Millenium claptrap

Rating: Null/10 (16 July 2002)

As the proud owner of a digital high definition, wide-screen projection television with DTS surround sound, I could barely WAIT until the DVD version of this film was released, given all the hype.
I don't even bother going to the theatre anymore, because it's far more enjoyable to wait four or five months and watch it in the comfort and ease of state-of-the-art home theatre technology. Let me hasten to add that this film does not disappoint in that regard...it's magnificent in terms of picture and sound.
HOWEVER, I must confess that I turned it off at Chapter 14, and damn near threw the rented jewel case at the screen.
During the BIG ONE, as Archie Bunker called it, we were subjected to many jingoistic "John Wayne" propaganda-laden Hollywood productions, some of which were nonetheless very good AND served the useful and justifiable purpose of galvanizing Americans and their Allies into an all-out effort to wipe the (then) rotten Huns and Nips off the planet.
This one, however, is simply preposterous! There's not a commander, from platoon to division level, who would for a moment allow virtually all of his troops (having already accomplished their mission...rounding up the "bad guys") to return to a heavily defended area to rescue one guy who fell out of a copter or several others in a couple of other Blackhawks" shot down during the heat of battle.
I recently watched a documentary on the Battle of Midway, where the flight commander just prior to their mission told his torpedo bomber pilots "If 5 percent of you come back, I'll be surprised". As it turned out, he was overly optimistic....one squadron lost 28 out of 29 pilots. Now THAT was true and documented heroism, but the silly, needless and wasteful loss of further life depicted in BLACKHAWK DOWN is just another example of the brainless "feel good" mentality of our current movie fare. Even more sad, it is gobbled up by most of today's moviegoers, who've been programmed to accept and even rave about this and other manipulative horse droppings....eg. Pearl Harbour.
One fairly recent and notable exception which offered me some fading glimmer of hope for Hollywood ...the magnificent SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Although based on a similar premise, it was openly a politically driven order from Washington (rather than the ridiculous BLACKHAWK decision by the front line commander and his eager troops to return to a needless but oh so admirable kamikaze-style slaughter) which sent all those troops back into harm's way.
A MAJOR disappointment!!!!