Direction can always improve a movie

Rating: Null/10 (23 March 2002)

Since it was a Jerry Bruckheimer movie released after September 11th, I was expecting his typical patriotic war movie. In short I was prepared to swallow Pearl Harbor all over again.
But when I saw the movie, I realized my expectations were less than accurate. Ridley Scott's stellar direction really improved the movie. He decided to take a Bruckheimer action blockbuster into an unusual war documentary.
Ridley Scott chose to focus on the most important aspect of war, in which that it is extremely futile. It also showed the Americans were a bit too bold in their mission. I don't recall the historical facts concerning the war on Somalia, back in 1993 very well, but it's well evident that the Pentagon interfered with the script, because the characters are way altered to look necessarily real. Only Ewan MacGregor does a decent job of portraying a soldier. It could be the Pentagon who altered the script, but this kind of character waste is typical of Jerry Bruckheimer.
Another Pentagon alteration is the final point of view concerning the war. Not only the Americans consider the situation on Somalia to be genocide (as if the bombing of Hiroshima never happened) but the movie shows the death of 19 Americans to be far more worrisome than the slaughter of 1.000 Somalis. That is a disservice when the movie attempts to show history, since it was rewritten on the silver screen.
The action sequences were nothing short of spectacular. While it doesn't deliver the special effects-oriented large scale war sequences typical from Pearl Harbor (it's good that didn't happen) the sequences recall some of the most bloody and ferocious moments from Saving Private Ryan, played throughout two hours without interruption. The whole mess is portrayed as realistic as possible. I was amazed by the scenes where the helicopters crash.
The movie, like any Jerry Bruckheimer production, could have been filled with unnecessary patriotic remarks and endless scenes of the American flag. Fortunately, Ridley Scott cuts down on Jerry's patriotic remarks, reducing them to just a few random comments amongst the soldiers and focuses on the more realistic aspects of war.
In short, despite some flaws, the movie holds up impressively well, and well above the disastrous Pearl Harbor. Ridley Scott proves once again how outstanding his work is. Now I should probably expect the next Jerry Bruckheimer movie to be about the September 11th attacks and the war on Afghanistan. I'll be waiting.