Relentlessly tense wall-to-wall action combat classic

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2001)

"Are you exhausted? " director Ridley Scott asked his audience when he took the stage for a post-screening Q&A session in NYC on 12/20/01. And they were. Scott then claimed that "Black Hawk Down" is an "anti-war movie," one certainly not one to be construed as a "recruiting film," but the fact is, it could be shown proudly in any American Legion hall and rally the youngsters to sign up afterwards in droves. Those that are not scared by blood, that is. Doubtful that you could recruit many medics with this true-story depiction, since they bear the brunt of the horrors of war here. But I digress. The movie--to its credit--does not. Hypnotic opening visuals and atavistic tribal music create an aura of famine and hell on earth in 1993 Somalia that compell attention, attention that does not stray until final credits. It's an epic, but awesomely believable entertainment in which a real town in Morocco stands in for Mogadishu as well as Ridley might stand in for his director brother Tony. Does not compare in scope with Scott's Oscar-winning "Gladiator," but certainly in craft.
An unforgettable old-fashioned cowboys-and-Indians showdown where the cavalry does not come to the rescue, at least not in time to save 19 young Americans. Biggest flaw here, shared by other huge combat dramas such as HBO's "Band of Brothers" and Terence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" is that there are so few central characters and so many look-a-like white American soldiers in this ensemble cast that the viewer loses track of who is who. Fortunately, Tom Sizemore is recognizable here strutting his stuff as almost exactly the same fearless non-com combat character he played in "Saving Private Ryan," so thanks to him for the visible reference point. A movie that has to be seen in the wake of September 11 if for no other reason than the point it makes very early on about the crucial role solid military intelligence plays in any successful operation, especially against terrorist civilian militia in the middle of a third-world urban war zone. Makes Afghanistan look like a training exercise, especially since there were three times as many U.S. combat deaths in this 24-hour operation in Somalia than there have been so far in weeks of fighting against the Taliban.