Black hawk down 9pm Ch5
Discussion
v8thunder said:
Hate to put a downer on things but it's dreadful. The battle scenes are just a pro-American shooting gallery, every line is a load of melodrama, and the violence is just relentless. Comes across like it was directed by Dubya.
It's a Hollywood war film. These things are de rigeur!
Big pinch of salt and a healthy suspension of disbelief goes with the territory. For a factual account of what happened on the day, there was a great Dicovery documentary on it.
An ex-Para 2 dude I know who has on the front lines at the Falklands said Black Hawk Down is a realistic and accurate depiction of what happens in a war situation. He also said Saving Private Ryan is also a very spot-on movie with regards to what the actual fighting is like.
As for the accuracy of the plot itself in Black Hawk Down, I suggest you Google the Mogadishu incident.
As for the accuracy of the plot itself in Black Hawk Down, I suggest you Google the Mogadishu incident.
DanBoy said:
A good film but a bit too "Hollywood" for my liking.
Example:
Background music of Purple Haze (if memory serves) during helicopter-boarding scene.
May come across as a bit "Hollywood" but is in fact.....true.....almost.
As I remember the story, the actual music they had playing was Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N' Roses. When they were making the film, they contacted the band members/record company to obtain permission to use that actual track......everyone said "great, go for it", except Axl Rose who would only allow the track to be used if it was re-recorded by his new line-up G n' R. At which point the ex-members (Slash, Izzy etc) said nope, original or not at all (which I think is fair enough btw).
And now for those of you that stuck with that little lot......for those vaguely interested in seeing exactly how "Hollywood" the film is....Channel Five, 8pm tuesday night is the "Real Blackhawk Down", i.e. story as told by those that were there using footage etc from the actual incident.
The journalist who started a series in a US paper attracted a lot of interest and input from those who were on the mission
http://inquirer.philly.com/packages/somalia/sitemap.asp
The book is a very good read and the film cannot portray events in the same depth, it did however get a lot of input and conveys the sense of events and above all the noise
http://inquirer.philly.com/packages/somalia/sitemap.asp
The book is a very good read and the film cannot portray events in the same depth, it did however get a lot of input and conveys the sense of events and above all the noise
v8thunder said:
The battle scenes are just a pro-American shooting gallery, every line is a load of melodrama, and the violence is just relentless. Comes across like it was directed by Dubya.
How can it be pro-American? They get well and truely ass-kicked in this film.
There are a lot of very emotional scenes, especially when the pilot shoots his last bullet, looks at the photo of his kid and is left to be brutally killed.
I've also been told how well this film portrays what actually happened.
rico said:
The battle scenes are just a pro-American shooting gallery, every line is a load of melodrama, and the violence is just relentless. Comes across like it was directed by Dubya.
How can it be pro-American? They get well and truely ass-kicked in this film.
There are a lot of very emotional scenes, especially when the pilot shoots his last bullet, looks at the photo of his kid and is left to be brutally killed.
I've also been told how well this film portrays what actually happened.
Because the deaths of the Americans are so emotional, it's so one-sided.
When an American gets shot, it's all slow-motion-guts-trailing-in-the-sand-look-at-the-photo-of-my-kid-drawn-out-melodramatic-string-music-sunlight-glinting-in-eyes-dead.
Somali pops up, *BANGBANGBANG* Somali pops down dead.
It's just so self-important and imbalanced.
v8thunder said:
Because the deaths of the Americans are so emotional, it's so one-sided.
When an American gets shot, it's all slow-motion-guts-trailing-in-the-sand-look-at-the-photo-of-my-kid-drawn-out-melodramatic-string-music-sunlight-glinting-in-eyes-dead.
Somali pops up, *BANGBANGBANG* Somali pops down dead.
It's just so self-important and imbalanced.
True to an extent, but the story is from the Americans' point of view, so it is bound to spend more time on the American deaths.
rico said:
Because the deaths of the Americans are so emotional, it's so one-sided.
When an American gets shot, it's all slow-motion-guts-trailing-in-the-sand-look-at-the-photo-of-my-kid-drawn-out-melodramatic-string-music-sunlight-glinting-in-eyes-dead.
Somali pops up, *BANGBANGBANG* Somali pops down dead.
It's just so self-important and imbalanced.
True to an extent, but the story is from the Americans' point of view, so it is bound to spend more time on the American deaths.
Well I just get the idea that if it had been done by anybody else we would've seen the whole story, but because it was for the American market it was all 'ooh, aren't our boys brave'. A massive letdown at the time that made me wish I'd gone to see Behind Enemy Lines instead - at least that didn't pretend it was profound.
Frankly I expected better from Ridley Scott, but he directed this like he was under orders from the Pentagon or something.
v8,If you didn't like Black Hawk Down because it was to pro-American I doubt you will like Behind Enemy Lines it's even more Gung-Ho and not nearly as high a quality film IMHO.
Off topic: but for anyone why liked Saving Private Ryan, see if you can find a box set (DVD) of Band of Brothers a made for HBO mini series that was Co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. It (the Book) was written by Dr. Stephen E. Ambrose who was General turned President Eisenhower's personal biographer and one of the best (at least American) expert/authors regarding WWII.
Best mini series I've ever seen.
Off topic: but for anyone why liked Saving Private Ryan, see if you can find a box set (DVD) of Band of Brothers a made for HBO mini series that was Co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. It (the Book) was written by Dr. Stephen E. Ambrose who was General turned President Eisenhower's personal biographer and one of the best (at least American) expert/authors regarding WWII.
Best mini series I've ever seen.
Trooper2 said:
Off topic: but for anyone why liked Saving Private Ryan, see if you can find a box set (DVD) of Band of Brothers a made for HBO mini series that was Co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. It (the Book) was written by Dr. Stephen E. Ambrose who was General turned President Eisenhower's personal biographer and one of the best (at least American) expert/authors regarding WWII.
Best mini series I've ever seen.
Couldn't agree more. Absolutely fantastic series. I gotta say the episode "Why we fight" is extremely hard hitting and quite emotional
beyond what I would usually expect for a "made for tv" mini series. And the sequence with the real members of easy at the end of "points" always gets me (mainly Dick Winters closing remarks).
Not really a big fan of war movies, but this show is incredibly good.
ps. Black hawk down is ok, dont really think its pro-american as although the guys fight bravely, makes the commanders look idiots for such an underestimation of the enemy forces.
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