CCC Reviews

Black Hawk Down

I've been anticipating this movie for quite some time. It has gotten nothing but good press, and except for its lack of a best picture nomination for the Academy Awards, this movie is worthy of everything that it receives. Telling the brutal realism of the events that happened in a simple extraction mission gone horribly wrong during the peace keeping effort in Somalia back a decade ago, Black Hawk Down shows nearly every soldier that had a role in the rescue efforts of fallen comrades.

As far as the story is concerned, since it was based off of real events it was easy to show the relationship between the Army Rangers and the Special Ops soldiers. There is much contempt, but they try to keep things strictly professional. The moment the mission starts to go awry, true colors are shown as each soldier goes beyond their own limits to make it out of enemy territory alive.

The acting was incredibly good all the way around with Josh Hartnett and Eric Bana leading the way with the most solid performance. McGregor, Sizemore and Fichtner were also crucial to the success and their experience and talent drove through in the end. Even small roles from breaking-out actors like Orlando Bloom were delivered incredibly well.

For the entire two and a half hours that Black Hawk Down ran for, I was totally immersed. The intense action and suspenseful stand-offs kept me on seat's edge the entire time. Its an absolute joy and surprisingly frightening at times when you think about how real this all was. One of the best of 2001 and easily a classic war movie.

Scores for Black Hawk Down
Slacker711 - - "Gripping, intense and a great way to relive the Somalia peace keeping effort."

Cast
Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann - Josh Hartnett
Sergeant 1st Class Norm 'Hoot' Hooten - Eric Bana
Sergeant Danny Grimes - Ewan McGregor
Lt. Colonel Danny McKnight - Tom Sizemore
Major General William Garrison - Sam Shepard
Specialist Shawn Nelson - Ewen Bremner
Sergeant 1st Class Jeff Sanderson - William Fichtner
Corporal Jamie Smith - Charlie Hofheimer
Specialist Lance Twombly - Tom Hardy
Staff Sergeant Ed Yurek - Tom Guiry
Captain Mike Steele - Jason Isaacs
Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant - Ron Eldard
Sergeant 1st Class Kurt Schmid - Hugh Dancy
Sergeant 1st Class Randy Shugart - Johnny Strong
Sergeant Scott Galentine - Gregory Sporleder
Staff Sergeant Jeff Struecker - Brian Van Holt
Chief Warrant Officer Cliff 'Elvis' Wolcott - Jeremy Piven
Private 1st Class Todd Blackburn - Orlando Bloom
Specialist Dale Sizemore - Matthew Marsden
Master Sergeant Chris 'Wex' Wexler - Kim Coates
Specialist Mike Kurth - Gabriel Casseus
Staff Sergeant Daniel Busch - Richard Tyson
Specialist Brad Thomas - Tac Fitzgerald
Master Sergeant Gary Gordon - Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Specialist John Waddell - Ian Virgo
Sergeant Casey Joyce - Chris Beetam
Sergeant Lorenzo Ruiz - Enrique Murciano
Lt. Colonel Gary Harrell - Zeljko Ivanek
Lt. Colonel - Tom Matthews - Glenn Morshower
Sergeant Mike Goodale - Carmine Giovinazzo
Sergeant Dominick Pilla - Danny Hooch
Technical Sergeant Tim Wilkinson - Ty Burrell
Master Sergeant Scott Fales - Daniel Woods
Private Clay 'Little Hunter' Othic - Kent Linville
Private 1st Class Richard 'Alphabet' Kowalewski - Brendan Sexton
Specialist John Maddox - Michael Roof
Chief Warrant Officer Donovan 'Bull' Briley - Pavel Voukan
Chief Warrant Officer Mike Goffena - Boyd Kestner
Chief Warrant Officer Dan Jollata - Jason Hildebrandt
2nd Lieutenant John Beales - Ioan Gruffudd
Lt. Colonel Joe Cribbs - Steven Ford
Osman Otto - George Harris
Jousuf Dahir Mo'alim - Razaaq Adoti
Abdullahi 'Firimbi' Hassan - Treva Etienne

Crew
Director - Ridley Scott
'Black Hawk Down' - Mark Bowden
Screenplay - Ken Nolan
Producer - Jerry Bruckheimer
Producer - Ridley Scott
Associate Producer - Harry Humphries
Associate Producer - Terry Needham
Associate Producer - Pat Sandston
Executive Producer - Branko Lustig
Executive Producer - Chad Oman
Executive Producer - Mike Stenson
Executive Producer - Simon West
Original Music - Hans Zimmer
Cinematography - Slavomir Idziak
Film Editing - Pietro Scalia
Casting - Bonnie Timmermann