I'm proud to be an American, but does that mean I have to like this movie???!!!

Rating: 3/10 (25 June 2002)

When I went to my local West Coast Video to return my 3 DVDs ("Black Hawk Down" being one of them), the clerk asked me, "How were the movies?" I succinctly told him, "'The Majestic' was good; "Rollerball" and "Black Hawk Down" sucked. He replied, "You didn't like 'Black Hawk Down?' What are you, a Commie?" I didn't laugh at the joke. He assumed I took it seriously, but I didn't. It's just I happen to live in the 21st century and I don't find a joke like that offensive, nor funny. But I knew where he was getting at: This is a war movie! I'm supposed to like it! It depicts unrelenting American heroes who died face down in the muck for the sake of patriotism. Well, I respect those heroes--I really do. And I actually found the (real-life) story of "Black Hawk Down" to be touching and powerful. During the opening and closing credits, when the title cards gave us a vivid idea of the beginning and aftermath of the tragic event, I was really moved. It's everything between those opening and closing credits that had me anesthetized.
Many critics and audiences have given Ridley Scott great appraise for creating such "realistic and groundbreaking war scenes." I honestly didn't think they were that great. I didn't feel the same intensity I felt while watching "Saving Private Ryan." Maybe it was because of Scott's continuous cutting. Ridley Scott is one of those directors who doesn't believe in staying on one shot for over 2 seconds. We continuously cut from one area of the battlefield to another to another, etc., etc. And that's probably what took me out of the film. That's not including the thinly developed characters. I especially wanted to get to know Ewan McGregor's character better. He provided occasional comic relief, but we don't know much about him, other than he loves coffee (and I completely relate, being an avid coffee drinker myself) and is timid when under pressure.

The acting is good, despite poorly developed characters. The whole cast gives their all. I was impressed to find out that a good deal of the characters weren't even American, yet they feigned very convincing accents. I haven't seen Eric Bana, previously to this film, and all I know about him is that he's gonna star in the upcoming "Incredible Hulk" movie. I didn't have a clue that he wasn't American. I didn't know until I saw him in an interview in the featurette. Jason Isaacs, who I didn't recognize until the end, was also very convincing. Josh Hartnett delivers another fine performance. He's one of the few young actors who I think has great potential in becoming a talented character actor in the future. I hope he does, so if he wins an Oscar about five or ten years from now, I can tell people that he knew him when he was just a struggling young actor.

Another thing that irked me was the DVD: the special features sucked! As a matter of fact, there were almost no special features. Usually, a big movie like this is jam-packed with special features like audio commentaries, deleted scenes, documentaries about the real-life event, etc. It has a pretty good featurette, but that's it. I guess they're gonna wait 'til 2 years from now to release the Collector's Edition with a 2-disc set, like they did with "Independence Day."
Many will probably disagree with my thoughts on "Black Hawk Down," but I'm not gonna pretend to like it to prove I'm a patriot. The real-life story is powerful; the movie is simply a pointless display of violence. I know it's a war movie and it's supposed to be violent, but if ALL you're left with is violence, then you have the equivalent of a flashy video game. And how am I supposed to feel sad when the characters die when I hardly know a thing about them?
My score: 3 (out of 10)