October 3rd, 1993 will be a day in history many will not forget. For others, the date means nothing as this particular incident was scarcely covered in the news. "Black Hawk Down" tries to educate the public about the events in Mogadishu, Somalia. Tens of thousands of Somalian residents were starving, dying and all from the hand of one man, Mogadishu's reigning warlord, Muhammad Farrah Aidid. He commandeered shipments of food, medical supplies and anything else needed. He wanted total control of "his" country. The US sent troops in to capture Aidid, and restore order in Mogadishu, but this as always, was easier said than done. Aidid, as many warlords, was extremely well guarded and well hidden. The US had no other option than to plan a surprise attack to take control of the situation and restore order and peace. The plan was set in place, a select few troops were sent in to the center of town, with the support of several Black Hawk Helicopters overhead to assist. The troops were met with more guns than they ever imagined, rocket launchers which successfully hit 2 of the Black Hawk helicopters causing them to crash land in the center of town, only to be bombarded by thousands of Aidid's guerrillas. The small troops were helpless with no reinforcements in sight or even in a reasonable distance to help.

The film itself, and the idea it's based upon is a good one, but I must say I expected much more from Ridley Scott. The characterizations of the main characters were rushed and vague, the innocent dead civilians in the streets of Mogadishu were basically ignored, and seemed more like props than innocent people caught in the crossfire. The action scenes, the bombs, guns, etc were all excellent, especially for a war movie, but I think the film got too caught up in its effects, and forgot to tell us a "story". We are left to wonder if it was a mistake to send US troops in to help these poor people, we have to find out about the aftermath in the end credits, in tiny fuzzy print, and the characters come and go so fast that it's sometimes hard to determine which group we're focusing on at the moment. The gore factor is another point I must speak of. While it is common, and usually encouraged to show the devastations that a battle can cause, such as terrible wounds, gruesome effects from grenades, etc...Black Hawk Down, again, over-did this. It focused so much on the blood and guts everywhere, and as I said before, forgot it was supposed to be telling a story.

For some reason, Hollywood has thought fit to place Josh Hartnett in these war epics, why...I don't know. He's so uncharacteristic of a typical soldier it's almost humorous. Tom Sizemore, on the other hand, fits right in. Ewan McGregor is given very little on screen time, and when he does manage to show his mug, he's usually making coffee! They show very little of him on the streets of Mogadishu, other than to show he hasn't a clue what he's doing. A poor casting job for that talented actor. I would have much preferred watching Ewan in the lead role, than the "Halloween" kid, as a squad leader. I was equally unimpressed with his performance in "Pearl Harbor".

Ridley Scott has proven he can make much better movies than this, I don't know what went wrong here. Perhaps he got carried away with the making of a "war epic", and like most men, enjoy watching all the bloody going's on. But, as I sat through this film, I was beginning to wonder if this movie was in fact going to last the entire 18 hours the troops were fighting in the streets! It is too drawn out, and the story is just not there. For a movie that was supposed to "educate", I don't think anyone knows anymore about the crisis than they did before. The dialogue was sloppy, and over-used too many clichéd lines ("It's what you do right now that makes a difference"). The one really good factor in the move was the soundtrack and score. They used popular music from the 70's and 80's, but when the Black Hawks were flying into the city, there was an eerie sense of quiet, even though there was a slight underscore playing, that part I will say was beautifully done.

All in all, the movie wasn't terrible, but definitely could have been done better. The Zone rates Black Hawk Down a 5 out of 10. Mainly for the few good members of the cast, the cinematography, special effects and score.