Great movie. B+

My favorite war movie: A

Great acting. Very depressing.

B


I realize that it is techincally well-made and is mostly very well-acted, but this one just doesn't hit tzhe right notes for me. It seems to drag on forever and the street-battle scenes are so monotonous and repetitive that after a while you are lost about what exactly is going on. I didn't find it touching or moving and the action was only good at times. Ridley Scott is a good director, but he has made many movies better than this one. There are no complaints on the technical side as the cinematography, the editing, the sound and the effects are all great, but I simply couldn't really get into it. It is definitely not a war movies masterpiece like Platoon or Saving Private Ryan.

One of my All-time Favorite movie!

The war scenes look very realistic, the acting was fantastic!

A+

A-, Second favorite war movie, behind SPR.

I have always found it interesting to see how films get hyped through the Hollywood machine. This is an event that no one cared about when it happened. Vietnam was an event that the majority of Americans didn't care about and it took the U.S. years to commit themselves to WWII. But now when you watch films made by Americans all you get to see is events that surround these times that are told through their eyes. And I guess that only makes sense when you are spending millions of dollars making the film and more millions marketing it. I mean, who would want to see a film where another country either does more than the U.S. does or at least helps them out? You can look at one of the great AMERICAN War films like Saving Private Ryan for example and poke holes in the entire beginning of the film ( were the Americans really the only ones on the beaches of Normandy?) But Hollywood can make jingoism like this and sell it to their patriots because this is what everyone wants to see. Rocky Balboa is not only spoke of with reverence as a character, he symbolizes the great American struggle, the good guy vs. the bad guy, the underdog vs. the favourite, David vs. Goliath. Black Hawk Down is a film that I'm sure has many accuracies to them, but you can't tell me that this is the whole story. We only get to hear things from an American point of view. That is always how it is. And that is fine, again, is any true patriotic, flag waving American going to want to see a film where the Americans aren't the heroes? Even though they are the big bad Americans, for some reason it is prudent for film makers to present them as the underdogs, the Davids, the Rockys. Now think about it, how funny is that?

I mention this in utter futility because I am Canadian and I realize I will never understand the true spirit of what it is like to be American so this film perhaps is not really made for me. But when people comment that a film like this is unflinching in it's realism because it shows us how the government betrayed it's soldiers and this is why so many died that day. Well here's a news flash for all of you. That theory has been going around for years and this is the not the first film to suggest that. But when it is mentioned in popcorn movies like Rambo, people just brush it off like it is just good entertainment. But mention it in Black Hawk Down and it all of a sudden becomes some hidden dogmatic like piece of information that we have never heard before ( let the soldiers do what they do best and all is right with the world, but once the politicians get involved, it is FUBAR). Does this sound familiar? I think Chuck Norris even had that theory in Missing In Action.

I do not really want to say to much more about this film. It served it's purpose, especially in the wake of 911. But it is films like this that upset the rest of the world at times because although this is an accurate depiction of what happened on the streets of Somalia, it is not a true depiction of why the U.S. was there and this is a microcosm of how sometimes the U.S. sticks it's nose into everyone elses business and how sometimes it can go wrong. But as one of the characters in Mississppi Burning said "Your in Mississippi now, the rest of the world don't mean s**t"." I'm sure that is how most Americans feel about the rest of the world.

America and American's need something to feel patriotic about and this is the perfect climate to stir up those feelings of patriotism and it let's the rest of the world know that you really are the home of the brave. I just don't know if this film is all that it is hyped to be.

Ridley Scott is a masterful director and he has made a good film, but, I guess me not being American, I just have a few more questions. Look at the positive reviews on this page and look at the not so positive reviews. Most of the reviews that praise this film are from Americans. Most that are like mine, are from people that don't live in the U.S. and will never understand what it is like to be American. That is not a good thing nor a bad thing, it is just what it is.

6 out of 10

Good that someone else agrees with me on this film, Baumer. I give it a 7/10. Really overrated.

This is a great movie. 9 out of 10.

Booooorrrrrrriiinnnnggg...

1 out of 5.

A wonderful movie with amazing technicals.

A-

Visually stunning and tells a story that needs to be told, but it isn't as gripping and emotionally devastating as it could've been. B.

I agree with tha post. I hoped for a lot more background infos. In fact you see Marines fighting ....but thats actually all...you see Marines fighting.
So by giving some more histoical facts it could have been much much better!

7/10

A-. Top notch film.

Just watched this for the first time in forever. Forgot how awesome of a movie this is. Excellent action, very interesting story, filmed very well, mostly great acting - Josh Hartnett as the "new and still soft" leader and Eric Bana as the "more experienced and hardened leader" are both excellent & it's depressing that neither of them found more mainstream work in the years following this film. Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, and Ewan McGregor are all good too. Sam Sheppard underplays just a bit too much. But overall the case is great. Also Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Piven, Tom Hardy and Hugh Dancy are in this? Did this movie intentionally cast every up & coming actor in Hollywood at the time?

Solid A