Don't Be Fooled

Rating: 1/10 (19 January 2002)

Despite many reviews attesting to the greatness of this film and many awards and nominations it has and will receive, this movie is shallow, tawdry, Hollywood trash that profiteers off the lives of 19 American soldiers and over a thousand dead Somalians. It is no more an anti-war movie than Gladiator is an anti-Gladiator movie. I will hand it to Ridley Scott (who is English, if that matters) he has found a way to turn violence and death into Hollywood gold. He is an excellent director, and here he steals from Kurosawa's playbook using maps, diagrams, and aerials to keep the troop positions coherent, while at the same time showing the bloody chaos of war. I suspect this film will make a lot of money and will rake in the Oscars, which is sad. Aside from it's direction, it has little value. The writing and acting are poor, the film is riddled with cliches, out of place comic relief, and attempts at subtlety that beat you over the head. The subject matter has been covered much better in other films. I suggest the John Sayles film 'Men With Guns' for a better depiction of the perpetuation of violence in the third world. What bothered me most was the phony sincerity with which the film depicts death and war. Unless you enjoy seeing people get killed there is little entertainment. The film begins with a quote from Plato, which, contains more truth and depth than the entire film that follows it.