War movies can always be relied upon to perform on streaming, or at least the best ones can. There’s something undeniably visceral about watching the bullets fly as a band of hardened soldiers are plunged into the fight of their lives, with few proving more immersive than Ridley Scott’s incredible Black Hawk Down.
It may not be held up as one of the undisputed all-time greats too often, but in terms of sheer technical wizardly, ear-shattering set pieces and a palpable sense of immediate danger, few genre bedfellows of the 21st Century have managed to do it much better. The epic’s Academy Awards for Best Editing and Best Sound were fully deserved, with Scott and director of photography Sławomir Idziak also being shortlisted in the directing and cinematography categories.
The insanely stacked ensemble cast features a bevvy of past, present, and future stars that includes – but isn’t even limited to – the likes of Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Hugh Dancy, Ioan Gruffudd, Jason Isaacs, Tom Hardy, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jeremy Piven, and Ty Burrell, which gives it the added distinction of having one of the most stellar rosters you’re ever likely to see.
Netflix subscribers have found themselves ducking for cover, too, after Black Hawk Down repelled wave after wave of enemy attacks to embed itself as one of the platform’s most-watched features, per FlixPatrol. Not only that, but Scott’s deafening descent into the heart of conflict is also the number one top-viewed film on iTunes in the United Kingdom, so everyone seems to be in the mood for a heart-stopping war story.
Published: Mar 9, 2023 03:32 am