Good Acting & SPX Can't Save This Racist Piece of Propaganda

Rating: 2/10 (4 March 2003)

In short, Ridley Scott attempts to summarize what exactly went down with the US soldiers in Somalia in 1993. I would be more inclined to forgive this film's propaganda motive if it weren't for the fact that it was poorly directed at times.
There are definetly too many characters. There is no development, and the only way an audience could feel a connection with these characters is if they wanted to, and forced the feelings out for some ideological reason or another. Tom Sizemore was good as always, as was the rest of the cast considering the material they were working with, but they just can't save this.
I won't go into the many reasons as to why this film is such a racist and factually inaccurate piece of work, but I do have an interesting side note. Brendan Sexton, who played the role of Alphabet, was very publicly critical of this film after they edited it. Apparently, his character had a monologue near the end about how the US shouldn't have been there in the first place, but in the wake of the Sept. 11th attacks, it was cut out to give this film just another piece of brainless insta-patriot spin.
On the upside, Ridley Scott did wonders visually. Like Speilberg in Saving Private Ryan, another lackluster and unrealistic war film, Scott pushed the boundaries of what is considered acceptable in the violence department. He has guts, and knows how to show the physical aspect of war very accurately. I've seen things similar to Somalia before (seriously, don't ask), and that is really what it's like.
When looking at this film from a critical standpoint, it's full of extremes in the areas of battle direction and story/developement, which still tend to balance out to a somewhat poor film. This is one movie that, no matter how much I dislike many aspects of it, I would recommend seeing even though it isn't good. Even people who dislike it even more than me admit that it stays with you. So, see it for yourself.