"War is cruelty; you cannot refine it." William Tecumseh Sherman

I just got back from viewing Black Hawk Down and one thing I noted was there was very little conversation going on during the picture. To me this means that either everyone was riveted, or they were asleep. I choose to believe they were riveted as I was.

In October 1993 a group of 123 Army Rangers and Delta Force raided into the marketplace of Mogadishu, Somalia in order to capture two lieutenants of the warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. As luck would have it, the Somalis shot down two of their Black Hawk helicopters and the soldiers had to secure them from the attackers. During a fifteen-hour battle 19 U.S. Army soldiers and 1,000 Somalis were killed.

I'm an Army veteran and consider myself lucky that no hostile action took place during my tour of duty but we trained as if it could happen at any time, which of course it could have. This is the story of a simple mission that went awry...

I have read a number of reviews of Black Hawk Down and noted some criticized the facelessness of the depiction of the Rangers and Delta Force members as opposed to the well-defined characters shown in, say, Saving Private Ryan. I am of the opinion that this anonymity was intentional on the part of Director Ridley Scott, as the keynote of the movie was the statement "No one gets left behind." Anybody who has been in the Army would understand this sentiment, that every member of the group is important. You cover your buddy's @$$ and he covers yours. Ridley Scott was depicting a unit, not a bunch of individuals. This would probably be lost on anybody who had not had similar military experience. What he was demonstrating was esprit de corps in the finest tradition of the U.S. Army.

Esprit de corps was what made the two Delta snipers, Master Sergeant Gary Gordon and Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart, repeatedly ask to be let down at the second crash site to secure the area in the face of hundreds of attacking Somalis - an act that resulted in the two being decorated posthumously with Medals of Honor.

We also must consider that Black Hawk Down was based on actual history whereas Saving Private Ryan was a work of fiction. Character development was a big part of Saving Private Ryan, but there were only a half dozen characters while Black Hawk Down had nearly a hundred speaking characters. It would be a thirty-six hour film if they tried to develop so many characters!

Ridley Scott depicts war at a frenetic pace. All the fear and uncertainly is there. Certainly this is not a film whose subject matter will appeal to a lot of women but it is an important movie that illustrates the bonds that fighting men develop under the stress of combat.

Photography by Slavomir Idziak is gritty and intense. Weapons sequences are particularly good with good weapons handling, fire discipline, and realistic weapons sounds. Kudos to the sound department! Incidental music by Jeff Rona and Mel Wesson consists of mysterious Middle Eastern sounds and has suitably heroic passages as well.

Black Hawk Down depicts professional soldiers doing a professional job. I don't know any higher praise I can give than that.

For those who enjoy gripping war movies I suggest Siege of Firebase Gloria, Hamburger Hill, and Zulu.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age