Too many characters, not enough plot.

Rating: Null/10 (2 May 2003)

Black Hawk down is a very interesting movie based on a true story. It takes place in Somalia in 1993, after the U.N. had helped deliver food to 300 thousand starving Somalis. The U.S. left some soldiers behind, and when a Somali warlord rises up to challenge them, the U.S. responds. Things go wrong when several squads of U.S. army Rangers and Delta Force are ambushed in the capital city of Somalia. The action heats up when what was supposed to be a half-hour mission to capture a Somali warlord's top ranking personel turns into a rescue mission when two UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopters are shot down by Somali militia armed with RPG's (rocket-propeled-grenades). The movie has a dizzying number of characters that all somehow tie into the plot, but some of them serve no purpose at all except to prove a point (i.e. when a soldier gets shot in the back and dies because he removed the armor plate in the back of his vest, just so he doesn't have to carry as much). The action sequences are beautifuly filmed, much like the opening D-day scene in "Saving Private Ryan", but they also make it hard to follow who's who. At several points, I found myself asking "Who was that who just got shot?" or "Was that a main character or not?", it's nearly impossible to keep trak of what's going on! The human factor is well displayed through multiple sequences and add to effect of relizing the actual horror of combat and the general sadness of what the movie is about. All around, I'd give this movie 4.5 out of 5.