Black Hawk Down

About 15 American soldiers and give or take a bajillion Somalis die in the film, with the focus on the dying Americans occupying over twenty minutes of the film in total and the shots of the dying Somalis about 40 seconds. I didn't care about any of the characters (okay, except Sizemore, but I knew nothing would happen to him), and I didn't care about the heroes throwing grenades in exactly the same shot as the athletes throwing the javelin in Triumph of the Will. Of course, I don't give a shit, and I pretty much welcome recruitment films, because then there'll be enough material for more movies about botched military actions that can be handled by someone like Ridley Scott and I’ll be able to sit there for two and a half hours, snorting loudly with delight and thanking God that there are so many Somalis that the movie will still take over an hour. There were certain passages where I seriously considered sending my fellow viewer home, user Marla Singer, because I was jealous of the fact that she was watching the film in Blu-ray quality with me. The incredible gradation of some of the scenes, the perfectionist work with the shot, the well-used filters, the surprisingly slower editing, the believable brutality. War is beautiful. (05/12/2023)

After a bit of a boring beginning comes the director's exhibition. Bloody, raw, gritty carnage, filmed so impressively that you have to wonder how the hell does Scott do that. Too bad about the missed Oscar nomination, Scott really deserved it. It should also be appreciated that this film does not expose the viewer the same hyper-patriotic horror as at the ending of Saving Private Ryan. After the formally perfect, but plot-wise stupid Gladiator, Ridley again fixed his reputation with me. (07/20/2002)

By the time the ink was barely dry on my ID and I had successfully passed my high school entrance exams, I headed to the movie theater to see a war movie by Ridley Scott, the filmmaker who had conveyed the unadulterated terror of my encounter with a slimy alien on TV a few weeks earlier. And it was... impressive! That was when I put down my books and fell in love with the big screen. I also took advantage of the advent of computers and my connections to people with high-speed internet to start devouring movies. In a big way. Black Hawk Down was one of them. I must have watched it 20 times at home back then. Now, about ten years later, I've come back to it and nothing has changed. Actually, it's all been amplified for me. The underlying idea of the pointlessness of the war is really flimsy, but that wasn't the point. This film is unique within its genre. In terms of creative skill in conveying a war battle, Scott and his entire crew were able to achieve the best possible outcomes: Idziak's handheld camera in the streets, the wide-angle camera units on hovering helicopters, the sound design sending the clatter of machine guns through the living room, and the rhythmic editing setting the pace along with Zimmer's roaring music. Every bolt and every nut is tightened to its fullest. I understand the competition at the time, but the fact that the film only took home two statuettes in the technical categories at the Oscars is mind-boggling. But prizes be damned. I have not the slightest doubt that when it comes to what I’ve written above, the film will continue to astonish well beyond the next decade. There's nothing to overcome here. (10/31/2014)

Scott is like a chameleon, give him a genre, and he'll make you an unforgettable cinematic gem. He's done it with Alien and with Gladiator, and now with the story of an elite military unit in the middle of the Somali inferno. This is no intellectual epic or hidden metaphor, it's simply two and a half hours of the best, most realistic and best filmed action imaginable. (01/31/2013)

Like a gritty war-themed action movie... why not... It has all the attributes of good action – swing, tension, drama and naturalistic directness. Similar to that which adorned Saving Private Ryan. Fortunately, unlike that film, it lacks the strong agitation spirit, although from a thought point of view the film is also quite schematic and pathetic. However, given the amazingly absorbing atmosphere of hot Mogadishu, good acting performances (especially Eric Bana and Ewan McGregor), this is a classic must-see for fans of American films. To all this must be added the excellent soundtrack by Hans Zimmer, the great camera and Ridley Scott, who knows how to do action scenes like few others. Only the aforementioned thought-awkwardness and occasional confusion can be criticized... but as a gritty war-themed action movie... why not... That's all I'd look for. (04/16/2005)