Movie-Black Hawk Down

I had missed Black Hawk Down when it came out, and put it on my queue on the strong recommendation of my friend Sharon. Good call Sharon!

Black Hawk Down (2001) seems to me to be an example of a movie that shows war as it looks from the view of the man on the ground (not that I have ever been at war). It is not about battle plans and troop movement...it is about confusion and sweat and blood, and loud noises.


It is also about going into situations where you know you may be hurt or killed, and doing it anyway. It is about taking care of the people around you. Politics disappears and it is visceral.

The movie shows this in an extremely graphic and harrowing way, but not expliotatively. And what is more, it is about events that actually happened in the early '90s, as the US was trying to help feed people in Somalia, and got involved in trying to take out a warlord. An operation that was planned to take less than an hour became a running firefight that saw 2 Black Hawk helicopters shot down.

An excellent ensemble cast is in the movie...with no one star getting too much face time, but all merely parts in a bigger machine. The story is fast-paced and tense, and offers little time for the audience to decompress as one battle scene runs into another.

This is an excellent movie and I am glad I put it in my queue.