Hey folks Harry here. I'm hoping to see this film tomorrow morning, and I have my fingers crossed. Ridley Scott has been on a nice run of films, but the script had some problems, I'm just hoping that they've been worked out. This will also be our first chance to see Eric Bana outside of CHOPPER, we'll be able to have an idea (possibly) of what he'll do with Bruce Banner. Alrighty, here's Unknown Quantity...
Hey Harry,
Unknown Quantity here with my promised review of Black Hawk Down.
I saw this movie a few weeks ago, but I will try to give you an accurate opinion on the film nonetheless.
Is this a good movie? No it is not. Is it a beautifully shot movie? Yes it is. The colors, the photography, it is a visually stunning film. Gritty. Dirty. Real. But that, sadly, does not make for a good film. As was mentioned in a previous review I saw on your site (which I agree 100% with) the film is confused, loud and never gives you a chance to know the characters. Some people will say - "that's the way it was" or "that's how the book was", etc... To them I say: you don't understand film. The characters in a film should be confused by situations, not the viewers - or at least, not all of the time. There should be characters that the viewers can identify with or feel for: making the drama more poignant. Not in this film. Each character is broadly grazed over, leaving you uninterested in their fates. The film is just loud gun battle after loud gun battle. That does not make for an interesting film whether that's what happened or not. The opening doesn't give us half enough time to get to know the characters.
Yes McGregor has a horrible accent and yes Bana acts cool, but beyond that - who the hell are they??? You never get to know. Half an hour into the fighting, you're sitting there wondering what's going on. Yes, the theme is: "leave no man behind", but besides that the film goes nowhere else.
Is the film devoid of dramatic moments? No. I found the scene in which the Delta force snipers lose their lives trying to save a couple of the pilots to be a dramatic and powerful scene - conveying the idea of soldier solidarity beautifully. It showed the courage, the horror and scope of the situation the soldiers were in. The only other scene which had any heart, was the death scene of the Charlie Hofheimer character (Smith I believe), but yet again, we were never given the time to meet this character and therefore learn to care for him.
Bottom line, this is just a loud, violent and confused film, with little heart and no character development, which just leaves you wondering what the whole mission was about in the first place. Oscar for this? I don't think so. It shouldn't even be nominated.
Unknown Quantity
