Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Director: Ridley Scott
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Mogadishu, Somalia, 1993. US Rangers and Delta Force troops descend on a stronghold to snatch lieutenants in Gen Aidid's Habr Gidr clan. The mission involves some 140 men, but when a Black Hawk helicopter is shot down chaos ensues. Surrounded by angry hordes, the troops are trapped in a nightmarish 15-hour firefight in which nearly a thousand Somalis are killed. Scott's film is drawn in harrowingly accurate detail (surprising for an all-star Bruckheimer production) from Mark Bowden's authoritative minute-by-minute account of the Battle of the Black Sea. There's zero backstory, and the last two hours reconstruct the battle as experienced by everyone involved. On a technical level this is accomplished, credible, and (almost) devoid of sentimentality. If you want to know what combat feels like, this is hardcore. Scott honours the troops and doesn't shy from the confusion and cock-up of this misadventure. He also does a reasonable job sketching the complicated and contradictory political context, but attempts to bring in the odd Somali perspective are grossly inadequate.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: Ridley Scott
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, Gabriel Casseus, Ioan Gruffudd full cast
Genre(s): War
Duration: 144 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now