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 the best war film ever Jul 10, 2010
This movie is no doubt one of the most underrated movies of 2001.Great music score and nonstop action.I know this movie was controversial but still the best.A great movie based on an actual event that occured in 1993.You won't be bored nor disappointed.Don't listen to the ones who gave it bad reviews unless It's about the DVD,VHS,or Blu-Ray.Once the movie starts,there are no studios logos at the beginning and they will appear after the credits and you'll just see the text at the beginning of the film that says"based on an actual event,".Go on and buy this film.
Quality Blu-ray Jun 05, 2010
The product was delivered as promised and was in very good shape for being used. Looks great on Blu-ray!
AMERICA'S CRITIC Jun 05, 2010
THIS WAR MOVIE WAS GREAT BUT ALWAYS FELT LIKE IT WAS MISSING STUFF!!! I LOVED SOME OF THE CITY SCENES AND THE STORY,, BUT AT TIMES FELT BORED!! THIS IS ONE THAT EVERYONE PRETTY MUCH HAS BY NOW SO ENJOY THIS MOVIE.
Black Hawk Down May 14, 2010
In October of 1993, in an effort to secure the Somali town of Mogadishu, Task Force Ranger, comprised of Delta Force soldiers and Rangers, are sent in for a mission that is supposed to last no more than half an hour. But when two Black Hawk helicopters are downed by insurgents with rocket launchers many of the members of Task Force Ranger are left stranded in the city. The ensuing battle lasts for 18 hours.
The Battle of Magadishu (also known as The Battle of the Black Sea, Black Hawk Down, and for the Somali's The Day of the Rangers) was both a disaster and a success depending on who you talk to. It was a success in that when all was said and done Task Force Ranger accomplished their main objectives. At the same time, it was a disaster because originally the mission was only supposed to take 30 minutes, but in the end lasted 18 hours and cost the lives of 19 American soldiers and somewhere in the range of 500-2000 Somali's. How do you adapt an 18 hour battle into a two and a half hour movie?
Very carefully, and had the movie been placed in a less capable director's hands than Ridley Scott's (Alien, Gladiator) this movie could very well have been a disaster. Ridley Scott, though, along with first time screenwriter Ken Nolan, do their best to capture the battle in a truly authentic light, and they do an amazing job. From what I hear (I have a lot more to learn about the battle) this is possibly the most accurate depiction of a battle ever put to film. I would also argue that it's the best example of modern urban warfare put to film as well.
The performances in this film are amazing as, despite a hugely recognizable cast (something I might just be saying because many of the actors in this movie have become huge since, and weren't as big at the time) there is no vanity amongst the actors. Their lack of vanity only adds to the realism, and also builds up the feeling of brotherhood as they act out the battle in the field.
All in all, if there was going to be an argument against this film it would really only be the fact that there's not much character development. In the end, though, it's not as much about the characters as it is about the units. It's not as much about the battle as it is a reminder that there are still soldiers that carry the DNA of bravery and brotherhood that we saw in the World War II elite. And it's not so much about Somalia as it is about the war fronts we fight on throughout the world whether in Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. If you haven't seen this movie yet, definitely give it a shot.
4.5/5
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
No excuse to that American made hell Apr 25, 2010
That film is revealing about the vanity that leads to military defeat. The vanity of going out for three weeks and launching an offensive at the end of the sixth week to prove things are progressing and improving. Indeed. But vanity it is when one forgets Somalia is not a baseball court, or is it field we should say? And it was in 1992-1993 a civil war and nothing else and Americans were not welcome in that mess. Vanity to the point of instructing the soldiers going out in that Sunday afternoon offensive that it was going to last about thirty minutes, so that they did not even take their night equipment. And of course the targeted people knew the Americans were arriving and they were ready to welcome them in the bullfight arena of Mogadishu's streets. And one helicopter came down and a second one after that. And dozens of American GIs found themselves trapped in the streets and some buildings with hundreds if not thousands of snipers on the roofs everywhere with rocket launchers and that level of weapons. And then instead of retreating as fast as possible, and the defeat was clear within twenty minutes, or let's say an hour, they insisted on going on and attacking on and on and getting deeper and deeper into the trap. More stubborn than I you die. And nineteen GIs died, but of course what was it when compared with one thousand, at least one thousand, dead Somalis, including children and women. And two weeks later finally Bill Clinton got his feet back on earth and got the GIs out. We can always say those nineteen GIs died in vain and are or were heroes, but frankly what about the one thousand Somalis who were killed on their own soil, and what good did these deaths bring to Somalia or to the world? Nothing, absolutely nothing, except the absolute conviction in the heads of these Somalis fighting for power that they were right since troops were coming from so far away to fight against them and be defeated. As one of them could say, there can't be peace without victory, and I would add there can't be peace as long as foreign soldiers are getting mixed in such problems that are none of our concerns, even if we must condemn these autocratic, feudal war lords and governments in the name of universal human and civil rights, but once again peace and democracy cannot be exported like a bag of rice with weapons and grenades to wrap them in. The film is sadly realistic, though it did not prevent the USA from starting again in Afghanistan and in Iraq. When will simple sanity come back to the minds of American leaders?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
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