Black Hawk Down
Director: Ridley Scott
This one’s interesting: it runs the full approval gamut from “numbingly depersonalized” to “exceptional accomplishment.” But love it or hate it, it deserves inclusion here as one of the great cinematic examples of our soldiers’ service and experience, and most definitely meets our criterion of “compelling” (overpowering; having a powerful and irresistible effect; requiring acute admiration, attention, or respect).
In October 1993, a team of Army Rangers moved into the Somali city of Mogadishu (“the Mog”) in order to capture two lieutenants of a warlord deliberately causing the starvation of the citizenry, and what was supposed to be a 30-minute operation became a 13-hour ordeal.
How well this gut-wrenching tale is told remains up for debate (I could list its script’s shortcomings, but onward), however for those interested in an accurate representation of the firefight and the heart it takes to face it, Black Hawk Down is not to be missed.
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Published: Feb 27, 2013 06:43 pm