The situation

The over-view on the movie is that it’s a modern war movie. I love war movies, and this movie will probably be on my top favorite list. This movie is gory, so if you have a weak stomach at blood and gut scenes, see this movie at your own risk. It’s gory in a way that in one incident, there is a dead missile pierced through one of the ranger soldiers (the missile was dead so the body stayed in tact – minus the missile inside him). And I think that it was because of these gory details that made this movie so good. Oh. But the fact that it was so fast paced and confusing, I decided to watch the movie for the second time at the movie theatre. I needed to so that way I’d understand who was fighting whom. I wasn't too curious about the actors, or the character development because that’s not what a war movie is about. I just couldn’t understand which soldier was where, and what they were supposed to do – other than kill 1000 or so Somalians that fought against them.
Through the book, I learned that the Americans wanted to capture some of Aidid's high commanding officers and friends, and they also suspected that Aidid would be in the same building that they were raiding (the peacekeepers never learned about the raid on 10/3/99 untill after the raid began). Also the amount of Sam's killed that day are based on speculation as is all wars. The author of the book, Mark Bowden (who also assisted with the research for the movie) had difficulty in getting the correct facts from the natives at Mog because these people were outraged and angry at Americans, and they thought that Bowden was a reporter (which he wasn't at the time of the interviews).

The movie focused on the Delta Force soldiers and Rangers. In which case, having such a small amount of facts of who was fighting helped the viewer in not becoming too confused. It was also the focus on the attempt on capturing Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s generals on October 3, 1993. It gives you bits and pieces of the fights and the casualties, because it’s a 2 1/2 or so movie. But that’s all it tells you. It is only the half of the truth of what had happened. They don’t tell you important things, like how Mike Durant was respectfully treated while he was the warlord’s hostage. And the movie doesn’t tell you the big key, like who really fought that day. It was more than just the Deltas and Rangers. I remember most of the details through the news during the time. The books more insightful when it comes to the full picture of the situation. This is why I’m reading the book right now, to know who participated in the war (not the names of the guys), and why we helped in the first place.

Its REAL background story is about the attempt at stopping warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid from genocide; in which he was starving more than 3,000 fellow Samolians. So for the first few months or so the U.N. Peacekeepers and U.S. soldiers have kept Mohamed from starving people. But for six weeks they’ve failed in capturing him. There have been many attempts. On July 12 there was a peaceful meeting held at Qeybdid’s household, to decide how they would negotiate with the peacekeepers. 2 of the 17 QRF helicopters that were circling the building opened fire. They called the pilots that fired their 16 missiles ‘bored and trigger-happy.’ They thought Mohamed was in the building. That was maybe the fuel that helped Mohamed gain more of his allies. The ‘raid’ on October 3, 1993 was to be a quick mission. The Deltas, Rangers, the Navy SEALs, Air Force Commandos, S.O.A.R., and average soldiers like Blackburn (who had just finished basic army training – not Ranger school) were involved. They were to have captured the people they were hunting down in one hour. Their mission lasted for almost an entire day.


The Cast and Crew

The actors consisted of fresh faces as well as some old ones. When first watching the movie, it helped seeing familiar faces like Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Ewen Bremner because your attention focused on them. But sometimes that was a bad thing because the movie would switch from one group to the next, making things confusing. There was a lot of actors that it was also hard to keep track with who was acting, which happens in a war movie. The director, Ridley Scott, has done some impressive movies, but I think this movie is his best war movie. The screenwriting was decent, but some of the information (like the boys’ names) needs to be corrected. The sound was awesome, as was the special effects.

The actors were:
OLD FAMILIAR FACES LIKE... Sam Shepard (‘The Right Stuff’, ‘Swordfish’), Josh Hartnett (‘Pearl Harbor,’ ’40 days and 40 nights’), Ewan McGregor (‘Trainspotting,’ ‘Moulin Rouge’), Tom Sizemore (‘Saving Private Ryan’, ‘Pearl Harbor’, and soon to be released – “Big Trouble’), Ewen Bremner (‘Trainspotting’, ‘Pearl Harbor’), William Fichtner (‘Go’, ‘The Perfect Storm’, ‘What’s the Worst That Could Happen’), Jason Isaacs (‘The Patriot’, ‘Sweet November’), Ron Eldard (‘Mystery, Alaska’), Jeremy Piven (‘PCU’, ‘Serendipity’).
AND NEW ACTORS LIKE... Eric Bana, Kim Coates, Brendan Sexton, Brian Van Holt, Carmine Giovinazzo, Charlie Hofheimer, Enrique Murciano, Gabriel Casseus, Hugh Dancy, Ioan Gruffudd, Richard Tyson, Danny Hoch, Tom Guiry.

BOTTOM-LINE here is that the movie was pretty good minus the fact that they didn’t give you the complete story. I’d watch it again, and quite possibly buy the dvd for the effects.

Cheers
-sha

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age