"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
(Plato)

ADRENALINE PUMPING WAR WHICH RENOUNCES EVERYTHING UNNECESSARY, TO TELL A PURE BLOODBOILING STORY THROUGH THE GREAT VISUALIZATION

Hi everybody, in a discussion of which are probably the 10 best movies of each genre, Hendrik and a mutual dear friend are always ranking "Black Hawk Down" to the best war movies ever made. Only with the intension to finally can say something to the topic too and with no big expectation I have been watching this pic until the second I'm writing this. And wow... I'm more than impressed, literally hyped how great this experience was watching this great movie, which Ridley Scott described as an anti-war but pro military movie,…

Buckle up, because I'm about to spend entirely too much effort on this interesting-thanks-to-its-misguidedness piece of art.

To begin, let's explore this phrase that's been repeatedly tossed around with reference to Black Hawk Down:

"Black Hawk Down is anti-war but pro-military."

Right out the gate, I'm gonna go ahead and say I think this is a paradoxical statement and one that relies almost entirely on the conflation of people who are in the military with "the military" as an independent entity containing those people.

This is about as realistic or coherent as saying "anti-Holocaust but pro-Nazi," "anti-gasoline but pro-gasoline company," "anti-religion but pro-church," "anti-reading but pro-readers," etc. Plainly, it makes no sense.

If what people mean by this (and from…

Scott's fetish for and power over this material is staggering; structurally it's his ZODIAC, for good or ill, buffered by Idziak's incredibly tactile transmissions of hot metal and black smoke. furthermore it plays today like an accidentally prescient microcosm of blowback from the 12 years of American hegemonic intervention that's come since (and reflects our complicated response to same). the first act repeatedly questions both our and the soldiers' relationship to the violence they're about to inflict before necessarily tossing that "out the window" for a purely subjective survival narrative. in order to protect themselves and their fellows, the soldiers can simply no longer allow themselves to consider the political ramifications of this event or the earthshaking loss of life…

Observing the abject futility of war, Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" is a dour contemporary epic that embraces the acts of heriosm and violence that undergird military conflict. On a visual canvas of blood, sweat, smoke, and sand, Scott's film unfolds as those acts cancel one another out, creating an unceasing whirlpool of death and loss. Not shying away from the tribal and personal costs of conflict, "Black Hawk Down" results in a searing experience.

Unfolding in Somalia, 1993, "Black Hawk Down" focuses on a group of Rangers thrown into action when a U.S. gunship is shot down. Facing intense fighting from groundforces, the American soldiers work to both survive and save their comrades.

The narrative is not necessarily concerned…

"Black Hawk Down", 2001

After Ridley Scott dabbled in a military movie with "G.I. Jane", he perfect his take with "Black Hawk Down". Based on the true event during 1993 in which the U.S. military raided Mogadishu in Somalia, the movie boasts an extensive ensemble cast, pulse pounding action scenes and an engaging story to boot.

Now despite this overall being a good movie... a really good movie with the likes of Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Jason Isaacs, Eric Bana, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Orlando Bloom and Tom Hardy in his first film role, the inherent problem the movie has is 3 main things.

1. I can't think of a modern war movie (by modern, I mean a war in…