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Black Hawk Down
the one line review:
Leave no man behind
the overview
If you're a fan of Shaving Ryan's Private's or Band of Brothers, then you'll need to watch this film. Based on true events, this is a recount of a US Army mission that went a bit tit's up.
the plot:
Somalia, 1993. Warlord Aidid is causing some pretty nasty shit to happen to his people. The US Army (Marines/Rangers) are sent in to Mogadishu to capture a couple of his generals. What should have been a 30 minute operation takes all night, as things go awry when a helicopter (a Black Hawk) gets shot down (hence the title Black Hawk Down).
A bunch of people get killed, and rather than capturing the hostages, it's all about getting the Army folk out of Mogadishu with as few casualties as possible.
the verdict:
It's your typical bang bang war film, filmed in a Band of Brothers meets Apocalypse Now. The similarity to BoB is especially prevalent, due to about half the cast of it being in this. Josh Hartnett does well in the lead (even though it's a little hard to believe he's SSgt. when he looks so damn young) and Eric Banananana does well as the young hard emotionless fighter who's already got the t-shirt.
There are plenty of explosions, lots of shooting, and the Dolby Digital soundtrack is great (helicopters were flying all over my room). It's pretty tense all the way through, giving that the whole film is based around a single mission that starts about 25 minutes in.
Based around the events of a true story (read here for more info), the film certainly has a slight God Bless America slant to it, but you also feel like the film makers (Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer no less) have at least tried to remain neutral, by putting across the feelings of the Somalians involved.
Well worth a watch and a worthy addition to your collection if you like this sort of film.
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