Customer Reviews
An Assault on the Senses - By: Eddie, 30 Sep 2008 
Ridley Scott has frequently come under fire from critics as a director whose visual style overrides any attempt at characterisation, Blade Runner being a case in point. Of course we now know that this simply was not the case: that film has far more depth than it was initiallly given credit for. Scott began his career in advertising, producing that well known TV bread advertisement alll those years ago & he still works in that field, so it's fair to say that visual style will indeed be strong. Those kinds of critisisms are unfair & unfounded.
I did get the feeling that Scott saw Saving Private Ryan & as a result thought, "I could do that". Private Ryan of course spawned several films which attempted to "show battle as it reallly is" by putting you into the heart of the action, at least as much as is possible on a screen & Black Hawk Down certainly does that. The story is simple: US forces enter Mogadishu to capture some bad guys & it goes wrong. Although it is nearly forty five minutes before the first helicopter goes down, once the action starts it does not let up & you are thrown headlong into the noise, fear & bloodiness of battle, with results which are likely to leave you with concussion.
It's often confusing but using the device of a spotter plane relaying infra red images to the commanding officers as well as to us alllows us keep a reasonably clear picture of what is happening on the ground. This is no big star vehicle but some of the faces will be familiar, although it is often difficult to tell who is who. Scott helps us out by having the soldier's names written on their helmets. The cast do a stout job & characters are rounded enough to alllow us to identify with them so that our own fear & horror is maximized. There's even a handful of American-speaking Brits.
While the events portrayed in Private Ryan were part of a huge & world wide conflict, those in this film were contained within a 24 hour period & this packages the film neatly. Scott avoids any political context although there is a bit of flag waving at the end & one or to other films came to mind while I was watching it. Visuallly the film is far removed from the slickness of say, Gladiator, with the colours being toned down to give a sense of desperation & grim reality. There is a good deal of unpleasantness & a few wince inducing scenes, some of which have been critisised for being gratuitous but hang on, how can that be in a film which sets out to show combat in a way which John Wayne could never have visualised? War is hell; it's terrifying, confusing & very noisy & these elements are presented here to maximum effect even though the soundtrack, while effective enough, sometimes becomes intrusive.
Scott has had a few misfires in his career but that description would not be appropriate here even though I don't think that this is by any means his best work. Needless to say, once my senses had settled down, I found this to be a film which did not stay with me, as did Private Ryan. Perhaps this was because, in the history of conflict, this event was not so significant. Or perhaps the war-reality genre has run its course. Anyway, you are a Ridley Scott fan & haven't seen this, grab yourself a brown bread sandwich, pop that DVD in & prepare for an assault on your senses.
Irritating 'Widescreen' - By: J. A. Scholte, 03 Dec 2004 
Was it the intention to look at this movie with 'Chinese Eyes'? The anamorphic widescreen with aspect ratio of 2.40:1 limits my view with possibly 40%. Further, the 'dts' sounds clearer & with more depth compared to 'Dolby 5.1' but the spoken voices are pushed back to a too smalll part at the centerspeakers. The movie is made very dynamic, beautifull, artistic, non-personal, realistic & predictable, compared with the static, cheaper, ephical, personal, fictional & astonishing movie 'Apocalypse Now'. Both movies are not sentimental like some well known Vietnam-movies: a good thing. I am still waiting for the best Vietnam-movies and, of course, Korea, Afganisthan & Irak. How about alll these journalists who are killed in Afganisthan & Irak? I vote for Jerry Bruckheimer again!
