This is a war movie worth seeing and remembering!!

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2002)

Black Hawk Down is a masterfully done film on a conflict that occurred in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. The Army's elite Rangers and Delta Force were sent on a basically US political public relations mission to show that the huminatarian Americans would do all they could to thwart the genocide occuring in Somalia and more discreetly to save face. These units were not sent to Somalia until the politicians recieved negative press when Time Magazine ran an issue with a starving Somalian boy on the cover. This film however only deals with the political issues of the conflict in the opening moments of the film to give the viewers a brief synopsis of how the efforts in Somalia had reached the point they had. After that the story is shown from the perspective of the men who were there, no politicians, no humanitarians, simply elite soldiers trained for combat, to protect freedom and humanity. The film opens the day before the conflict giving a brief view of life in Somalia for these soldiers. The film offers no deep analysis of individual, independent characters just simple overviews of a few. This film shows war as a whole effecting every soldier and person with no man being more important than the next, each death being a terrible loss. I praise Ridley Scott for leaving out all the meaningless banter and frivolous political hooplah and getting down to the gritty, simple fact that in the midst of war only the people within it matter. I haven't seen this as masterfully done since Platoon was made. After seeing Pearl Harbor I worried filmmakers had lost the concept of what truly mattered in a war film and what the truly important effects of war are. The only good part of Pearl Harbor was the actual attack. Thus this film was a breath of fresh air leaving you with the impact of what occured on October 3rd and nothing else. Allowing you to understand how these men were forever joined together in one day without needing the characters to tell you how they were changed. But understanding it because the film viewer is too changed forever. Understand that this film is an American perspective on what occurred and the impact on American soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for people they didn't even know. The absolute powerful and moving display of heroism at its very core.