Masterclass on the desperate and ugly nature of urban warfare

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2003)

A US helicopter crashes in the third world and a chain reaction ensues. Based on a true story.
I usually don't like war films because far too often they are gratuitous and pointless, but what we have here is not just a good film, but a classic war film. Indeed something that can be put alongside Platoon, Saving Private Ryan and A Bridge Too Far.
(While the above are not among my favourite movies they give us a good insight in to what other people had to go through on our behalf. A place that you hope fate doesn't drop you sometime in the future.)
Usually you criticise films for their chaos and lack of overall clarity, but here the moments of confusion and ambiguity are appropriate. When you watch it first time you can enjoy (if that is the right word) the ride, when you watch it the second time you can see the detail and structure. Director Scott brings us in to the movie through angles and emotions (the stone cold war room trying to figure it all out like a chess game versus the grunt in the line of fire), to the point where we are ducking with the actors as the flack comes our way.
(Some of the scenes set to music are just strangely beautiful. Soldiers running for their lives to wailing middle-eastern music haunted me for days after seeing it. There is no real reason for it - in the telling of a story - but the image and the music somehow work magic.)
The soldiers mission is simple to comprehend: Let us try and complete our mission and then get out of here alive; but there is a real sense of the honour and bravery that has to make up a modern army. You have to know that if the worst happens, no expense will be spared to try and save you. This isn't just Hollywood - it is true.
This is a message film whose message is only just being understood: that well intentioned actions can go horribly wrong and no matter what your technological superiority there has to be a price to pay: and the everyday soldier is the person likely to pay that price.
A film that can be enjoyed as a simple action piece or as a message picture; or if you smart enough a combination of both. One of these films that - while hardly unregarded now - could grow-and-grow until it becomes an all-time classic. I guess it all depends on how world history plays itself out and how common situations like this become.