Realistic, unforgiving, and cold: The truths of War - Spoilers

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2003)

When this movie first came out I have to admit I had no interest whatsoever in seeing it. To me it just seemed like another of the war movies coming out post 9/11.
Then I saw the History Channel Documentary and it made me want to see the movie that much more. So I waited until the DVD came out and bought it.

It was the best 20 bucks I've ever spent, I've probably seen this movie close to a hundred times by now and I always find something new and interesting.
I have to admit I'm not your stereotypical war movie fan, I couldn't watch Saving Private Ryan, and the only two other war movies I'd enjoyed were Das Boot and Stalag 17. I'm also female.
But for some reason this movie hit home, probably because I'm old enough to remember the battle of mogadishu. Most of the complaints I seem to see about this movie are 1: There's no charachter development, honestly in the midst of war all soldiers look the same, and there are people you feel for when they die, Jamie Smith, Ruiz, Dom Pilla.
2 the lack of political commentary, this wasn't a documentary about the entire war, this was a movie about one day, and the things that happened during that day.
The battle scenes were realistic because most of them were filmed practically instead of with digital effects. The acting was great, especially Sizemore, Hartnett, and Johnny Strong who played Shugart. William Fichtner sticks out in my mind because of how well he potrayed Delta Operator Sanderson, as does Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom.

What really impressed me was they managed to really convey just how loud a convoy of armored tanks can be, I live ten miles from the School of Hard Knox (Ft. Knox) the premier tank training facility in the us army and most days I wake up to the sound of tanks roaring across the landscape.

All in all it was a great movie. Maybe my favorite of all time because it showed that yes war is cold and unforgiving. And you don't know what you're going to do until that first bullet wizes past your head.