Realistic depiction of modern warfare

Rating: 8/10 (10 August 2002)

For producer Jerry Bruckheimer (`Beverly Hills Cop', `Flashdance', `Top Gun', `The Rock', `Armageddon', `Remember the Titans', `Pearl Harbor'), this is a departure from the crowd pleasers he usually produces. Bruckheimer is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood because he knows that crowd pleasers make a buck. Even `Pearl Harbor', wasn't really about Pearl Harbor, but about a love story with Pearl Harbor as the backdrop. Here, Bruckheimer produces a straight, no nonsense action film with controversial subject matter and none of his standard crowd pleasing elements. Oh, and by the way, he still made money.
This is not a film for the squeamish. War is hell and this film turns up the fire. It is a frank and realistic representation of war, much the same as the beach scene of `Saving Private Ryan', only once the action starts, it never lets up. Ridley Scott gives us a raw depiction of modern warfare, based on actual events from the US military action in Somalia. Despite a lot of criticism of Scott for not delving deeper into the political issues, I believe he made the right decision in staying focused on this as a combat film.
What is so unlike a Bruckheimer film is that there is no workup of any single character. There is no attempt to get us to love someone and have us pulling for him. He just gives us a bunch of ordinary grunts that get thrown into a fire fight and try desperately to fight their way out to survive. No one is a hero, and everyone is.
Scott's direction of the action scenes is superb. This film maintains a dizzying pace and Scott never lets us catch our breath with stunt work and pyrotechnics that defy description. There is no safety net in this film where we know that certain characters won't die. Everyone in the cast is a potential casualty. While this is extremely realistic, it is also one of the shortcomings of the film. By the end, the viewer suffers from battle fatigue and there is no emotional consolation that at least one character we liked came out okay.
The ensemble cast does a fine job of creating realistic battle scenes, though there isn't a lot of meaningful dialogue. The actors had to go through real military basic training in preparation for the film and it hardened them for the exhausting rigors of their roles. Josh Hartnett and Tom Sizemore stood out slightly from the rest, but only because they each had slightly meatier roles.
This is an intense and credible war film that doesn't so much engage viewers as it does overwhelm us. From an action perspective it is a 12/10, but in the area of storytelling and character development it falls short. I rated it an 8/10. See it, but brace yourself.