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Black Hawk Down

Movie Black Hawk Down Director Ridley Scott Producer Jerry Bruckheimer Cast Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard

By Ad-Lib In the spirit of post 9/11 comes a story of how American soldiers fight in a foreign land for justice, lose a few of their ranks and eventually question their presence. Now a good Director could have done that in a really entertaining way but Ridley Scott has botched up the job big time. Apart from the blood and gore, there is no message here. Black Hawk Down doesn’t serve any purpose because it is certainly not entertaining in any way. The story is about Somalia’s civil war and how America decided to intervene with all noble intent but ended up being the enemy of the people of Somalia. Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison(Sam Shepard ) runs the American outfit there and is on a mission to destabilise Mohammad Farah Aidid``s rule of terror in the Capital city. He does so by capturing people crucial to Aidid``s war effort and that is when a mission is planned to capture many of his core command from a crowded part of the marketplace. The mission comprises officers like Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett ) and Ranger Grimes (Ewan McGregor ) who are to be set down in the city and be the ground offensive. This they do and they are immediately attacked by the local militia. While they do capture Aidid’s core command, they end up losing two Black Hawk helicopters and as per the General’s instructions, no one gets left behind. In the rescue effort many on both sides die before the American soldiers finally get to friendly ground. Black Hawk Down , as I said earlier, serves no purpose at all. The Somalian conflict was so long ago that it doesn’t really matter what happened there anymore. The Blood and Gore in this movie is stunning, to say the least. Blown off thumbs, legs, you name it! What the movie could be trying to communicate is that war is hell, but you don’t need a movie to say that. Technically the movie is superb but that is all. I would give Black Hawk Down a 2 out of 10. Try something else this weekend.