A very well made training film

Rating: Null/10 (26 January 2004)

Those of us who are or were soldiers call this a training film, and its very good. While I am not a Ranger, I was in a unit that had some former Rangers that were there. There take on the movie was "it's about time."
This is not a movie about the situation in Somalia. It is not a political movie. It is not a pro or anti-war movie. This movie is about extraordinary soldiers placed in an extraordinary situation in a struggle to survive.
This is the first situation that the Rangers were forced to fight in close-quarters. The US policy makers having direct access to USASOC (that is the United States Army Special Operations Command) sent the Special Forces, Rangers, and Delta to kidnap the warlord responcible for the death of the somali people. Yes the Special Operations Command are the most highly trained soldiers the US has to offer, this situation was unlike they have experienced.
This is a story of what the soldiers went through that day. It is the hope that this movie would educate the world that the Special Operations Forces Soldiers are our mother's sons and your next door neighbors forced to fight a war a dictated by a nations foreign policy. This movie is about the soldiers life and their will to survive and their creed to "leave no man behind." This is also a story of how the soldiers have to perform a mission on less than pefect intel (a reality to be sure) yet train to succeed non-the-less. They fight to make sure their fellow soldiers make it back alive. As Hoot says in the movie: "its all about the man next to you" thats all.
If you ever wanted to see the Rangers and Delta in action, see this movie. It was because of the situation in Somalia that the training of the Rangers has been augmented with fighting in close quarters. Good acting, wonderful action, tearful moments and beautiful cinematography.