
The movie adheres to the book's story line and took the
experience to a much more intense level. It's one thing
reading about thousands of Somalis swarming in on a crash
site - but to see it and hear it - wow. If you had thought
that Saving Private Ryan's opening minutes on the shores of
Normandy was intense - just wait till you see BHD. It is not
just a few minutes to grab your attention, its the pulse of
the entire story.
However, I think that in order to fully appreciate the movie
you'll need to read the book or at least check out http://www.philly.com/packages/somalia/sitemap.asp
before hand. And quite honestly after seeing the movie I
came out with a deeper admiration and respect for all of the
men and women who served our country. NSDQ
-- EJ, Guest Junkie and Patsy's big
bro ( 3 out of 4 pops )
Talk
about this film with other Popkorn Junkies |
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Other Junkie's
opinions.....
Billy Ray ( 4 out of
4 pops )
This is what good war movies are all about. "Black Hawk
Down" combines the frenzied fight scenes of "Saving Private
Ryan" with the thoughtfulness, complexity, and character
development of "The Thin Red Line". Director Ridley
Scott weaves a masterful web of drama and action that is both beautiful
to watch and agonizing to contemplate. Anyone thinking about
enlisting in the armed forces should watch this film before they make
their final decision. There are wonderful performances all-around,
especially from Josh Hartnett as Eversman and William Fichtner as
Sanders. Tom Sizemore is also in this one--he is becoming a
typecast in all of his films because he has two more war related films
coming out this year. Sam Shepard is grizzled and domineering
enough as the general over the operation, and Ewan McGregor adds a
little comic relief when he takes a break from fighting to prepare the
perfect cup of coffee. There is a lot of blood and guts in this
film, but that does a good job of letting us know how it must have felt
to be in their situation, fighting a war that was not their own.
The general motto of the film is "don't leave anyone behind, living
or dead", which is evident when they risk their lives even further
to make sure two dead pilots are removed and taken back to headquarters.
This is an extraordinary film which, by all means, should be a Best
Picture candidate. Ridley Scott has taken actual events and made
them mostly believable (I say "mostly" because of some
mysterious infrared shots from the sky and a couple of cheesy lines that
no normal human being would say) and highly entertaining. This is
powerful, powerful stuff. P.S. If you don't cringe during
"the thumb scene" then you can't be human. And, how many
soldiers in this film look like Justin Timberlake from N'Sync?
James ( 4 out of 4 pops )
This
is quite possibly, the single greatest war movie ever. Wanna know
why? It doesn't glorify
war. And that's all that matters. Sure, this isn't
the first movie to not glorify war, but it did it in the best way.
The only problem I had
was that their wasn't much character development and when people died,
you didn't know who they were. It was predictable in
the sense that everyone that the story followed survived. When people
died, I cared for a
little bit but not as much as I should have because their
characters were not developed very well, although, it was told
through the eyes of the
survivors so that's probably the reason, but, like
I said, that doesn't really matter. All in all, it's a brilliant war
movie that is almost
guaranteed an Oscar. In my mind, war movies are great
if they don't glorify war, because war is hell.
Patsy ( 3 1/2 out
of 4 pops )
After "Saving Private Ryan", "Thin Red Line", and
the numerous other war movies I've seen I must say that I don't think I
really enjoy films on the subject. How can you enjoy a movie about
war-- a movie that's all about horrible things happening in the
world? I dunno. So, for that reason I've decided that I
don't like war movies. That doesn't mean that "Black Hawk
Down" isn't a good movie though. It was a wonderfully
executed film and it was so realistic, I felt like I was there. So
afterward when I was asked-- "How did you like it?" I
had to say "I didn't". I was upset and depressed that
such horrible things can happen-- doesn't that upset you?
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