Black Hawk Down: SE (1 Viewer)

[Yumbo]

the extras are invaluable.
the scoring section is gold. hans is putting on the pounds!
the A/V is similar.

DTS is still needed on an SB edition. nowhere near the theatrical experience this DD track is.

 

[Tim Ke]

Hey Josh, can you tell me about the Mission Timeline feature on disc 3? I'm contemplating buying my local r4 version which excludes this... thanks in advance

 

[Porfirio]

Hey JoshB,

Fantastic post, man.

 

[kevin_asai]

JoshB, good review! Thanks

 

[Todd Durham]

Tim,

Just got done playing with the mission timeline feature. It basically breaks down the entire mission from the point at which they identify the target in the hotel. This is shown in increments as short as 1 minute. They give a short description of the event at the bottom of the screen with the corresponding part of the movie in a small portion of the upper right screen. For war buffs or anyone who likes to break down the details of the incident it is a nice feature. The PBS documentary is a nice addiont as well. I had not seen this one.

 

[JoshB]

I found the mission timneline to be a very nice feature. It gives the time of the incident in question, its location in the city (shown on a map), a short summary, and a video clip that plays from the movie shown in the corner. If the R4 is the same as the R1 version with only the mission timeline missing, I would go for the R1. I'm not sure what is included on the R4 version. But in any case, its a must buy for any DVD fan.

 

[Seth T]

Ok, so I picked this up today. I'm surprised nobody has mentioned MY gripe yet...and I haven't even put a disk in to try it.

The very first thing I noticed when opening the digipack is...the clear plastic with all the artwork behind it...and the friggin black magnetic anti-theft sticker underneath! WTF. That's two releases I know of. One Columbia, one Universal. Both Ridley Scott films. Coincidence? Hmmm.

So now I get to play doctor with a knife and hope to lift it without tearing the artwork or the digipack.

On a positive note, the specs for this set ROCK!

-Seth

 

[JoshB]

Yes I too have noticed the security sticker on the digipak as well. I also had it on the Legend: UE also. I was able to remove both with no trouble and without damaging the case. I have had this problem on a few other DVD cases also, in some instances I have not been able to remove them due to their location on the case and my unwillingness to want to damage it over the sticker. In any case, it doesn't hurt my opinion of the DVD set or the packaging in any way at all. I thought the packaging for this set was done very well, with very nice disc art and photos on the package.

 

[TonyE]

Thanks Josh, that was a terrific post on the set.

Seems to have some truly amazing special features. I too, do not notice many of the special effects in the movie. In fact I didn't even know before your post that there were many special effects used in the movie.

 

[Tim Ke]

Thanks guys, I thought the timeline would just be a few text screens, but it really does sound like a worthwhile feature.
I was also wondering if the subtitle stream identifying each speaker on the Task Force Ranger commentary was really necessary? (ie - is it hard to tell who's speaking without the names on screen?)
Looks I might have to get the r1 version now... more money outta my wallet!

 

[Bill J]

I was also wondering if the subtitle stream identifying each speaker on the Task Force Ranger commentary was really necessary? (ie - is it hard to tell who's speaking without the names on screen?)

For me the subtitles were necessary, since the only voice that was easy to distinguish from the rest was Sgt. Eversmann's.

This is a great commentary track by the way. The veterans focused on several different aspects of the production of the film, as well as the battle itself. They did mention several inaccuracies, but overall seemed very pleased with the film. One interesting thing they said was that some of the helicopter pilots during the actual mission flew the helicopters when they were filming the movie.

 

[Eric Fisher]

I've listened to all the commentaries and gone through all the extras within the last few days. This is an absolutely fantastic DVD set. This movie also has a special place in my heart as I have just recently completed some time in the army. I think it captured the bonds of soldiers well and the soldiers' ability to drive on under the worst conditions.

 

[Paul Case]

Is anybody else amazed by the section of the documentary on the effects work done for BHD? My god, they did some stunning work that is so realistic and so subtle that I never would have even picked up on it if it hadn't been pointed out to me. After seeing this documentary, I'm fully of the opinion that they should probably have given LOTR at least a solid run for the visual FX oscar that year.

 

[Eric Fisher]

Yes, The effects section was very nice. I didn't realize all the dust was digital!

 

[RobertW]

no magnet on mine.

and yeah, the special effects were truly excellent. upon viewing, i never imagined that the crash of wolcott's chopper was cgi, it just seemed so realistic and didn't stand out at all. unlike say, the shots of treebeard walking in the two towers, or the spiderman webslinging, which looked kind of cartoony.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

This pack looks incredibly solid. I haven't read that many reviews of this new release, but sometimes seeing a general consensus among HTF posters is all that you really need. Everyone here seems very happy with the S.E, and that makes it a no-brainer for me. This seems to be a set where everything was done right, and I'm looking forward to picking it up.

 

[Lars_J]

I wasn't going to pick this up, but I saw it at Target for $25... So far I'm very impressed, although I've only seen most of Disc 2 so far.

 

[Ray H]

Great set. Something funny is that in the documentaries, instead of just showing clips from the final movie, they show the scenes shot by an alternate digital camera. It looks a bit strange, but pretty cool. Makes me wonder if they have an entire version of the movie like this.

 

[Danny_Tam]

This will definitely be a contender for DVD of the year. I find the plastic catchers that hold the discs pretty irritating, though. Who designed these things? =P

 

[Charles de Lauzirika]

Great set. Something funny is that in the documentaries, instead of just showing clips from the final movie, they show the scenes shot by an alternate digital camera. It looks a bit strange, but pretty cool. Makes me wonder if they have an entire version of the movie like this.

Good eye.

The majority of "Black Hawk Down" was indeed covered by a Mini-DV unit, but not quite enough to cut together a complete alternate version. When I started going through materials for the DVD, BHD's associate editor Wes Sewell pointed out that there were about 85 Mini-DV tapes of scene coverage shot from multiple angles. The video footage was originally intended to be incorporated into the film for a more experimental video documentary style. The idea was eventually scrapped.

I'm not a big fan of doing unmotivated cutaways to film clips (they're often a necessary evil to cover edits during interviews) so I thought it would be interesting to use all of this great Mini-DV footage that would have otherwise sat on the shelf forever collecting dust.