Ridley Scott's crowning moment! A definite must see.

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2002)

Move over Speilberg! Watch out below Cameron! One of the best war movies ever made is easily Ridley Scott's best movie ever, topping even Gladiator. All hail Ridley Scott, the new king of the world. This movie is realistic, and intense. Some may find the film a little bit too violent, but hey, war is not a walk in the park. Basically, the whole 2 hours of this movie plays like the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan. If you were easily disturbed by those scenes, then this film is definately not for you.
The film is based on the true story of a US Black Hawk that was shot down in Somalia during 1993. The rest of the film is basically a rescue operation to get those men out of the dangerous situation that they are in.
The acting in the film is great. The only thing that really bothered me was Tom Sizemore's character. We see him walking around while bullets fly around him, and he does not seem fazed at all. Also, there is the scene in the Hummer, where he gets shot in the neck, and is still able to steer the Hummer with one hand, and hold the wound in his neck with the other.

One other beef that I had with this movie is the characters. Alot of the time was spent on the war scenes, and there was no character introduction. Therefore, you really can not connect with the charcters in the film. If you like to get in touch with the characters in the film, I suggest watching a film like Platoon rather than this. I do believe however, that Scott was trying to show us the horror of modern warfare, which he does very well.
Like I stated above, it is rather violent. However, that is war. You will not see anything that they do not show on the nightly news. However, this is Hollywood. If you are desensitized to violence, check it out. It is definately Ridley Scott's best film to date. Hopefully, the man will win an Oscar for this film. He definately deserves one.