Stars: Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Eric Bana, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, Ioan Gruffudd, Ron Eldard, Kim Coates, Gabriel Casseus, Hugh Dancy, Richard Tyson, Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Piven, Brendan Sexton III, Danny Hoch, Brian Van Holt, Enrique Murciano, Carmine Giovinazzo, Tom Guiry, Charlie Hofheimer

Director: Ridley Scott

Summary: Based on true events, this is an account of an American UN Peacekeeping Force which landed in Mogadishu, Somalia in October 1993. Their mission was to abduct the two top lieutenants of a local warlord but the team are quickly surrounded by enemy forces and a fifteen hour fierce ground battle ensues.

On October 3, 1993, Army Rangers and members of the elite Delta Force participated in a covert operation in Mogadishu, Somalia that went horribly wrong. Sent to abduct two lieutenants of a vicious Somali warlord, the soldiers found themselves surrounded by hostile militia. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and many men lost their lives. Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer told the story of the battle in his exhaustively researched, critically acclaimed book, BLACK HAWK DOWN, and filmmaker Ridley Scott (GLADIATOR) and screenwriter Ken Nolan have done an amazing job of bringing the dramatic story to the screen. Like Bowden's book, the film does not thoroughly examine the context of the conflict, but gives a detailed and intense blow-by-blow account of the fighting. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Josh Hartnett as a competent but nervous Ranger sergeant leading his first mission, Ewan McGregor as a "desk jockey" who excels when sent into combat, Eric Bana (THE INCREDIBLE HULK) as a cocky and enigmatic Delta, and Ron Eldard as a downed Black Hawk pilot. The violence of the film is brutal and nearly constant. Scott unflinchingly captures the chaos and mayhem of battle with tremendous visual finesse.

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Beginning with a quote from T.S. Elliott--"All our ignorance brings us closer to death"--the hope that Black Hawk Downwill offer an intelligent war film to a world after September 11, 2001 is high. Based on a true story which led to a bestselling book, the film focuses on the 1993 American mission to Somalia which went terribly wrong. To a certain extent it succeeds with its opening promise, but all too quickly falls under the spell of American national pride--possibly the reason why the film was brought forward from its original release date. One might hope that with a British director, Ridley Scott, and a high percentage of British and Australian actors on board, Black Hawk Downwould present an outsider's view on the American politics of war, but produced by the team who brought us Pearl Harborthe end result is a traditional American-Heroic war movie, relying more on special effects, gore and gun battles than character, emotion and politics.

In its favour Black Hawk Downdoes make an attempt to represent the views of the Somalian people. In one of its strongest scenes, a high-powered Somalian gun seller states; "This is our war not yours", but by the end of the film it's clear that this is merely a token gesture towards a non-Western perspective on the conflict. Many American soldiers lost their lives during this battle, and this movie is a fine tribute to these amazing men in one of the first big-budget films to expose modern Warfare.

As far as top billing goes, Josh Hartnett and Ewan McGregor hold no greater role than the rest of the cast. The standout performance comes from Ewen Bremner, who offers an unexpectedly comic turn against the bleak backdrop; but otherwise the limited character development highlights one of the film's main issues--that although these men are fighting for their country, when on the battlefield they stand together and no man is more important than any other (unless you're on the wrong side!). --Nikki Disney

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	2001
Release Date:	October 25, 2004
Runtime:	138 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C S B 32708
Keywords:	Black, Hawk, War, Down, Superbit
Genre:	War