Black Hawk Down

Plot

In 1993, American forces stormed the Somali city of Mogadishu in order to capture two top Lieutenants of a warlord. However when two of their black hawk helicopters crash land, the ‘leave no man behind’ becomes an escape mission against thousands of armed Somali soldiers.

Direction

With almost nonstop war action, this felt like one of the more realistic war movies I’ve watched – especially with how relatively modern both the narrative was, and the weaponry used.

The gritty look and feel of Somalia was near perfect (being filmed in Morocco), and Ridley Scott’s direction is flawless in capturing the events depicted.

There are some solid use of diegetic sound, especially during the chaotic war moments.

Cast/Characters

A completely stacked cast of both then (and current) ‘names’ and eventual names. With over a dozen speaking roles it is hard to keep up at times with them all.

Josh Hartnett who was in his heyday at the time plays the team leader – who is responsible for getting his team out of the warzone.

Some other big names and their role in the film include; Ron Eldard, Jeremy Piven,  Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Tom Hardy, Ewan Bremmer and Ty Burrell. The late Tom Sizemore, and Sam Sheppard also appear.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

With the war scenes barely letting up, surprisingly there is a solid screenplay around it. There are quite a few pivotal moments which are humorous at times to take the pressure off of the intensity, these include Hardy accidentally deafening Bremmer, and administrator and first time in the field McGregor’s love of coffee.

There is also some brutal moments that show the seriousness of war when a side character has his femoral artery torn and they fix it in the field.

There are some emotional moments too, when some characters we’ve come to care about lose their life on screen, and others happen so rapidly we don’t have time to mourn them.

Score/Soundtrack

There is a very ‘American/wartime’ type soundtrack that plays at times, with a very uplifting score to go along with it.

Overall

A brilliant film in all manner of speaking. The only real downs I had was a few non-American actors struggling with the American accent at times. Otherwise near perfect.

4.5/5