Black Hawk Down (2002)

Josh Hartnett	SSgt. Matt Eversmann
Ewan McGregor	Spec. John Grimes
Jason Isaacs	Capt. Mike Steele
Tom Sizemore	Lt. Col. Danny McKnight
William Fichtner	Sfc. Jeff Sanderson
Eric Bana	Sfc. Norm 'Hoot' Hooten
Sam Shepard	Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison
Ewen Bremner	Spec. Shawn Nelson
Tom Hardy	Spec. Lance Twombly
Ron Eldard	CWO Michael Durant
Charlie Hofheimer	Cpl. James 'Jamie' Smith
Gabriel Casseus	Ranger Spec. Mike Kurth
Hugh Dancy	Ranger Sgt. First Class Kurt Schmid
Carmine Giovinazzo	Goodale
Chris Beetem	Joyce
Orlando Bloom	Blackburn
Kim Coates	Wex
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	Gordon
Tac Fitzgerald	Thomas

Director	Ridley Scott
Producer	Jerry Bruckheimer Ridley Scott Harry Humphries Branko Lustig
Writer	Mark Bowden Ken Nolan
Cinematography	Slawomir Idziak
Musician	Hans Zimmer

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

Edition Details
Edition	Koop
Distributor	Sony Pictures
Chapters	28
Release Date	11/14/2006
Packaging	HD Case
Screen Ratio	2.35:1
Subtitles	Chinese; English; French; Thai
Audio Tracks	ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC] FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo
Layers	Single Side, Single Layer
No. of Disks/Tapes	1

Personal Details
Purchase Date	11/16/2006
Owner	Thomas Eisenmann
Store	DVD Empire
Purchase Price	$20.84
Condition	Excellent
Reviewed	Widescreen Review
Bit Rate	1509 KB
Anamophic	Yes
Links	IMDB Movie Collector Connect TheMovieDb.org Amazon.com

Anamophic

Special features include three audio commentary tracks: one with Author Mark Bowden and Screenwriter Ken Nolan, another with Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Director Ridley Scott, and a third track with U.S. Special Forces Veterans '93. The Essence Of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down is an astounding 151-minute chaptered documentary that covers story and character development, military orientation, shooting locations, scoring the film, and visual effects. There is also the Blu-Wizard, which lets you customize the way you watch the special features to provide a unique viewing experience, allowing you to put the content in context within the film.

Story Synopsis:
“Black Hawk Down” is the harrowing true story of a group of elite American soldiers sent into Somalia in 1993 as part of a U.N. peacekeeping incursion. Their mission is to abduct several top lieutenants of a Somalian warlord as part of a strategy to quell the civil war that is tearing the country to pieces. When the mission goes terribly wrong, the soldiers find themselves in the middle of the biggest U.S. military firefight since its involvement in Vietnam. The incident is a long, seemingly drawn-out depiction, but helps the viewer understand the horrible night that these soldiers were forced to endure. Based on the book by Mark Bowden. (Suzanne Hodges)

Disc Picture:
The heavily stylized 2.35:1 Blu-ray Disc matches its storytelling well, with a gritty color palette and highly contrasted imagery. Details are sharp and well defined and blacks are deep, but its shadow delineation limits the dimensionality of the picture. (Danny Richelieu)

Soundtrack:
The uncompressed linear PCM 5.1-channel soundtrack sounds very realistic, with a natural response and good dynamics. Surround envelopment can be strangely lacking at times, but this is a good soundtrack. (Danny Richelieu)