rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2001
Directed by Ridley Scott; produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott; screenplay by Ken Nolan
Starring Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Black Hawk Down' is a war film that simply looks at true events happened in
Mogadishu, Somalia. It does not try to make war look exciting, it has no
real heroes, it is even hard to see clearly who is who because it does not
really matter. Director Ridley Scott shows that war is hell, a little like
the way Steven Spielberg did that with his early scenes in 'Saving Private
Ryan'. To romanticize a thing like this, the way 'Pearl Harbor' handled
things, would be stupid and Scott knows it.
His film tells about a mission on October 3, 1993, where close to everything
goes wrong. The mission seems not that hard, about to take half an hour.
Things start going wrong when a helicopter makes a sudden move to dodge a
missile. New guy Blackburn (Orlando Bloom) falls from the helicopter and
needs medical attention. This slows down the mission, making the US troops
vulnerable. When a Black Hawk helicopter is shot down the real trouble
begins. Since no man will be left behind the mission has to change into a
rescue mission. Another Black Hawk goes down and hell breaks loose. The half
hour mission becomes an entire day disaster with lots of casualties.
The characters we are able to remember are Sergeant Eversmann (Josh
Hartnett), Grimes (Ewan McGregor), Captain Steele (Jason Isaacs), Lt. Col.
McKnight (Tom Sizemore), Sanderson (William Fichtner), Nelson (Ewen Bremner)
and Hoot (Eric Bana). Major General Garrison (Sam Shepard) is leading the
mission from base camp. It is a good things that these characters have faces
we know, but are no real stars; that could have been distracting. (Although
now Hartnett and McGregor are stars they are clearly not used for their star
power.) Since these characters each belong to a different group of soldiers
we are able to understand where everyone is and therefore it is pretty clear
how things are going; not very well.
Scott directs this disaster in a terrific way. Although things are a mess,
the film knows to keep our attention, showing what is necessary to
understand what is happening. The cinematography is great. Scott uses the
satellite images how they were really used and films the action in a raw
way. Most of the time the camera is just registering. Hans Zimmer's music
sounds sometimes a little like his music from 'Gladiator' but fits the film
and is original in its own way. 'Black Hawk Down' is one of the best made
war films I have seen. Uncompromising, realistic, brutal.