A Solider's story

Rating: 10/10 (31 August 2006)

Black Hawk Down should be considered as one of the all time greats of action war films. Unlike "Saving Private Ryan" which begins with an incredibly realistic reenactment of the landings on Omaha beach in 1944 but becomes rather "theatrical" later, BHD depicts actual events throughout and sticks close to a historical facts. The action begins almost immediately and builds to a heart stopping moment when the trapped soldiers are under attack from what appears to be thousands of Militia men. For me the main point of the film was not to depict a "botched" mission but the bond between soldiers on the ground. In my mind the film has a similar feel to "Das Boot" which could have been a story about any nation's submarine. A more recent addition was "Band of Brothers" the amazing HBO series. Black Hawk Down is a soldiers story and goes some way to explaining the question "Why do you do it, do y'all think your some sort of heroes?"