Black Hawk Down | Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor | One hell of a good war action movie!

Black Hawk Down | Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor | One of the Best

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Black Hawk Down

	Black Hawk Down Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor Sony Pictures, 2002 average customer review:based on 1017 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One hell of a good war action movie!

Last week, including the weekend, I watched three great war action movies on television, namely:

1) 'Black Hawk Down', starring Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana;

2) 'Behind Enemy Lines', starring Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman;

3) 'Tears of the Sun', starring Bruce Willis, Monica Bellucci, Tom Skerritt;

The first movie was based on an actual event that took place in Mogadishu, Somalia on the African continent in October 1993 during the Clinton presidency.

The second movie was apparently a fictional adaptation of an actual event that supposedly took place during the Bosnia-Serbia conflict.

The third movie was more of a fictional account that had the starvation-ravaged Nigeria caught in an ethnic civil war as a background setting.

In the war action movie, 'Black Hawk Down', directed by Ridley Scott (behind 'Gladiator', 'Blake Runner'), an elite team of some hundred US Army Rangers & Delta Force operatives were dropped deep into the capital city of Somalia, Mogadishu one day in October 1993.

It was the stronghold of the powerful warlord, Mohammed Farrah Aidid, who had been hijacking International Red Cross food shipments at the ports with the intention to used them as bargaining chips with the United Nations.

The mission was to capture two top lieutenants of the warlord.

It was perceived as a quick straight-forward extraction, 30 minutes the most, but it turned out to be a 18-hour nightmarish ordeal for the US soldiers on the ground.

Probably due to poor intelligence, they soon found themselves separated on the ground - & outnumbered - in a desperate street corner battle with a large group of heavily-armed Somali gunmen, following the early unexpected destruction of two of their Black Hawk rescue helicopters.

For the next 90 minutes or so, the entire movie then traced the heroic efforts by other fellow army rangers to rescue their comrades (Well, they certainly lived up to their military creed 'Leave No Man Behind'), starting with Sgt. Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), commanding one unit named Chalk IV & leading his men to the first Black Hawk crash site...

to Warrant Officer Durant (Ron Eldard), who was the only survivor of the second Black Hawk crash site & who was captured by Somali gunmen...

to the gung-ho Lt. Col. McKnight (Tom Sizemore) who led a rescue convoy only to get lost in an unforgiving city...

to Sgt. Sanderson (William Fichner) who was desperately trying to reach the first Black Hawk crash site...

to Staff Sgt. Yurek (Tom Guiry) who led two fellow Rangers, Nelson (Ewen Bremmer) & Twanbly (Tom Hardy) to meet up with their squad, Chalk IV, at the first Black Hawk crash site.
With all the bullets whizzing past & explosive sounds of gunfire, & of course, empty shells with blood splattering all over the bodies as well as places, the movie was quite confusing at first, as it was difficult to track who was who, although the soldiers' names were tagged to their individual helmets.

The gritty realism of the movie really put me into the middle of hellish horror faced by all the young US solders.

There were chilling moments, for example:

[When Warrant Officer Durant was captured & brought for interrogation]

Durrant: "My government will never negotiate for me."

Interrogator: "Then perhaps you & I can negotiate, huh? Soldier to soldier."

Durant: "I am not in charge."

Interrogator: "Course not, you have the power to kill, but not negotiate. In Somalia, killing is negotiation."

The following further comment by the interrogator really exposed the harsh reality of the situation:

"Do you think if you get General Aidid, we will simply put down our weapons & adopt American democracy? That the killing will stop? We know this, without victory, there will be no peace. There will always be killing, see? This is how things are in our world."

There were also some comic moments. For example:

[During a cross fire near the Black Hawk crash site.]

Grimes: "Why aren't you shooting?"

Waddell: "We're not being shot at yet."

Grimes: "How can you tell?"

Waddell: "A hiss means it's close. A snap means..."

[A bullet whizzed past, pretty close.]

Waddell: "Now, they're shooting at us!"

[They began returning fire.]

For me, this intense movie certainly captured the emotional fears, raw courage & selfless heroism of the US soldiers against nearly insurmountable odds.

At the end, nineteen of them perished, not counting probably the thousands of Somali people who also died in the cross fire.

I enjoyed watching the movie, for the reasonably good acting, despite the fact that the movie did not centre on any single character, the pulsating action sequences, the comic as well as tearful moments, & the beautiful cinematography.

I particularly like the dialogue towards the ending, when Sgt. Norm Hooten (Eric Bana) said to Sgt. Eversmann (Josh Hartnett):

"When I go home, people will ask me, "Hey, Hoot, why do you do it, man? What, you some kind of a war junkie?" You know what I'll say? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, & that's all it is."

What a profound response from a true soldier as well as a good human being.

The final scene through the film credits was also very poignant, as I watched nineteen coffins slowly being loaded on to a 130-Hercules transport, with the loading ramp slowly closing.

I believe the opening quote from Plato at the movie's beginning, "Only the dead have seen an end to war," truly reflects my emotional sentiments about the movie.

According to history, it was the Malaysian and Pakistani contingents based in Somalia under the United Nations command that actually made the final rescue & eventually escorted the surviving US Army rangers & Delta Force operatives out of harm's way.

[In that final scene, it was quite funny, & scary at the same time too, to watch the surviving US soldiers, seemingly exhausted, having to run on foot, & obviously unprotected, behind the escort convoy, with a ragtag group of Somali gunmen on pick-up trucks chasing them.]

This vital part of history was apparently downplayed in the movie. I guess that's Hollywood's prerogative.

My end analysis: this is one hell of a good war action movie to watch!

To sum up all the three war action movies in the foregoing posts, I want to take this opportunity to share with readers a dedication statement I had learned - & remembered - since my secondary school days. It came from Sir Winston Churchill, the wartime British Prime Minister:

"Never in the field of human conflict, have so many owed so much to so few."

So, dear readers, please go & watch the three foregoing war action movies. You will be delighted.

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One of the Best

Black hawk Down is one of the best movies of all time! It is the most realistic, gritty, and true to life war movie that I have ever seen! The cinematics are amazing because this was produced with little or no computer graphics. It is so intense that you feel as if you are in the actual war instead of a bystander. It is a must for any action/war movie lover! The best!

Black Hawk Down

I have a copy of this, and bought this to give my grandson. I think this was pretty accurate.

Difficult to watch, couldn't stop watching.

I first saw BHD because I am a Ridley Scott fan. When the "incident" in Somalia actually happened, I could not bring myself to watch the news footage. The movie somehow put it on a level that made it accessible to me even though the pain was intense. Definitely on a par with "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan."

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