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BLACK HAWK DOWN: This will not be on my "DVD's to purchase" list

Started by Chris K., July 09, 2002, 01:47:11 AM

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Chris K.

What can I say about BLACK HAWK DOWN? That is nicely directed, contains good acting, excellent story, and memorable dialogue. Well, I could say that.
BLACK HAWK DOWN deserves none of those statements of praise. Rather, BLACK HAWK DOWN was just plain boring and tiresome!

Now, I don't know about the historical accuraces or innacuraces that might be in BLACK HAWK DOWN. The Somalia inciednt was not studied in my history class, but I am really inclined to look into it just the same. So, I will not b***h about that subject.

However, I will talk about the other problems. The film's hype was just so off. Here was a film that millions (at least I think it was millions, I am not too sure) raved so much about and yet the result in my eyes was nothing but a tedious movie. Ridley Scott's direction was so flat and had no passion whatsoever. Now, this is a Jerry Bruckheimer production and I was glad he got rid of that Michael Bay bastard. But, Bruckheimer shows that he is still in control of what 'he' thinks the films should be done. It's basically a PEARL HARBOR/ARMAGEDDON flashback as well see fireworks and explosions, and very little else. And all this to a delight so the so-called "great sound effects" that were so loud that the dialouge was muffled!

And the violence? Well, there's lots of it! But, it's throwaway volence. Some of it is placed in unnessisary sequences. The scene of the soldier geting operated on at his pelvic area was just UNNESSISARY. For one thing, the character was completely uninteresting from the start and it was hard for me to care for the dude. I am not saying the guy should have died, but they could at least made the character interesting in the beginning of the feature so I could care for him! Some of it is also way beyond explination. One shot shows a U.S. marine picking up a severed hand with a wrist watch still on it. Why does he do this? Is he stealing the watch, or the entire hand? And if he is stealing the watch, why didn't he just take it off the hand anyway? As I can recall, he was out of the line of fire so he could have easily taken the watch and left the hand! Sorry, but the violence in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN was tolerable violence that easily made you accept that "War is definatley hell". In BLACK HAWK DOWN, it's just your average gore placed in the cinema fodder category.

And the acting! Oh, good God! Like we really needed Josh Hartnet playing his same "country boy" character from PEARL HARBOR in this prize turkey winner. I'd really like to bash a metal rod over Hartnet's head! And you have your usual two-dimensional characters that are just not that interesting to care about. At one point in the film, we see one soldier calling his wife and yet he leaves a message and we get only ONE glimpse of his wife as well as the soldiers character. It looked as if this scene was going somewhere, but the scriptwriters just go back to the usual explosions and more bang for you buck! Because of that, that could have been the only scene worthy of character develpoment. But, sadly it is non-existant. Sigh.

As for the explinations on why we were involved with Somolia, saldy they are superimposed titles on the screen that supposidly give us "explinations". Unfortunately, the titles are SO SMALL that they were indeed hard to read. With the budget that this film had, it would have been nice if producer Bruckheimer could have spent a few more bucks at the lab to make the titles BIGGER! Wow!

So I my dad and I saw this stink burger yesterday on DVD and even the DVD itself was worthless. The only feature it had was "Behind-the-Scenes" footage. No theatrical trailer, no deleated scenes, no commentary tracks, nothing. And I was a tad "depressed" since I spent $3.50 on that DVD to rent. Oh well, my mistake.

I don't know about you guys, but BLACK HAWK DOWN stank. Not because if it was accurate or not in history terms, but entertainment wise it was just dull. The hype was just exaggerated. I hope Ridley Scott is directing something better right now. And I also hope Bruckheimer is on his way to early retirement.

J.R.

