HTF REVIEW: "Black Hawk Down" (1 Viewer)

[Sam Davatchi]

Thanks! But isn't that review from US again?

 

[MickeS]

Sam, it's a great movie with very limited, if any, patriotic flagwaving.

Nice review. I too will be waiting for the SE though, and I hope the History Channel special will be on it.

/Mike

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Thanks, I just read Ebert’s review and that was enough for me:
Ebert:

Although the American mission in Somalia was humanitarian, the movie avoids speechmaking and sloganeering

 

[JonZ]

Sam,
Do a search in the movie section. There was a big debate about this film with alot of different views.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Thanks! But not yet! I guess my secret Jedi power is that I can avoid the discussion threads (a.k.a spoiler galore!) before seeing any movie. I will search for it after I see the movie on DVD.
PS – for those who really want to nitpick, yes it’s not always true! There are very few movies that I go spoiler galore before seeing them.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

One thing you might be interested in knowing is that this DVD uses player generated subtitles that extend below the letterbox image, so folks who like to use mattes can't use thim with this movie.

 

[Eric Fisher]

It's pretty much a "soldier's" movie.

 

[stephen abbot]

Sam I won't comment much as political comments are not appreciated on this forum, a position I agree with. However it should be said that much media commentary down here slated the movie for it's one eyed view of the events that led up to what happened in somalia, and how arrogant US foreign policy brought about the events, nothign else. Furthermore a close friend who was a UN commander (not with US forces) in Mogadishu in the months before and during this attack was quite puzzled by the movie, indicating similar comments to above.

Regards

Stephen

 

[Chip E]

I rented Black Hawk Down and watched it last night... Great Movie . I'll probably pull an "Almost Famous" with this title like someone else said earlier in the thread... buy both.

 

[Blu]

INCREDIBLE Movie!!!!
But I disagree to some extent about it not being a patriotic movie. To me patriotism is upholding what is right and just which the military was trying to do. Protect UN food shipments from Adid and his militia.
Helping hungry people who are oppresed falls under my definition of patriotism.

 

[Bill J]

One thing you might be interested in knowing is that this DVD uses player generated subtitles that extend below the letterbox image

I was very disappointed when I saw that. Do you think the subtitles will be burned in on the special edition disc?

 

[DarrenA]

I was very disappointed when I saw that. Do you think the subtitles will be burned in on the special edition disc?

Well, I just watched this with three buddies tonight. Since I do have a screen with electric masking panels, I setup the screen for 2.35:1 configuration. We quickly realized that the subtitles were showing up below the image on the masking panels. When will these studios ever learn.:rolleyes
The Pros
-Wonderful video image (albeit typical CTHV EE)
-Deep black level with great shadow detail
-Reference quality 5.1 sound (turn it up!)
The Cons
-Extras?
-BHD trailer?
-Special Edition coming later in the year

 

[ErichH]

Powerfull film. Amazing shots in all that debris. Think those guys cleaned any lenses?
Another Ridley/Hans disc for my collection. Also nice to see film of the real guys doing
the insertion scenes(or at least the fly ins and drops)
It was draining. Not one I could pass often. A keeper until the SE arrives.
Eric

 

[oscar_merkx]

http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_...own/index.html
this is an interview with both Ridley Scott & Jerry Bruckheimer

 

[Ron-P]

Excellent film. Ridley Scott did an amazing job. The use of surrounds was very well done, just like The Others, used only when needed and very effectively. The casting was perfect. A very strong and powerful movie. Loved it.
Peace Out~

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Eric F above summed up my feelings as well...

It's pretty much a "soldier's" movie.

Which is it's best strength. It is not about one man, or a few men, but ALL the men and women, regardless of country, who put themselves in this position for the rest of us.

Those critics who accused it of flag-waving or jingoism apparently missed the whole point of the film, and were framing it within their own issues. Ridley accomplished a minor miracle in Hollywood with this picture. No judgement, no filler, no extraneous moments - just a pure film. Ridley's best film, and that's saying a lot.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Eric Bass]

I completely agree. Most of the critics knocked the film for not covering the politics enough which I thought was extremely unfair. It's a war movie about war, nothing else. No morals, no politics, no love triangles, just war itself. My favorite line in the movie has to be when the Delta soldier is talking to Eversmann..."you can't control who gets hit and who doesn't, or who falls out of a chopper, it's just war."

Ok so I butchered that quote, it was something close to that anyway.

 

[JonZ]

For me, when the 2 Delta snipers drop down to protect the downed chopter because theyre alone out there
personaifies what this movie is about.

The cinematography and some fo the images here are just amazing.I think its Ridley Scotts best since Blade Runner.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Jon,
Correct. And it's a true story. They knew the minute they hit the deck, they were buying time for a rescue with their lives and they did it anyway. They probably didn't even know the pilot's name. But I guarantee you he (and his family) knows their names.

It wasn't that the critics were wrong...they expected a Hollywood war movie. I went nuts over Shickel's (sp, Time magazine critic) review of this film. He praised it, and ended the inclusion of BHD on his Top Ten List by saying: "...it ended up being an anti-war film." Very pretentious of a movie critic. Every war movie is an anti-war movie. Every soldier is more fiercely anti-war than a Time magazine movie critic.

Eisenhower once said "I hate war, as only a soldier can hate war." True words, and this movie conveyed that, and WHY they would do something they hated...they loved something else even more. Ridley excised every bit of material or fluff that did not tell the story he wanted to tell - and we got everything that mattered and nothing else.

Looking forward to seeing it again, even if it is not an easy film to watch.

Take care,
Chuck

 

[Chris Fondoklis]

FYI, both Delta snipers, Sgt. First Class Randy Shughart and
Master Sgt. Gary Gordon, were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. These were the first since the Vietnam war.