Black Hawk Down (2001)

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers (WGA):

Mark Bowden (book)
Ken Nolan (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 January 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | War

Tagline:

Rangers Lead the Way.

Plot:

123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis.

Plot Keywords:

Warlord | Somalia | Helicopter | Mogadishu | Army Rangers

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 29 nominations

Cast

Josh Hartnett	...	Eversmann
Ewan McGregor	...	Grimes
Tom Sizemore	...	McKnight
Eric Bana	...	Hoot
William Fichtner	...	Sanderson
Ewen Bremner	...	Nelson
Sam Shepard	...	Garrison
Gabriel Casseus	...	Kurth
Kim Coates	...	Wex
Hugh Dancy	...	Schmid
Ron Eldard	...	Durant
Ioan Gruffudd	...	Beales
Tom Guiry	...	Yurek (as Thomas Guiry)
Charlie Hofheimer	...	Smith
Danny Hoch	...	Pilla

MPAA:

Rated R for intense, realistic, graphic war violence, and for language.

Runtime:

144 min | Germany:142 min | USA:152 min (extended version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Somali

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Portugal:M/16 | India:A | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA (re-rating on appeal) | Australia:R (original rating) | Brazil:14 | Canada:18A | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #38095) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Kénitra Airbase, Morocco

Company:

Revolution Studios

Trivia:

The massive shoot of the "target building insert" sequence was intended to be among the first sequences shot in principal photography, due to its complex nature. However, negotiations to borrow four Black Hawk helicopters from the United States military were so arduous that an agreement was not reached until a month after shooting had commenced. Director Ridley Scott had prepared a rental of four Hueys from Germany that were ready to be painted black and work as substitutes in the event an agreement with the US Department of Defense could not be reached. Fortunately, the US Government was eventually satisfied that the film would portray the incident in a positive light, and shipped the helicopters to the location in two C-5 Galaxy transports. Ridley Scott says this was very fortunate for the film, since the title is "Black Hawk Down" and Hueys have no resemblance to Black Hawks.

Goofs:

Continuity: The black that is on Grimes face changes from fully black to half of his face black during the scene when he's giving coffee to Sanderson

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dan Busch: There. Technicals, nine o'clock.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Family Guy (2006) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Gortoz a ran - J'Attends

Fantastically filmed war movie(inspired by true events, which makes it even more unbelievable)

Black Hawk Down(2001) is truly a great war movie. Filmed extroirdinarally with gritty action scenes, this movie is (one of) the best war movies I've seen since Saving Private Ryan.

The movie is based(noticed BASED, which the director admitted they filled in A LOT of gaps they had no info on)on true events of a small force of soldiers going into an african town to take out a leader and his men, whom are blocking all food from a close town. Even food America sends over, we learn, they take as theirs. So one bad thing leads to another, and the ride they came in on, crashes, hence the name Black Hawk Down.

While I thought the film was a little of a copy off of SPR, with the camera movements, to the filming style itself, did not hinder this movie's effect on audiences at all. The pain, and whole torturous hours those soldiers were without help was shocking. It leaves you sitting in your seat after it's over, thinking what it must of been like, every second they were in theiir, always fighting. Getting this movie will pay off. I guarantee it-moviecritic2003