Black Hawk Down (2001)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers (WGA):

Mark Bowden (book)
Ken Nolan (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 January 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

Rangers Lead the Way.

Plot:

123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis.

Plot Keywords:

Warlord | Somalia | Helicopter | Mogadishu | Army Rangers

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 29 nominations

Cast

Josh Hartnett	...	Eversmann
Ewan McGregor	...	Grimes
Tom Sizemore	...	McKnight
Eric Bana	...	Hoot
William Fichtner	...	Sanderson
Ewen Bremner	...	Nelson
Sam Shepard	...	Garrison
Gabriel Casseus	...	Kurth
Kim Coates	...	Wex
Hugh Dancy	...	Schmid
Ron Eldard	...	Durant
Ioan Gruffudd	...	Beales
Tom Guiry	...	Yurek (as Thomas Guiry)
Charlie Hofheimer	...	Smith
Danny Hoch	...	Pilla

MPAA:

Rated R for intense, realistic, graphic war violence, and for language.

Runtime:

144 min | Germany:142 min | USA:152 min (extended version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Somali

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Portugal:M/16 | India:A | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA (re-rating on appeal) | Australia:R (original rating) | Brazil:14 | Canada:18A | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #38095) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Kénitra Airbase, Morocco

Company:

Revolution Studios

Trivia:

Despite the fact that Ken Nolan is the only credited writer there were others that contributed uncredited. Sam Shepard wrote a some pages of dialogue, but they were not used; 'Eric Roth' wrote crucial speeches for Josh Hartnett and 'Eric Bana' to deliver in the closing minutes; Steven Zaillian made a dialogue-driven rewrite; and Stephen Gaghan did one rewrite early on in the development. Nolan was the writer on the set for four months, and worked on the script for over two years. Prior to WGA arbitration, promotional materials for the film (such as theatrical posters) credited the screenplay to both Ken Nolan and Steven Zaillian. This was later changed to award sole credit to Ken Nolan.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the soldiers are firing the mini guns from the helicopters, the shells are falling out too slowly. A raining stream would fall out, not a small line of shells.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dan Busch: There. Technicals, nine o'clock.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Destroy All Humans! (2005) (VG)

Soundtrack:

You're the Devil in Disguise

Fantastically filmed war movie(inspired by true events, which makes it even more unbelievable)

Black Hawk Down(2001) is truly a great war movie. Filmed extroirdinarally with gritty action scenes, this movie is (one of) the best war movies I've seen since Saving Private Ryan.

The movie is based(noticed BASED, which the director admitted they filled in A LOT of gaps they had no info on)on true events of a small force of soldiers going into an african town to take out a leader and his men, whom are blocking all food from a close town. Even food America sends over, we learn, they take as theirs. So one bad thing leads to another, and the ride they came in on, crashes, hence the name Black Hawk Down.

While I thought the film was a little of a copy off of SPR, with the camera movements, to the filming style itself, did not hinder this movie's effect on audiences at all. The pain, and whole torturous hours those soldiers were without help was shocking. It leaves you sitting in your seat after it's over, thinking what it must of been like, every second they were in theiir, always fighting. Getting this movie will pay off. I guarantee it-moviecritic2003