Soldiers & Soldiering

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2002)

This film is about soldiers at work.
The plot, enemy & location as well as the background, politics & religion are unimportant. Even the nationality of those involved pales into insignificance.
This must be the first US war-film i´ve seen that wasn´t full of nauseous US patriotism subtracting from the respect that the joes who really were there should have earned.
If you are just interested in the amount of blood, guts & ammo, Black Hawk Down makes Pte. Ryan look like a disney production.
The film shows soldiers as the people they are without all the kitsch and bravado (mostly) on a mission that´s gone totally FUBAR. Respect.
SPOILER?
The 1000(?) somali deaths versus the 19 US deaths may sound unrealistic but it´s not. Professional soldiers with a healthy respect for anything likely to kill them versus untrained "militia" with little respect for death are the perfect recipe for such statistics.