Black Hawk Down

Theatrical Release Date: 2001 12 28 (USA - Limited) / 2002 01 18 (USA)

UPC: 043396150232

Studio: Sony Pictures

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Graphic Violence, Not For Children, Profanity, War Violence]

Summary: A quickly forgotten chapter in United States military history is relived in this harrowing war drama from director Ridley Scott, based on a series of Philadelphia Inquirer articles and subsequent book by reporter Mark Bowden. On October 3rd, 1993, an elite team of more than 100 Delta Force soldiers and Army Rangers, part of a larger United Nations peacekeeping force, are dropped into civil war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia, in an effort to kidnap two of local crime lord Mohamed Farah Aidid's top lieutenants. Among the team: Staff Sgt. Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight (Tom Sizemore), the resourceful Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson (William Fichtner), and Ranger Spec. Grimes (Ewan McGregor), a desk-bound clerk getting his first taste of live combat. When two of the mission's Black Hawk helicopters are shot down by enemy forces, the Americans -- committed to recovering every man, dead or alive -- stay in the area too long and are quickly surrounded. The ensuing firefight is a merciless 15-hour ordeal and the longest ground battle involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War. In the end, 70 soldiers are injured and 18 are dead, along with hundreds of Somalians. Black Hawk Down was voted one of the top ten films of the year by the National Board of Review prior to its limited Oscar-qualifying release. On the basis of his work in this film, co-star Eric Bana, a relatively unknown Australian actor playing Delta Sgt. First Class "Hoot" Gibson, won the lead in director Ang Lee's version of The Hulk (2003). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Category: War

Awards: Best Picture – American Film Institute Best Picture – American Film Institute Best Director – American Film Institute Best Cinematography – American Film Institute Best Editing – American Film Institute Best Production Design – American Film Institute Best Cinematography – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Editing – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Sound – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Adapted Screenplay – Writers Guild of America Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Sound – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review

Features: Includes Blu-Wizard technology
Control your viewing experience
Customize the way you watch the special features
Let the Blu-Wizard navigate for you - arm the Blu-Wizard to put the content in context within the film
Audio commentaries with director Ridley Scott, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, author Mark Bowden & screenwriter Ken Nolan and U.S. special forces veterans
The essence of combat featurettes

Black Hawk Down

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 11/14/2006

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 2.40:1

Audio: SS Surround Sound, DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 144 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Portuguese,Spanish

Region: Blu-ray region A (North America, Central America, South America, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia)

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Black Hawk Down
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16

Karl Williams

A riveting account of a devastating battle that resulted from controversial United Nations involvement in Somalia's civil war in 1993, this war picture from director Ridley Scott displays the filmmaker's reliable eye for startling visuals and effective translation of words into pictures. Whether he's employing map-like aerial views of a re-created Mogadishu in order to help the viewer understand how the action's unfolding or using documentary film techniques to reinforce the story's "you are there" realism, Scott's eclectic style synchronizes perfectly with his subject matter's brutal, mindless violence and moral equivocation. The sole drawback of this strategy is that it minimizes the individual soldiers' personal stories, challenging the audience to remain emotionally invested in a group of characters that struggle to move front and center. It's human beings on both sides, after all, that are being fed to the sausage grinder of battle here, but the suffering and bloodshed are not handled with the same emotional skill as the physical action. This seems to be a conscious choice on the part of the filmmakers, who have created a piece that is far more about the logistics of a chain of tragic events than a heartfelt plea for understanding or even an antiwar statement. In a fictitious drama, such a creative decision would be a fatal one, but projects such as the television miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) demonstrate that identifiable characters and emotional beats are expendable (to a degree) in the service of telling an important fact-based story in as accurate a fashion as possible. Black Hawk Down is not the best war movie ever made, but it is one of 2001's best and one of the most truthful about what war is like in the ultra-political, high-tech here and now. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Gregory Sporleder  Actor 
Johann Myers  Actor 
Abdibashir Mohamed Hersi  Actor 
Kofi Amankwah  Actor 
Lee Geohagen  Actor 
Dana Woods  Actor 
Pavel Vokoun  Actor 
Joshua Quarcoo  Actor 
Jerry Bruckheimer  Producer 
Chad Oman  Executive Producer 
Ridley Scott  Director 
Ridley Scott  Producer 
Steven Zaillian  Screenwriter 
Hans Zimmer  Composer (Music Score) 
Simon West  Executive Producer 
Branko Lustig  Executive Producer 
Ken Nolan  Screenwriter 
Mike Stenson  Executive Producer 
Robin Shenfield  Executive Producer 
Blondel Aidoo  Executive Producer 
Emma McGuinness  Executive Producer 
Josh Hartnett  Actor 
Ewan McGregor  Actor 
Jason Isaacs  Actor 
Tom Sizemore  Actor 
Eric Bana  Actor 
William Fichtner  Actor 
Ewen Bremner  Actor 
Sam Shepard  Actor 
Kim Coates  Actor 
Hugh Dancy  Actor 
Ron Eldard  Actor 
Ioan Gruffudd  Actor 
Tom Guiry  Actor 
Charlie Hofheimer  Actor 
Danny Hoch  Actor 
Zeljko Ivanek  Actor 
Glenn Morshower  Actor 
Jeremy Piven  Actor 
Gabriel Casseus  Actor 
Brendan Sexton III  Actor 
Johnny Strong  Actor 
Richard Tyson  Actor 
Brian Van Holt  Actor 
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau  Actor 
Steven Ford  Actor 
Ian Virgo  Actor 
Tom Hardy  Actor 
Carmine Giovinazzo  Actor 
Chris Beetem  Actor 
Tac Fitzgerald  Actor 
Matthew Marsden  Actor 
Orlando Bloom  Actor 
Kent Linville  Actor 
Enrique Murciano Jr.  Actor 
Michael Roof  Actor 
George Harris  Actor 
Razaaq Adoti  Actor 
Treva Etienne  Actor 
Ty Burrell  Actor 
Boyd Kestner  Actor 
Jason Hildabrant  Actor 

Country: USA