Didd e watch the same movie? I saw it in the theater and it blew me away. First off, the guy was not stealing the watch. The tagline is "Leave no man behind". He was salvaging his fallen comrade's hand for burial purposes. Know why the operation and phone call scenes were there? They actually happened. The sound was so loud and the camera moved in that way becuase the film was meant to show the confusion and deliria of battle. This was meant to bew a portrait of modern warfare. This happened recently so going into explanations didn't matter. The point was to show these guys get in under their heads and ridiculously outnumbered and then fight their way out, not leaving a single man behind. The scene where the Delta Force guy in the downed chopper is using every bit of ammo he has against an onslaught of Somalis only to be pumped full of bullets and dragged through the streets was heart-wrenching. The DVD was so light because a special edition will come out in December, which seems to be the plan every movie company is going for. The ONLY problem I had with BHD was the fact that so many American soldiers were played by Scottish and British actors.

Neville

While I have to agree with some of your points, Chris, I still think it's an OK movie. Main problem I had with it is that the so-called documentary style kills any emotion and empathy one may feel towards the soldiers. Apart from that and the horrible music, beautifully shot.

Chris K.

From what you tell me, I must have missed to points to it. But otherwise, the points wern't too clear (I don't think that the tagline of 'Leave no man behind' is going to be clear to many viewers when the U.S marine picks up the severed hand-I mean, some are also bound to think he was stealing the watch just like I thought he did) when I take a look back at BLACK HAWK DOWN. I might need to see it again.

As for the operation scene and the phone call scenes, I am not complaining on if they actually happened. What I am saying is that if you are going to show such scenes, they have to make a point! The phone call sequence: All we see is the man trying to call his wife. Is it because he misses her? Does he want to say "I love you" just in case if he might not make it? WE DON'T KNOW! We don't see
emotions or character development between the soldier or anybody else. We don't even get to hear many of his thoughts on the whole subject.

I agree that the camerawork was indeed quite good, but the rest just isn't. Maybe getting to know our characters would have helped more for once when they were in battle it was really hard for me to care about them. When we first see them, they come off as brash, pushy, and even full-of-it to an extetnt. They were just your regular "Hollywood characters". And the sound: OK, the film was probably meant to show the confusion and deliria of battle. But I would at least like to hear what the dude's are saying. If a film has muffled dialouge, then I could be missing some important lines or directions that they are taking.

When my dad and I finished BLACK HAWK DOWN, he summed it up as being a "Shoot-em-up, explosion film". He couldn't be farther from the truth. The battle sequences were a spectacle, but their is just too much of it! Some of it looks like "throw away" scenes to speed the running time up! One could wonder was this Ridley Scott's doing, or Jerry Bruckheimer's? Still, the battle sequences are good, but really overdone and pushy. Rubbing it all in your face is not a wise move.

Now, if you guys like BLACK HAWK DOWN I have no problem with that. But to me,  some elements just "didn't fly" too well. Maybe I need to see it again.

Flangepart

Hummm....it seems like the film may have been too true to the modern battlefield. The noise, for example. The gunfire of modern warfare is just Godawful LOUD. Unless we've been in such an environment, we have no conception of what the fighters on both sides were doing just to be heard from arms lingth. Chris K's misunderstanding of the Marine's actions is acceptable, as i might have missed that motivation as well. All battles are lethal chaos, and fighting in Close Quarters Battle is even worse. I've not seen this one yet. I....i was put off by the fact that it was a real incedent, and have a hard time dealing with such a bad event so close to the time it happened. Its just me. I don't know how else to put it.

Neville

Not that I consider BHD a great film, but as I said, I thought it was OK. I also wanted to warn you not to watch "We were soldiers", because it is just like BHD but without the good camera work. Be warned.

Deej

 It wasn't a Marine operation. No Marines. They were army rangers, almost as good, not quite. And, as they were US army and NOT  Marines....he probably WAS stealing the watch. Errrr KILL.
DJ

Deej

Oh yeah...I really enjoyed this flick by the way....though it was over-hyped. the History Channel(all Hitler...all the time) had a documentary about the battle that was very informative!!..\
DJ