Absolutely brilliant!

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2002)

This film is a four star knockout! This film must receive a best picture Oscar nomination as it is one of the greatest combat films ever made. Brilliant combat scenes that are in some ways, better than the scenes in 'Saving Private Ryan'. The cinematography, while admirable in SPR, is not as headache inducing here. Ridley Scott does not have long stretches between the combat and non combat sequences and the film shoots by like an hour. There is an equal mix of both. Scott gets into a scene just when its interesting and gets out before it wears out its welcome. There is great male bonding between the soldiers as the motto in Somalia was that no U.S. soldier gets left behind. The graphic sequences are difficult to watch but are well edited and the shock value, visually, only last a few seconds for each but resonates so well in the mind. As an eighteen hour combat scenario that was only supposed to last thirty minutes, 'Black Hawk Down' shows that the cynics around the world who believe that the U.S. only fights when money is involved, are thankfully proven wrong by this film which shows a blend of forgotten heroes, devastating famine and a series of interacting peace keeping forces that did what they could to help a situation that could have been worse without at least some effort.