One of the best war movies out there.

Rating: 9/10 (9 December 2008)

Black Hawk Down (2001) Director: Ridley Scott Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Watching Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers risk their lives to save their own brothers is enough to make the toughest person in the crowd to shed a tear. In Black Hawk Down (2001), U.S. soldiers were sent on a seemingly easy mission to round up two Somalian lieutenants but next thing they knew they were fighting to stay alive.
The main characters are not hard to find. All of them are shown within 20 minutes of the movie. The story follows Staff Sgt. Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), PFC Grimes (Ewan McGregor), Lt. Colonel Danny McKnight (Tom Sizemore), Sgt. First Class Norm "Hoot" Gibson (Eric Bana), and Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson (William Fichtner). Throughout the movie the whole story is divided up by following each of these characters and all the conflicts they encounter. But the way the movie is set up you even get concerned about the other characters. For example, the two snipers that sacrificed themselves to save a downed black hawk pilot got me teary eyed because they knew they were not going to make it.
The setting of the movie is Mogadishu, Somalia, but the movie could not be filmed on the site because it was considered unsafe. Instead the movie was shot in Morocco where they had everything they need to recreate Mogadishu. They even found a town that looked like the real place and served as a perfect substitute. I was impressed with how much accuracy the film had in it including the actual gear that the actors used. All the little details were covered down to the calendars, music, and TV shows of 1993. They production team was able to get black hawks for the film that was piloted and ran by actual U.S. soldiers. The helicopter squadron that did the flying in the movie was the 160th SOAR division and is the actual flight group that participated in the real event in 1993.
The camera angles are mostly flat angle shots to give you the feeling of actually being there. But there are occasional close up shots to show the soldiers reactions and feelings which really help you feel that yourself. In one scene there is a night time shoot out and part of it is in slow motion with the close up of some of the soldiers. You could see the desperation in their eyes as they fire at the enemy.
The music is one of the aspects of the movie that really helped me feel the sadness and sorrow that the soldiers were feeling. Hans Zimmer composed the music for Black Hawk Down (2001), the same composer for the Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) and Gladiator (2000). The beginning clip starts off with an elderly African man walking along the starving and the music is an eerie solo African chant. Even though it is in a different language, anyone can tell you that whatever he is chanting about there is a lot of sorrow behind his voice. It really set the mood and helped the audience feel bad about the starving people in the opening scene. Hans Zimmer also adds a lot of percussion and sometimes a little electric guitar to give the shootout scenes a little more excitement. The part we keep on hearing over and over was the main title song, Leave No Man Behind. It is mostly consisted of stings and a single piano. It sounds very solemn and gives it a feeling of remembrance, struggle, and hope. The song that really got me was the last one that is playing before the credits, Gortoz a Ran. Staff Sgt. Eversmann says goodbye to his best friend who died in the mission. He is in a big hanger with the coffins all lined ready to be put on a cargo plane to be sent back to the United States for burial. He talks to his best friend's coffin while trying to hold back the tears. A man and a woman sing in a foreign language that gives me the chills every time I hear it. It has a mournful tone to it and fits the ending perfectly. The closing clip shows all the coffins of the dead soldiers in the airplane as the door slowly closes. Then screen goes black and you see the names of all the soldiers that died during the fighting but you also hear their voices as they say goodbye to their loved ones. It is enough to make anyone shed a tear. Overall the film was very effective on explaining what happened that day. The emotional point was very well expressed and made you actually feel for the soldiers trying to survive. The main theme during the whole movie was the strength of the brotherhood between the soldiers with each of them looking out for one another. True courage and duty was displayed under fire by these soldiers who did not know they possessed these characteristics and they did it with the man beside them in mind. General Garrison (Sam Shepard) went to one of the black hawks before the mission took place and told his men "leave no man behind". This quote was said throughout the whole movie by multiple soldiers and was carried out to the end. I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see true valor displayed and selfless acts carried out by soldiers under fire and with seemingly no way out. Relying on each other to get through and survive. I give this movie 9.7 out of 10 and is by far the best movie I ever watched.