ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2002)

BLACK HAWK DOWN (2001) **** Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Ewen Bremner, Eric Bana, Jeremy Piven, Zeljko Ivanek, Ron Eldard, Ty Burrell, Gabriel Casseus, Kim Coates, Hugh Dancy, Ioan Gruffudd, Thomas Guiry, Tom Hardy, Charlie Hofheimer, Danny Hoch, Orlando Bloom, Glenn Morshower, Brenadan Sexton III, Johnny Strong, Richard Tyson. Superb adaptation of Mark Bowden's book about the true-life account of the 1993 American troops clusterfuck in Somalia with a routine mission gone to hell in handbasket with carnage, confusion and in general melee with the natives restless for bloodshed. Great talented ensemble and strong direction by vet Ridley Scott gets a boost in the arm by Ken Nolan's lean, mean screenplay and bruised cinematography by Slawomir Idziak depicts all the horrors of war unflinchingly palpable. One of the year's best films.