Review of Black Hawk Down (2001) by Eddy A — 22 Oct 2011

Aside from Alien and Blade Runner, Black Hawk Down is my favorite contemporary Ridley Scott picture. I rank this film slightly above Saving Private Ryan only because I felt emotionally more connected to the men on the mission in this film than I did in Saving Private Ryan.

Granted the development of the characters was thinned out due to the massive cast and multiple events taking place at the same time but I was able to look past that because I thought every man in this film did a damn good job in playing their characters.

Ridley Scott definitely made up for his war sets and action sequence mistakes in GI Jane with this film - which again I believe rivals any set or action sequence in Saving Private Ryan. It's just his attention to detail is so fascinating that we forget where we are sitting and are immediately transported into the world and time where the film takes place.

Another thing is the way he shoots this film - coming off the heels of Gladiator, he stuck to saturating the picture with stark and bold colors and getting better with hand-held camera techniques and composition.

Not that Scott was ever bad with any of those, he just got WAY better. And to go back to the performances, I believe every man here does a great job, from Harnett to Isaacs, Sizemore to Bana - the cast is stellar and effective.

This may be a pro-American film and in the eyes of foreigners may be a film that exposes foreign politics in a negative light but I don't like the film because of that, I like the film because it shows military brotherhood at its finest.