Black Hawk Down (DVD) > Reviews > NOTHING LIKE FLOATING YOUR OWN BOAT

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	See below
Disadvantages:	See below

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Was I lucky or unlucky enough to see Black Hawk Down on DVD last week, the decision is up to you?

A woman can only stand so much death and destruction and this grand epic based on a true story that happened on October 3rd 1993, a battle which took place in the war torn city of Mogadishu, whether they should have been there or not, who are we to decide.

This story was based on the real life events of that day in early October, The book written by Mark Bowden tells the story of the real life events that happened to the Americans soldiers of the Rangers (rapid light infantry), Delta (excellent marksmen) and the Night stalkers (highly skilled helicopter pilots trained to fly in any situation). Some of which did not come out of this bloody conflict alive.

The intended mission was to deploy ground troops in to the city to capture a couple of members of the Somalian warlords (Mohamed Farrah) lieutenants, The American soldiers deployed to this mission were under the impression that it was going to be a very straight forward ground attack, to find and capture the men and return with in the hour, oh, how wrong they were proved!

It was like throwing a leg of lamb into the lions dens, these solders most of which were only 18 years of ages and trained to protect and serve their country were only doing what they were trained to do. This mission turned into 15 hours of your worst living nightmare.

The attack that took place this day not only did it claim the lives of 18 Americans, two Black Hawk helicopters, but, also not forgetting the hundreds, if not thousands of innocent Somalian's that died over the entire period of reign of terror that is one thing that this film very easily forgets.

The cast, some of which were lost amongst the plot included:

Josh Hartnett – Eversmann

Lets just hope that the man he played had some sort of backbone because Josh just seem to be a real wet weekend

Ewan McGregor – Grimes

Some how did not recognise him sitting behind the desk bashing away on his key board, waiting for his moment to come when he found himself replacing a member of the squad.

Tom Sizemore – McKnight

Plays a brilliant Lt. Colonel very calm and cool headed even a little too cool at some times.

Ron Eldard – Durant

Play the role of the Black Hawk pilot to perfection, one of the second black hawks to be shot down and one of the luckiest men alive and his life was spared and taken hostage by the Somalian Militia.

Eric Bana – Hoot
Sam Sheppard – Garrison
William Fichtner – Nelson

Each of these characters were based as close to real life as some of the real men that fought that day, some of which failed to return, believe me the casting list is too long to even list the amount of brilliants actors that seemed to get lost in this maze of terror, has to be seen to be believed it took me nearly half and hour to realize that Ewan McGregor was even in it!

If you ever get the chance to see this film make sure you have it on DVD and get the 2 disc set as the additional disc with all the extras is if not better than the actual film, the film runs for just under 2.5 hours and disc 2 runs well into the 3 hour mark.

This disc for me was an eye opener, the special features included:

3 commentaries by the Directors Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer, Author Mark Bowden and screen writer Ken Nolan, Task Force Veterans.

5 Featurettes - Boot camp - Yes they sent all the cast to Boot camp, just seeing Ewan McGregor struggle made me laugh! On Location – As like good old Gladiator Ridley Scott love Morocco so much he chose this country for the location of the making of Black Hawk Down, Helicopter and special effects, and by watching the film I had no idea there was so many special effects, must be a little slow on the uptake.

Deleted and alternative scenes; multi angle sequences; image and video galleries; pre-production; continuity and costume; interview archive; premiere footage and trailers.

And finally interviews with the Americans that did make it home from that horrendous day.

This film is given a 15 certificate, running time approximately 138 minutes give or take a few seconds! Language as you would expect from this type of movie and not for getting the blood and guts, so if you are at all faint hearted this film is definitely not for you.

I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that I did not like or dislike this film, it is down to the individual who looks deep into the story behind the facts and can filter through all that American hyped up BS.

That I think in all honesty is the problem is so over Americanised you loose the true reason behind such a moving story, to think that so many innocent people lost their lives, and for what? I think that if this was a British story a. you would not have seen it carried over into film and b. it would be a case of hands up we screwed up!

All I can say is by watching the extra DVD I had no idea that most of the actors in this film were English, a truly moving story whether you choose to watch this it is up to you, but, if you do think a little bit deeper and try to see the whole picture from every angle and not just the Americans.

The lasting memory for me for this film is the senseless loss of lives.

Thank You

Zoe

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