One of those movies you should see, but only once. The picture plays out like a sort of documentary and action movie at the same time. There are over a dozen main characters spread over 3 different military branches which can really confuse the viewer and wreaks absolute havoc with any form of character development. The action scenes are well filmed but can get extremely repetitive. As I said, only need to watch it once.

Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down recreates the battle of Mogadishu in Somalia, a powerful vision of urban warfare and a true event that changed U.S. policy for the better part of a decade. Many actual soldiers are collapsed into easier to follow characters, and the movie's made changes here and there, but it's essentially what happened. And it's exhausting, which I guess is the point. These soldiers were under unrelenting fire for 18 hours on a mission that should have taken a half hour. Ridley Scott says in the extras that he wanted to recreate the experience, not load the film with back story. He's certainly managed that, and there's no question his visual style fills every frame with something interesting.

The actors are impressive, the plot is intriguing, and I won't deny that Ridley Scott's immense talents as a technical filmmaker are on full display here. Kind of a shame that most of the characters come off a little too stock to truly push this film into greatness. Still worth watching.