Product Description

Columbia Pictures Black Hawk Down (Blu-ray)
From acclaimed director Ridley Scott ("Gladiator," "Hannibal") and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer ("Pearl Harbor," "Armageddon") comes a gripping true story about bravery, camaraderie and the complex reality of war. "Black Hawk Down" stars an exceptional cast including Josh Hartnett ("Pearl Harbor"), Ewan McGregor ("Moulin Rouge!"), Tom Sizemore ("Saving Private Ryan"), Eric Bana ("Chopper"), William Fichtner ("The Perfect Storm"), Ewen Bremner ("Snatch") and Sam Shepard ("All The Pretty Horses"). In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission tocapture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has lead to the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #424 in DVD
• Brand: Columbia Pictures
• Released on: 2006-11-14
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 3.00 pounds
• Running time: 144 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down conveys the raw, chaotic urgency of ground-force battle in a worst-case scenario. With exacting detail, the film re-creates the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993, when a 45-minute mission turned into a 16-hour ordeal of bloody urban warfare. Helicopter-borne U.S. Rangers were assigned to capture key lieutenants of Somali warlord Muhammad Farrah Aidid, but when two Black Hawk choppers were felled by rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. soldiers were forced to fend for themselves in the battle-torn streets of Mogadishu, attacked from all sides by armed Aidid supporters. Based on author Mark Bowden's bestselling account of the battle, Scott's riveting, action-packed film follows a sharp ensemble cast in some of the most authentic battle sequences ever filmed. The loss of 18 soldiers turned American opinion against further involvement in Somalia, but Black Hawk Down makes it clear that the men involved were undeniably heroic. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.com
Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down conveys the raw, chaotic urgency of ground-force battle in a worst-case scenario. With exacting detail, the film re-creates the American siege of the Somalian city of Mogadishu in October 1993, when a 45-minute mission turned into a 16-hour ordeal of bloody urban warfare. Helicopter-borne U.S. Rangers were assigned to capture key lieutenants of Somali warlord Muhammad Farrah Aidid, but when two Black Hawk choppers were felled by rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. soldiers were forced to fend for themselves in the battle-torn streets of Mogadishu, attacked from all sides by armed Aidid supporters. Based on author Mark Bowden's bestselling account of the battle, Scott's riveting, action-packed film follows a sharp ensemble cast in some of the most authentic battle sequences ever filmed. The loss of 18 soldiers turned American opinion against further involvement in Somalia, but Black Hawk Down makes it clear that the men involved were undeniably heroic. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
This account of the ill-fated 1993 Special Forces action in Mogadishu, Somalia, which resulted in the death of eighteen Americans, is exceptionally violent but also truthful to the pain and disorder of battle. It's very clearly directed by Ridley Scott, who allows you to see where the different groups of men are fighting in relation to one another. The movie suggests that despite the casualties the battle was not a total failure but rather a demonstration of strength-the men were killed, in part, because they stayed in the danger zone to rescue survivors from the two helicopters that were shot down. With Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, and Josh Hartnett, all submerging themselves in the business at hand. Ken Nolan, adapting Mark Bowden's book, achieves the right tone of matter-of-factness, resolution, and defiance. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Movie: 3.75/5 Picture Quality: 4~5/5 Sound Quality: 5/5 Extras: 2.5/5
MPEG-2 BD-50 / Region Free
Running time: 2:24:19 (Theatrical version)
Movie size: 37,233,334,272 bytes
Disc size: 45,638,838,470 bytes
Average video bit rate: 25.56 Mbps
LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps English
DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps / French

#Audio Commentary-Mark Bowden (Author) and Ken Nolan (Screenwriter)
#Audio Commentary-Ridley Scott (Director) and Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer)
#Audio Commentary-"U.S. Special Forces Veterans '93"
#Making Of-"The Essence Of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down"
#Blu-Wizard

Where Are the Dead Somalis?
This is a well made film with compelling visuals shot in Africa, very good sound effects that depict the deadly noises of combat and a tight storyline.

The film, like the book, fails to depict the numbers of Somalis killed in the fighting. Large numbers of Somali civilians died in the US v. Aidid militia combat. Aidid's militia wore no uniforms and mingled amidst civilians, but massive US firepower did kill many innocents.

The gruesome dragging of dead US servicemen received and continues to receive attention but the dead Somalis are basically invisible. Ridley Scott does present a few scenes of Somali suffering, such as the opening shot where starving villagers are shot up by a Technical .50 Cal, a young boy accidentally zaps his gun wielding father and a Somali man cradling a dead child walks by a retreating US HummVee.

A famous war cameraman, whose name I can't remember, stated in interviews that huge numbers of Somali elders and children perished under US air strikes and that led to the murder of an American cameraman.

Somalia
Based on an actual operation, the action is intense. Very reallistic effects, and well acted. It really makes you feel for the soldiers who are asked to carry out such operations. I am glad they have this film to tell their story.