Brings back our faith in humanity

Rating: 9/10 (30 July 2015)

Okay, I was blobbing like a big baby all the way through this film. It's just so emotional and really does bring a tear to your eye. To be honest, what war films AREN'T emotional? Even Jarhead is emotional! But honestly, this one really is sad.
So basically the whole plan to stop the Somalia civil war does sound simple enough...turns out it wasn't a simple as they were expecting. I was constantly on the edge of my seat throughout this film. Because most war films are completely unpredictable. You don't know who will live and who will die. They're that one genre when you don't actually have a clue whether the main character will die or not.
The action is amazing. And it had a few slow motion shots, which you guys know I have a soft spot for. I've only just gotten into war movies. I don't know what drew me away before. It was probably the idea that they're just all guns blazing and no real plot. Which is not true of course, because they are really something special. But that's all I would think, if someone offered to watch a war movie with me. The sort of image that comes into my head when someone mentions "war movie" is probably the film version of Call Of Duty. It just seemed like the sort of boring film you would only watch if you were completely blood thirsty on the whole guns blazing kind of thing and you also liked history. It just sounded boring to me. But obviously, not all war movies are actually like that. Most of them actually have depth and are very emotional. This is one of them very emotional war movies. Which is what I like because it has an equal balance between extreme thriller action and the dramatic bits where you are crying your eyes out.
Now, getting me to cry at all is a real mission. But this movie just knew where to pull on all the right heart strings. You're crying one minute over someone who dies, and then someone else dies, and then you're crying again because there is no way they can get out of this, and they're ALL going to die! The most horrible thing about this film is that it's actually based on a true story. This all happened. That guy actually did die and that other person actually does have a loving family back at home.
And like I said about the action. You only have 30 minutes of boring planning and then they're straight into the action for the next two hours! But most of these two hours are filled with so much gunfire and blood shed, you're actually clueless on where it's all coming from. But I guess that's just all realistic. It also adds more to the chaotic effect, it actually makes you feel like you're in the war zone. Especially when you're up at 11 o' clock at night watching this film on your laptop and with your headphones in. With the volume up so loud and the screen so close to your face, you actually find yourself ducking when someone yells "RPG!" .... Or is that just me?
It's quite an amazing story actually. Only just under 20 Americans were killed that day while over 1000 Somali men, women and children were killed. This handful of American troops were practically going up against the whole city. It's hard to imagine how panicked the soldiers must have felt when they were up against that many Somalians. And half the time you're wondering, how can they even think when there's that much gunfire going on? I think if that was me, I'd find a quiet corner to go and sit in and quietly cry to myself. But not once did the soldiers loose hope which really amazed me. It was really starting to look like there was no hope and neither of them would get out alive, but not once did they throw down their weapon and say "never mind this." Which is exactly what I do with my Xbox controller when I can't get past a certain level on Call Of Duty.
And they never gave up on their friends either. Which really brought a tear to my eye. Especially the tag line "Leave no man behind." Because even though they were going through impossible missions and had bullets being fired at their heads while they were having to go up against an entire city, they were still willing to get into even deeper trouble to save their friends who were in the fallen Black Hawk. Now that's what you call a true hero and great friendship.
The acting was incredible. Obviously, if you want emotion, you need a spectacular actor to present that and each actor did it brilliantly. Most war films tend to bring out the best in actors and also surprised by some actors because they don't usually play in action films. It's the chance you get to play a very emotional role while also being able to throw in a little action in there too. This is important because you really need to feel what it is like to be in the middle of a war zone and also actually realize what soldiers go through every day to make sure our lives are better.
So overall, this is a great film. One of my favourite war films actually.