Highly Overated Spectacle Driven Drivel

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2003)

Quite a long time ago on opening weekend my friend and I went to see this film. We both had High Expectations of it hearing so many great things. However when the credits started rolling we both had major problems with this film. Problems that could not have been fixed by simple time spent in the editing room. One review I have read declared this film amongst the pinacle of other great films such as Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and Saving Private Ryan (He forgot Three Kings, Platoon, and The Deer Hunter but Oh well.) back to my point the difference those films have that this film is lacking are the two most important aspects of story telling.(Film making at its core is storytelling remember.) Plot and Character Development. Black Hawk down is missing both of those. It has a little bit of Conflict Exposition, then just crashes into an hour and a half battle scene. Believe me I enjoy battle scenes as much as the next film buff. The invasion of Normandy in Saving Private Ryan took my breath away. But when it just carries on to make up the bulk of the film as this does there is no way someone can follow a story because there is no story line to follow. There is a guy that gets captured and that went no where. There are people just running and shooting a the Somalians with loud gun fire covering over any possible dialogue making none of the characters worth remembering. It basically has the plot and thematic equivalent of a Steven Segal movie and that is far from a complement.
Many people talk about how realistic it is, but film making is not realism, it is supposed to be heightened realism, and you should be left with something more than just an visual memory of a guy holding a wound shut as blood spills on the floor. This did not deliver. Like most of Scott's other Indeavors he just does not have what it takes to be a distinguished director. Though I guess his movies can be pretty fun to watch at times.