Moviecog Makes Movies Go

Comment from The Tao of Netflix
Time May 11, 2009 at 10:39 pm

This movie is a classic, but the Blu Ray isn’t necessarily so. Its only a mild improvement over the SD version. If you already own the SD version, I might recommend you not upgrade, unless you find a good deal.

Comment from Dusty
Time August 10, 2009 at 3:01 am

This film came as quite a surprise to me. I had expected another quickly thrown together Hollywood exploitation film that capitalizes on a recent tragedy. But instead, this is a magnificently produced war film that features the most grueling and visceral battle scenes since the original All Quiet on the Western Front brought the reality of World War I home to the general public (Saving Private Ryan came close, though). More important, thanks to our lousy American news media, I had always thought that the entire event depicted here consisted of nothing more than a “peacekeeping” helicopter being shot down, and Somalians disrespecting a dead American soldier’s body. Instead, it turned out to be and 18+ hour ordeal in which a hundred or so American special forces were pinned down in an urban setting by perhaps ten thousand or more armed Somali militia.

What this film does well is to portray the sheer ordeal that these soldiers went through, and to evoke a lot of respect for the way they conducted themselves in a truly desperate situation. The exposition contains a fair amount of foreshadowing of what’s to come, yet when the mission finally does turn sour there is no way to miss the contrast between what these soldiers expected, and what they got. They expected a quick in-and-out mission that would take 30 minutes. They ended up with the longest and most desperate fire fight that American soldiers had experienced since the Vietnam War. If you’re thinking about things while watching this film, Garrison explained the entire situation succinctly: “We’ve lost the initiative.”

The battle scenes themselves must be seen to be believed. I was so immersed in them that when I had to interrupt the film for a tornado warning at home, it took me a moment to bring myself “back” from Mogadishu. That’s effective storytelling.

Someone in the “making of” documentary summarized what this film is about perfectly, when they said in the thick of battle the two things that keep you alive is your training, and your comrades. One of the greatest paradoxes of humanity is that war is a manifestation of our very worst nature as a species, yet individual soldier’s responses to war often exhibit our very best qualities and virtues. You really get a sense of that in this film as men who appear to be somewhat arrogant and irresponsible in their daily lives, suddenly band together and focus as an effective team to ensure their mutual survival.

The best example of their commitment to each other came when two Delta Force snipers (who won the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously) asked to be inserted into a hopeless situation just to protect their wounded comrades until reinforcements could arrive. It’s a shame that our politicians couldn’t conjure up that kind of a focused response to Hurricane Katrina, and that our corporate executives couldn’t exhibit that kind of selfless behavior as a devastating economic crisis loomed. How can a congressman or corporate CEO possibly “earn” more money than these soldiers do? These soldiers were soaked in their comrades blood, and guns were pointed at them from every direction, constantly. Yet Hillary Clinton cries a river whenever someone smokes a cigarette near her, Donald Trump becomes furious when his interns make a mistake with his corporate lemonade stand, and people actually continue to listen to people like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck when they suffer meltdowns just because someone else SAID something they don’t want to hear. Meanwhile, critics complain about the violence in this film, as if we’ll somehow be more productive if we wear rose-colored blinders when viewing the reality of warfare.

If you don’t like realistic depictions of violence in film, don’t be a coward who tries to stop films from depicting it. Be courageous, and stop the violence, instead. Trying to stop filmmakers from depicting what life is really like, is reprehensible. Kudos to Ridley Scott for keeping it real.

My God, if nothing else, Black Hawk Down shows us how our lack of sensible priorities are going to destroy America, rather than us being conquered by another nation. I trust these soldiers to defend us against invasion from a foreign army. But who will defend us against the sniveling weasels that run our government, our media, and our corporations? Unfortunately, Black Hawk Down only makes vague allusions to the political intrigue that resulted in this catastrophe that killed 19 men (not to mention the Clinton Administration’s response). And like a good soldier, Major General William F. Garrison accepted full responsibility, to take the heat off of his utterly irresponsible Commander in Chief.

The film begins much like a typical Irwin Allen disaster film from the 1970’s, with a lot of rapid exposition to establish the characters and the setting. This is necessary with so many speaking characters–especially when they all look alike in uniform! My greatest concern is that we have no way to know for certain how accurate these portrayals really are. I would like to have seen an interview with at least one participant in the actual battle in the special features, who could explain which parts of the film were realistic, and which parts were created by artistic license. After all, this film is “based on an actual event”, which in Hollywoodspeak means that nearly the entire story presented here might be fiction.

However, the filmmakers did consult many of the men who took part in the actual battle, so it is probably accurate overall. Those real soldiers made it clear that they wanted this film to honor those who had fallen. I can say, for me at least, that they succeeded. I am always against any kind of war, except for defense against invasion, and I have little respect for the military as an institution that wastes as much as half of our national budget while millions of Americans continue to live in poverty. Yet there is no denying that if we are going to send these men and women into battle, regardless of the reason, they deserve our respect and our support, and we should learn from the example of how they conduct themselves under duress. Black Hawk Down certainly promotes that idea well.

But above all else, remember everything that these men endured, when their ultimate goal was simply to see that starving people got fed, especially in a nation where cities like Las Vegas make it illegal to feed the homeless in public places. If you’re courageous enough to THINK beyond the particular story being told here, this film has many important things to say to us.

Comment from Marailyn A. Williams
Time August 14, 2009 at 2:56 pm

As Always, I received the DVD in a very timely manner, and as posted, it was brand new and I’ve enjoyed it several times over. Your prices are the best! Keep up the good work!