Only now, after having been viciously attacked by terrorists on our own soil, do we appreciate the military. Suddenly, we're all patriots, waving our flags, proud to be Americans, and admiring our brave soldiers. This is new, though. Sadly, it's also temporary. We Americans have short attention spans, and when it's no longer cool to be patriotic, we'll go back to bitching about all the petty things we used to bitch about, especially when it comes to problems in our country.
In case you forgot, that's how it used to be. In the late 60s and early 70s, soldiers returning home from Vietnam were spit on by people. Our country was in the midst of the hippie movement, we were all about "make love not war," and because of that, soldiers returning home were ostracized, treated like shit, and totally disrespected. The supposedly loving hippies and flower children hated the military, and they blamed the soldiers for Vietnam (when really, it was the government, Lyndon B. Johnson, in particular). Years later, during the Gulf War, there was a brief period where we were wearing yellow ribbons, and "support our troops" was a common bumper sticker. Thankfully, there were no hippies or flower children yelling at soldiers returning home, but when the war ended, so did the patriotism. After that, we went through years of indifference. Does anyone who hasn't seen this movie really know about what happened with our soldiers (Army Rangers and Delta Force) when they went to Somalia in October of 1993? Probably not. I'm not making accusations, 'cause I was the same way. I remember hearing something about Somalia in the news, but I never bothered to pay attention. This is what our military had to deal with. Complete indifference. After seeing "Black Hawk Down," I felt horrible because before the September 11th attack, I was one of those indifferent people. Sure, I care about the military now because I really want vengeance for what happened on 9-11, but as for what happened in Somalia, I was clueless, and that's a shame. What these young men went through is horrific, and I was oblivious.
"Black Hawk Down," if nothing else, will let people know what those brave soldiers did, what they died for (18 American soldiers were killed). The mission was to restore peace and end famine in Somalia. The horrible conditions in Somalia were aused by Mohammed Farrah Aidid, one of the most evil people who ever lived. There's always controversy whenever America acts like the world police, because realistically, the mission had nothing to do with us. It was a humanitarian effort. Then again, for all the people who bitch about us being the world police, there are just as many who say that we need to do what we can to make the world a better place for everyone. If you'll excuse the "Star Trek" reference, we can't always use the prime directive.
"Black Hawk Down" is hitting theaters during a patriotic time, so I'm sure it'll do well. As for how good the movie is, well, it's really good. It's not great, but it does hint at greatness, if that makes any sense. First I should warn you that I saw the movie when I had a bad headache, and that's the worst time to see a war movie. Bullets spraying all over the place, explosions, flashes of light, all of that is in this movie in an extreme way. But as bad as those things were for my headache, I still enjoyed it. The only problem is that I had no idea what the hell was going on.
There is no main star in this movie. It's got a ton of actors, and therefore, a ton of characters. Most of the time, they're wearing helmets and all kinds of gear, and even though I recognize just about all of the actors, I had a very hard time telling them apart. Because of that, I couldn't get as emotionally attached to the movie as I normally would. In "Saving Private Ryan," it was very easy to tell everyone apart, but it helped that there weren't as many characters. With "Black Hawk Down," there was too much going on, too many characters, and too many stories. I couldn't tell who was who, what was what, or who was doing what.
The large cast includes quite a few familiar names, but no HUGE names. There's Josh Hartnett (who was in another war movie, "Pearl Harbor"), Ewan McGregor ("Obi-Wan Kenobi" himself), and Tom Sizemore (he was in two other war movies, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Pearl Harbor"). Then there are those who you may have never heard of, but their faces might ring a bell, like William Fichtner (another "Pearl Harbor" guy... he was also in "Armageddon," and he was the blind guy in "Contact"), Ewen Bremner (yet another "Pearl Harbor guy... he was in "Trainspotting" with Ewan McGregor), Sam Shepard (a highly regarded playwright who won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1979 play "Buried Child"... he played "Senator Reisman" in "Swordfish"), Ron Eldard (he was in the TV show "ER" as a paramedic named "Shep"... he was also in "Deep Impact"), Jason Isaacs (he was the villainous "Colonel William Tavington" in "The Patriot"), Jeremy Piven (star of the GREAT, but short-lived TV series, "Cupid"... he's also been in "Say Anything," "Grosse Pointe Blank," and "Serendipity," all of which are John Cusack movies), and Orlando Bloom ("Legolas Greenleaf," the cool archer guy in "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"). It's also the first major American appearance of Eric Bana. He's famous in his homeland of Australia where he had a couple of his own TV shows, but he's gonna make a REALLY big splash here soon because he's gonna play "Dr. Bruce Banner" in the upcoming "Hulk" movie directed by Ang Lee.
The director is Ridley Scott, and this is another big movie for him. He directed the overrated movie, "Gladiator," as well as "Hannibal," "G.I. Jane," "Thelma & Louise," "Legend," "Blade Runner," and "Alien." He DOES have an impressive resume, doesn't he? Well with this one, he adds yet another really good movie to it. He's a veteran director who knows what he's doing, and he does a fantastic job as director of this film. My only complaint is, like I mentioned earlier, that I couldn't differentiate the many characters. The thing is, I can't really think of a way for him to fix that other than rewriting the script and having fewer characters. I dunno, maybe that woulda been a good idea. As for the writer, it's Ken Nolan, and this is his debut. He adapted the screenplay from the book by Mark Bowden.
There's something I don't understand. Watching the credits after the movie, the only writers credited are Ken Nolan for the screenplay and Mark Bowden for the book it's based on. Yet I've read in several other places that well-respected writer Steve Zaillian was involved in the script. I believe it. Steve Zaillian almost always writes screenplays based on books. He wrote and directed "A Civil Action" and "Searching for Bobby Fischer," both based on books. He wrote "Jack the Bear," "Schindler's List," "Awakenings," and "The Falcon and the Snowman," all of which are based on books. He helped write "Hannibal," "Mission: Impossible," and "Clear and Present Danger." All of those are based on books except for "Mission: Impossible." Anyway, I guess he did what's known as an "uncredited rewrite," which is exactly what it sounds like. Don't worry, I'm sure he's fine with it. People who do uncredited rewrites are usually paid handsomely for doing so.
There are things in this movie that I like a lot, but the fact that it's so hard to know what's going on makes it very difficult to get involved. At least, that's how it was for me. But other than that, "Black Hawk Down" is a really good movie. I just hope it makes people respect our soldiers a little more. I also hope that the respect, unlike the current trend of patriotism, is permanent.
Scale of 1-10: 7