Single Minded War Film

Rating: 9/10 (25 March 2002)

This is a truly single minded film. The purpose here is to do nothing more than, as accurately as possible, recreate a terribly failed US military action. Those who call this pro-war propoganda saw the wrong film. This movie pulls no punches in its belief that the mission was a failure and the US presence in Somalia was questionable at best.
Ridley Scott is a good at the epic as anyone. And here, he has cleansed himself of characters and plot and stuck with the book almost real time. From minute one, we are tossed mercilessly into the streets and markets of Mogadishu and left stranded with the cast. Black Hawk Down is a major technical achievement, and though I was suprised to see it win two Oscars, I felt they were earned.
This movie cannot be compared to Platoon, SPR, Born on the Fourth of July or most other war movies for that matter. It focuses solely on a mission and a failed one at that. For me, if this movie brought any message to the screen, it was that America did not know what it was doing in Somalia. But don't trust my opinion. This is a film worth seeing and judging for yourself. **** out of ****.