A peerless technical exercise with a barely noticeable script.

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2003)

Black Hawk Down boasts outstanding directing, editing, cinematography, sound effects and sound editing,,, and almost no character development or memorable dialogue of any kind. This is a war movie that is about the process of fighting and nothing more. The action does suggest the fallacy of assumed superiority and while it is clearly portraying the mission as misguided, it does work at portraying the individual soldiers as heroes. This may or may not be acceptable to you depending on your personal ideology but that's where the movies heart is at. I read Bowden's book and the works of others on the subject. The film seems to stick closely to reality except for the manufactured scene of Aidid's men shooting people at the food distribution center and the made up character of the captured arms dealer. It would have been interesting to learn more about some of the soldiers and to maybe hear of the mis-steps the Americans had made that provoked such anger from the Somali people. A more critical reviewer might say that the films setup is a lie, but I don't think the film really has a setup. It's all about the action and the action is superbly rendered. The performances are all good enough for what the cast is asked to do, with Eric Bana being a standout as the consummate professional soldier. Strongly recommended.