A protracted firefight

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 2002)

Here's the deal. This movie is a recreation of a protracted firefight on the streets of Mogadishu Somalia. It's not pro-war, it's not anti-war. It's not racist, it's not anti-muslim, it's not pro American (though it is from the U.S. GI's perspective). It's not about big stars, like it could have been (Tom Crusie would have jumped at this). It's a look at what happened on those two fateful days. That's it, no more no less. If you want to see a drawn out battle scene, with much guts and gore, then see this. If that's too much for you skip it.
Additionaly:
Re the maudlin "tell so-and-so I love her, fought well" criticism. It is my understanding that these are based on the comments heard by survivors. If that is what the dying men said, why exclude it just because it may sound sappy? Think about it, what would you say if you were dying and there was someone there to pass along the message? Whether we have been programmed by Hollywood to be sentimental when we die (as in all the old war movies) or it's just a natural thing to do, people do say things like that in extremis (remember the teacher from the Columbine shooting? All the students who were with him said he wanted them to tell his family he loved them). We hear accounts like this all the time from witnesses to dying individual's final words. I was not there so I can't tell you what was said, but since all we have is the information from those who talked to these soldiers right before they died, let's give them the benefit of the doubt.
The racism charge: Well first off, yes many black folks are killed because that's what really happened. Let's all join together to keep the politically correct attack dogs away from that fact before they rewrite history once again. Now why more blacks weren't represented among the U.S. forces I'm not sure why. I am in the Army and I can assure you that the proportion of blacks in the ranks is much higher than was shown. I can only offer that it is my understanding that Scott wanted to be as factual as possible trying to represent the actual combatants, so maybe they were mainly white. I can also offer the following antedotal items: Though there are many minorites in the U.S. Army I have noticed that amoung the Rangers and Special Forces, there are far fewer. I don't know why (and by the way I am not a Ranger of Green Beret) this is, but it seems to be the case at least from my perspective; and I saw this film at a special showing in Korea at the Army post Theater and the audience was about 1/3 black and they didn't seem at all concerned with any racist overtones. You could tell who they were supporting because you would hear a few muted cheers when a Somali was shot, and a groan or gasp when a white U.S. soldier was hit. I guess some things transend race.
I feel sad that so many did not realize this happened or don't remember it. The image of those soldiers bodies being dragged through the streets has stuck with me since the first time I saw it on TV. Shugart and Gordon are true heroes going into that crash site, and all famous actors/actresses, musicains, sports stars, etc aren't even close to qualifying to being the role models that those two should be to every one.