'Black Hawk Down' is filmed in a documentary style, and this is both an advantage and a disadvantage for many reasons...

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2005)

Black Hawk Down
In Somalia on October 3, 1993, nearly 100 U.S. Army Rangers, commanded by Capt. Mike Steele, were dropped by helicopter deep into the capital city of Mogadishu to capture two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord which lead to a large and drawn-out firefight between the Rangers and hundreds of Somali gunmen which led to the destruction of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu, and the heroic efforts by various Rangers to get to them, centring on Sgt. Eversmann commanding one Ranger unit, named Chalk Four, pinned down by the street fighting, to Warrant Officer Durant who was only survivor of the second black hawk crash site and whom was captured, to Lt. Col. McKnight who leads a rescue convoy for the Rangers only to get lost within the hostile city, to Lt. Perino leading Rangers to the first black hawk crash site, to Staff Sgt. Yurek who leads his decimated Ranger group Chalk Two through gunfire to safety, to many others involved who where either killed or survived.
'Black Hawk Down' is filmed in a documentary style, and this is both an advantage and a disadvantage for many reasons. Disadvantages include slight lack of character development (although the performances here are good all round), which means that the audience may not care about some of the minor characters. Also, the shaky cinematography can get a little distracting, and more of an orchestral score would have improved the tension.
However, the documentary style also puts the audience right in the action, and reminds us that this really did happen (although the filmmakers may have tweaked things a bit). Ridley Scott has really redeemed himself after 'Hannibal', and the same can be said for Jerry Bruckheimer and 'Pearl Harbor'.
~ 8/10 ~