Great war film set in some rundown African city

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2002)

Man, I couldn't wait to see this movie. I am a huge fan of the
battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan and was hearing that Black
Hawk Down was SPR II. And Ridley Scott, the master of kinetic
direction, in league with the King of Kinetic movies Jerry
Bruckheimer, do deliver a big rock-em sock-em battle that had me
physically shell-shocked by the end of the movie. So why am I
pulling my endorsement punch a little? The problem, which many
others have identified, is that you really don't care about this battle
or the people that fought it because nothing is exposed very much.
If a bit more of the political background and the moral ambiguities
of the Somalia situation were laid out to us, and the bitter epilogue
played out more, I think we would have been more involved.
Another problem is the multi-person cast, none of whom are given
enough screen time to bond with the audience. I would have loved
to know a little more about that Delta Force spook who gets picked
up on his bicycle to start the movie; he epitomizes cool. And the
Somali warlord/power player was a total mystery to me as to why
he was even in the movie, although he sure was a character.
Once the battle scenes start, it's tough to tell the players without a
program, the only faces I even recognized in the middle of all the
banging and explosions was Tom Sizemore (since I loved him in
SPR) and Josh Hartnett, because he is supposed to be the
Sensitive Soldier. And the Somalis were like the Germans in the
old WWII movies, just cannon fodder for the M-16s. Still, if you like
a big testosterone movie where Everything Gets Blowed Up Real
Good, I can't think of a better movie for you to see. See it in the
theatre (since I love Ridley Scott's movies, you should help
contribute to his billions) or on a really excellent DVD system in the
future.