Unbelievable movie

Rating: Null/10 (25 July 2004)

I saw the DVD today and was so enthralled, I watched it twice. I sort of knew the story but since this event occurred during the beginning of the media venerated clinton administration; the whole story was never explained. The movie only makes a passing reference to the major reason why 19 soldiers died needlessly. Clinton and his minion, les aspin refused to allow light armor and c-130 gunship support for the troops; so delta force and the rangers were left to fend for themselves against a rampaging horde of somalis.
Hollywood would never say anything to disparage clinton so we are left with a cryptic statement regarding "Washington" refusing the aforementioned mechanized support. The fact of the matter is that if the soldiers had went in with support, the sad event would never have occurred.
This is clearly not what any good clinton-left winger want's to hear. That doesn't mean it isn't true.
I usually don't go into the politics of something but this needs to be said.
Now back to the movie: visually the movie is stunning, the cinematography and battle scenes are amazing. War should never be depicted as something glamorous; it is bloody and brutal. The violence in the movie is absolutely positively necessary.
I have heard 2 major complaints about the movie, one that the characters are not well developed and that the movie is one sided and racist.
Making some type of central character with a love story and other Hollywood clichés would truly detract from what this movie is about. It is about a group of soldiers fighting for their lives, not some inance piece of fluff in which the battle takes second place to some ridiculous love story.
The movie is one sided to an extent. It is not about the Somalis; it is about US soldiers. I agree that it would have been nice to have them explain themselves. Is it racist to point out that the US went in to help these people and had it's proverbial hand bitten. These people do not value life as most people. The Somali's statement to the effect that killing is negotiation is emblamatic of their belief system. If they valued life, they would not practice middle age tribalism. 1000 Somalis died in the raid; I have heard ad nauseum about those people. What about the 300,000 Somalis that starved to death, are those people not worth as much as the 1000 terrorists who died? Think about that.
Oh, by the way, have you noticed that the comments from the UK and Europe are overwhelmingly negative? Interesting isn't it? I saw a few comments from Denmark. What the hell does Denmark have to contribute--besides something rotten?
Finally, this is a story that needed to be told in a gritty, brutal way.
A 9/10