Black Hawk Down (2001)

	Directed by: Ridley Scott	COUNTRY USA/UK GENRE War NORWEGIAN TITLE Black Hawk Down RUNNING TIME 144 minutes
	Produced by: Jerry Bruckheimer Ridley Scott
	Written by (based on a book by Mark Bowden): Ken Nolan

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Eversman	Josh Hartnett	½
Grimes	Ewan McGregor	½
McKnight	Tom Sizemore	½
Hoot	Eric Bana
Sanderson	William Fichtner
Nelson	Ewen Bremner
Garrison	Sam Shepard	½
Kurth	Gabriel Casseus	-
Wex	Kim Coates	-
Schmid	Hugh Dancy	-
Durant	Ron Eldard
Beales	Ioan Gruffudd	-
Yurek	Tom Guiry	-
Smith	Charlie Hofheimer	-
Pilla	Danny Hoch	-
Steele	Jason Isaacs	-
Harrell	Zeljko Ivanek	-
Matthews	Glenn Morshower	-
Wolcott	Jeremy Piven	-
Kowalewski	Brendan Sexton III	-
Shughart	Johnny Strong	-
Busch	Richard Tyson	-
Struecker	Brian Van Holt	-
Gordon	Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	-
Cribbs	Steven Ford	-
Waddell	Ian Virgo	-
Twombly	Tom Hardy	-
Galentine	Gregory Sporleder	-
Goodale	Carmine Giovinazzo	-
Joyce	Chris Beetem	-
Blackburn	Orlando Bloom	-
Osman Atto	George Harris	½
Yousuf Dahir Mo'Alim	Razaaq Adoti	½

Review

Late 20th century warfare – or rather the US/UN's so-called peacekeeping operations around the world – is put under a distinctly green-tinted spotlight by Ridley Scott in Black Hawk Down. The film portrays chaotic skirmishes and human tragedy much better than it does the political circumstances and cultural aspects at play, which are merely touched upon at best and muddled at worst. Telling a convincing story amid a setting like this, and with as many characters as Scott chooses to introduce here, is a difficult endeavour, and he succeeds only partially. The film is too circumstantial; too concerned with its own relevance to be able to communicate anything beyond the very obvious. Like most modern war films, Black Hawk Down is somewhat anti-war in general, yet ultimately more pro-patriotism. It leaves you with little more than a fairly well-told story of soldiers in battle.