Hooah! Hooah!

Rating: 5/10 (10 September 2016)

As a piece of fiction based on actual events, Black Hawk Down works a treat, however as a accurate account of those events, this is nothing but a one-sided, one dimensional modern day western. We know who the cowboys are, we know who the Indians are and the cavalry will arrive at the last minute to save the day, so all in all very little has changed in the art of movie making. The whole thing reeked of "Go America!", as the whole incident was supposedly only fought by them, they were the only ones there and no one else ever had a hand in it.
You know those old b&w Sci-Fi movies where an alien ship lands somewhere and within minutes the entire might of the U.S military is on the case, guns at the ready, full of idealism that it can handle anything right before they get their butts handed to them? Well this is pretty much the same. Despite all the hooah's thrown around, intelligence briefings, training, superior equipment and air superiority things very quickly go awry and all at the hands of alleged savages that apparently can't shoot straight.
As a straight up action flick BHD is great, it could have easily been another Schwarzenegger movie. It's visceral and fast paced with choppy editing and good special effects, so why does this have to be so inaccurate? Why turn an already misunderstood event into something that tries in vain to be patriotic but just smacks of propaganda. It comes as no surprise that the Somali's were annoyed with the film as they neither look or sound like how they were depicted given that no Somali actors appear in the film. Even the soldiers who were actually there have voiced their dismay at the portrayal of all concerned. I've lost count on how many war movies I've watched where a group of U.S GI's are all holed up in some bullet riddled and unsecured ramshackle building, running low on ammo and getting picked off one by one. It's Custer's last stand minus the horses, but unlike Custer, all these modern soldiers seemingly need is a stirring speech a few more hooah's and they're all OK again.
Overall this is good but not great. If you look past the fact that what you're watching is a conflict from a biased perspective and through a Hollywood lens then you'll enjoy it. If you bother to read up on what really happened as it happened and watched this again you may feel differently about it.