A 6/10, but that doesn't mean I hate it

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2003)

Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" is a rather brutal and unrelenting war film. It certainly does paint a realistic view of soldiers in battle. I don't know how much the film remains faithful to the book, so I won't bother with a grievous comparison. This is not Ridley Scott's best film; that credit really goes to "Gladiator". It has some really good isolated moments, but none that really are spectacular. But I want to point out some things, both good and bad.
1) I personally do not think that this film glorifies war since as one previous viewer already mentioned, it shows horrible things happening to both American soldiers and Somalis. A soldier is blown in half, a Somali person is shot dead in the street while a child frantically tries to figure out what happened, another Somali is blown apart by a stray rocket, and an American soldier is killed when he's impaled by a rocket. So you see, it's horrific, unrelenting war.
2) I do not consider this to be by no means an excellent war film, but an endlessly watchable one; Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" is clearly the greatest war film ever made.
3) The British actors who are trying to speak American. I'm sorry, but I just cannot buy Jason Isaacs speaking with a southern accent. Ewan McGregor seems to be the only one that sounds reasonably convincing.
4) I'm African-American and I do think that this film is sort of racist, since I've heard that a substantial portion of Mark Bowden's book had been omitted from the film, which detailed the Somali cause. From what I've heard, it had been omitted for apparently no reason, other than to really give a sense of soldiers fighting bravely against impossible odds. All the soldiers are white (there is a black soldier amongst them who only speaks a few lines) and are shooting at hundreds of Somalis.
5) I think that this film presents an unfair portrait of the Somalis. With the exception of a cab driver who has been coerced into helping the Americans and another Somali man who was arrested, there are no other signs of the Somali view. Thus, this gives "Black Hawk Down" a one-sided view of a battle that should never have happened.
6) I did feel sorry for the American soldiers at certain points during the film. Such as when the three soldiers are in the helicopter and are defending it from oncoming Somalis. Another instance would be the one soldier who gets separated from the rest and has to eventually find his way back to the group.
So as you can clearly see, I have many mixed feelings about "Black Hawk Down", but I did thoroughly enjoy myself while watching this film.