Not Bad but, ultimately, disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (19 July 2002)

I know it's never a great idea to compare a book with a movie, but this movie was throughly disappointing. Much of the visuals were stunning, and some of the street fighting looked and felt much as it must have to those guys that day. But too much of this movie felt slapped together too quickly, without much thought put into it. Granted, there were incredible events happening in about a half-dozen places, but, instead of trying to cram little bits of all of it into this movie, maybe they would have been better served by focusing on a few of the truly heroic events. The 2 Delta Force commandos (Shughart and Gordon), who insisted on being dropped into the 2nd crash site was, in reality, a breathtakingly courageous sequence that deserved more than it got in this film. It's touched on, but nothing more. These guys won Medals of Honor for their actions. What these guys did was the epitome of what we believe elite soldiers represent. They deserved to be portrayed in this movie much more prominently.
In reading the book, there were a few other acts of incredible bravery and drama that should have been played out more. However, nearly everything that happened that day is very briefly touched on, as if the point was to shoehorn all of it in somehow. The effect is confusing. You end up not knowing who is who, and who is where, and what the hell is going on...
This event, and these soldiers deserved something better. In reality, it's just about a miracle, and a testament to their bravery and training, that the entire contingent of Rangers, Seals, Air Force Parajumpers and Combat Controllers weren't totally slaughtered that day.
This movie should have been a little longer, and should have been planned and thought-out more. This was mostly a disappointing waste of an opportunity.