Staff Sgt. Eversmann: Josh Hartnett
Sgt. Hooten: Eric Bana
Ranger Spec. Grimes: Ewan MacGregor
Lt. Col. McKnight: Tom Sizemore
Maj. Gen. Garrison: Sam Shepard
Ranger Spec. Nelson: Ewen Bremner
Delta Sgt. Sanderson: William Fichtner
Ranger Cpl. Smith: Charlie Hofheimer
Ridley Scott
continues a career revival he began with
Gladiator,
by teaming up with infamous producing legend Jerry Bruckheimer, and taking
on a contemporary war movie based on a novel by Mark Bowden. The result
is a more believable and moderately intelligent movie than you'd usually
expect from the Bruckheimer stable, and one that gives ample room for
Scott to flex his technical muscles.
Black Hawk Down is based on a true event that took place in 1993, when
123 elite U.S. soldiers were air-dropped into Somalia to capture two
Lieutenants of a renegade warlord, only for the mission to go wrong when
a Black Hawk helicopter crashlands in the middle of the hostile city.
The rescue operation sees comrades of the downed chopper facing a city
full of heavily-armed Somali renegades in a violent battle to ensure
that "no man is left behind".
Jerry Bruckheimer projects are usually high-concept movies that do
massive business at the box-office because of their potent mix of
incredible special-effects and gung-ho testosterone (witness Top Gun,
Armageddon,
Pearl Harbor and many more). Black Hawk Down
certainly looks like a blatant Bruckheimer movie, but with Ridley Scott
behind the camera, the movie manages to retain a greater sense of
humanity and intelligence usually missing in past Bruckheimer
spectacles. I wouldn't be surprised if Bruckheimer's influence was
somewhat lost when pitted against the similarly focused Scott.
Scott gathers a great cast of rising stars (Josh Hartnett), relative
newcomers (Eric Bana), and established old hands (Ewan MacGregor, Tom
Sizemore), but they ultimately become little more than stereotypes and
walking plot-devices here. Of course, 90% of this movie is dedicated to
recreating 1993's U.S debacle, with little time given to developing the
characters or, indeed, setting them up in the first place. All you need
know about the cast, according to screenwriter Ken Nolan, is that Ewan
MacGregor is anxious for battle after spending the Gulf War making
coffee, and Josh Hartnett is an idealistic young soldier. Once the first
half-hour of typical 'meet-and-greets' are dispersed with, Ridley Scott
opts to simply film the doomed mission in true OTT Bruckheimer style.
Despite the almost 'par for the course' storytelling problems with the
movie, there's simply no denying that the film delivers both visually
and aurally. Scott directs with the visual prowess of a man half his age
raised on MTV commercials, obviously having great fun mixing together a
cacophony of directorial tricks that should prevent anyone from dragging
their eyes away from the action. There are plenty of gruesome sequences
(especially an eye-watering emergency operation on an injured soldier)
and enough loud assaults and explosions to appease even the most
feverish action movie fan.
So while the pacing is fantastic and the technical brilliance of the
movie without reproach, it's difficult to truly rate Black Hawk Down
as a great war movie. If Bruckheimer and Scott set out to create a
visually stunning piece of contemporary showmanship - they mainly
succeeded. But in doing so, their approach stops Black Hawk Down being
anything more than just another flashy recreation of an event people
will have seen on the news. Unlike
Saving Private Ryan,
there's no defining sense of humanity or underlying sadness, and no hidden depths
as seen in
Apocalypse Now.
There just lots of action, plenty of shouting, missiles, gunfire, explosions,
smatterings of gore, and some impressive helicopter crashes.
Overall then, Black Hawk Down is an enjoyable movie to watch, so long
as you only consider war movies good entertainment for the inherent
visual thrills and auditory ferocity cinema can deliver these days.
Those hoping for some depth of character, storytelling nuance, and
clever commentary on modern warfare, should perhaps look elsewhere.
Black Hawk Down on Region 1 is a 1-disc DVD release in an Amaray case.
The animated menus perfectly capture the visual flair of the movie,
together with some fast loading times and simple navigation of
sub-menus.
Picture quality is of a very high standard, with the 2.35:1 anamorphic
widescreen picture being an almost perfect transfer onto DVD. The
miltaristic hues are pleasingly grungy, the desert landscapes
effectively hazy, while the night sequences feature gorgeous blacks and
nocturnal blues - punctuated with vibrant flashes from explosions.
There's really no cause for complaint with anything the disc delivers
visually, as Black Hawk Down retains the high-quality stamp all
Bruckheimer movies on DVD have been blessed with so far.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also a fantastic transfer to DVD, with
gunshots permeating across the rear-speakers, while helicopters roar
across your living room to the thumping music score that underpins the
film. War films are one of the best genres to give your surround sound
set-up a punishing workout, with even dialogue-driven scenes featuring
background crowds or distant vehicle roars. Basically, Black Hawk Down
cannot be faulted for its immersive soundmix, although the lack of a DTS
mix should annoy those who are DTS-enabled.
Sadly (like a growing number of Region 1 releases this year!) the Extra
Features are practically non-existent, which should upset fans of Ridley
Scott and Jerry Bruckheiemer especially. A 'Special Edition' is
doubtless around the corner, and the Region 2 release is already
expected to be a 2-disc set with all the extra trimmings. Still, if
you're more concerned with the film, and couldn't care less about bonus
material, this Region 1 release is more than satisfactory.
The Extra Features you do get with this first release are: a bland
making-of documentary, and some theatrical trailers for Spiderman and
The One. Unlike the blurb on the back of this DVD, I don't count Scene
Access and Animated Menus as extra features, obviously!
In conclusion, a good movie with an excellent transfer, but let down by
a terrible lack of Extra Features. Unless you're really keen on the
movie, or couldn't care less about extra material - I recommend you wait
for the imminent Region 2 release which should have more extras.
Reviewed using a Toshiba SD210e DVD Player connected to a Toshiba 32"
32ZD09B widescreen TV with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
