Exciting, Inaccurate War Story

Rating: 9/10 (3 March 2004)

I enjoyed this movie very much, and I would say that it is effective at getting its point across - but it's far from anti-war and is fairly described as a flag-waver. Anyone interested in a more 'balanced' account should read the Mark Bowden articles upon which the film is based, and which have been collected in book form. The movie takes some dramatic ;-) liberties with the original material!
As the movie is extensively described elsewhere at this site, I will just say that I found it difficult to tell the soldiers apart at times, which sometimes makes it hard to follow exactly what is happening and why. The story is almost continuous action, involving many characters seperated into different groups, which makes it hard to 'get to know' the individuals as in "Saving Private Ryan." On the other hand, "Black Hawk Down" avoids some of the schmaltz of the Spielberg epic (despite two slightly forced speeches by Eric Bana's "Hoot.")
The movie presents a (literally!) black and white look at Americans vs Somalis, and implies that the Clinton administration was pretty much to blame for keeping too tight a leash on "our boys." The book is VERY different on both counts, and states that, ironically, the Somalis deliberately planned to down U.S. helicopters to force the 'surround-the-wagons' shootout that actually happened. Bowden asserts that this plan was developed by foreign Arab extremists - read Al-Queda!!! This isn't explored in the movie.
None of that is required to make a good film, and I'd say that, like "Battle of Algiers," "Black Hawk Down" is an excellent film - but take it with a grain of salt!