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Black Hawk Down (3-Disc Deluxe Edition)
Stars:
Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen
Bremner, Sam Shepard, Kim Coates, Jason Isaacs, Brenden Sexton III, Richard
Tyson, Orlando Bloom, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Writer:
Ken Nolan
Based
On The Book By: Mark Bowden
Director:
Ridley Scott
Feature
length: 144 minutes
Extras:
Audio Commentary By Director and Producer Ridley Scott and Producer Jerry
Bruckheimer, Audio Commentary By Author Mark Bowden and Screenwriter Ken Nolan,
Audio Commentary By Task Force Ranger Veterans, “The Essence Of Combat: Making
Black Hawk Down” 150 Minute Documentary, 8 Deleted and Alternate Scenes With
Optional Commentary, Designing Mogadishu Featurette, Production Design Archive,
Storyboards With Optional Commentary, Ridleygrams With Optional Commentary,
Jerry Bruckheimer’s BHD Photo Album, Title Design Explorations With Optional
Commentary, Photo Galleries, The History Channel Presents “The True Story Of
Black Hawk Down”, PBS Presents: “Frontline: Ambush In Mogadishu”,
“Mission Timeline, Target Building Insertion: Multi-Angle Sequence With
Optional Commentary, Question & Answer Forums: BAFTA, Motion Picture
Editor’s Guild, and American Cinematheque, “Gortoz A Ran – J’Attends”
Music Video Performed By Denis Prigent and Lisa Gerrard, Theatrical Poster
Concepts, Theatrical Trailer, TV Spots, Bonus Trailers
Languages:
English, French, and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese,
Korean, and Thai Language Subtitles
Packaging:
3-Disc Digipack Gatefold Within A Cardboard Slipcase
Chapter
Stops: 28
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2001/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
In
October of 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are
sent to Mogadishu, Somalia on a search and retrieval mission to remove a violent
warlord. The mission that should have taken less than an hour ended up lasting
somewhere between 18 and 22-hours as the troops become trapped with overwhelming
forces against them and no relief in sight.
Produced
by Jerry Bruckheimer and Directed by Ridley Scott, “Black Hawk Down” is a
slick visual testament to the heroics and drive behind America’s armed forces
and a frightening examination of anarchy and mob rule. The film is quite
stylized while visually magnificent to watch with beautiful widescreen
compositions. Scott shows in frightening detail the horrors of combat with
guerilla style mercenaries and militia who outnumber the Elite forces something
like twenty to one at least. They used families as shields and even had civilian
women and grade school age children attacking with guns and whatnot. In one
terrifying scene a pilot is dragged out of a downed chopper and practically torn
apart by the masses of people in a bloody frenzy. In another scene we see an
American soldier literally pierced by a shell that flies right into his body,
killing him, but it never leaves his body so he has an unexploded, but possibly
still live missile like armament sticking through his body like a spear.
The
film also delves into the politics of the situation revealing the fact that the
men could have been better prepared had the American congress allowed the use of
more sophisticated backup armament technology. This combined with the fact that
the intelligence gathered from spies was questionable almost makes it seem as
though they had no idea just how dug in the militia was in the city. Our
soldiers are incredibly skilled and I mean it when I state these guys are among
the best we have and it is their skill and training that ultimately makes the
story truly heroic. The militia have more guns and unlimited man power plus the
advantage of knowing the lay of the land and not being tied down by any code of
military justice or UN sanctified humanitarian efforts, which is why the troops
were sent there the begin with. However they are not as skilled as the American
troops sent in so despite the overwhelming odds many of the trapped soldiers
were able to hold off the enemy until help arrived.
Relief
efforts were leading to the death of civilians and the continuation of famine at
a biblical level. The food was used to buy arms for the warlords and another
element in the politics behind this film is that for every warlord that is
deposed, there are others waiting to take over so one has to ask, is the mission
being handled practically and is there an alternative? I don’t have an answer.
It is terrible since militias overrun the city to this day. As crazy as this
might seem I watched this film and thinking about events in this country over
the last 15 years, I honestly can imagine a situation like this happening in the
United States should chaos and anarchy breakout unchallenged. It is very scary.
Think about everything that is going on right now across the globe and
America’s involvement directly, indirectly, or potentially and tell me if you
do not think this could not happen again, even within our own country? The
attitude of UN relief forces reveals another aspect of the politics behind the
fight by giving the impression that the egos of foreign allied UN forces were
bruised by not being informed of the extract mission and then subsequently
dragged their feet with the rescue effort. These are the reasons why I think
“Black Hawk Down” is an important film that should be seen on DVD by all.
It
is no surprise that “Black Hawk Down” won an Academy Award® for Best Sound
because the English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is excellent, rivaling
many DTS mixes. A French and Spanish Language Soundtrack and English Captions
and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as French, Spanish,
Chinese, and Thai Language Subtitles are encoded onto the first dual layered DVD
as options. Portuguese and Korean Language Subtitles are encoded as options on
the second and third discs. The transfer is excellent with an anamorphic
widescreen (2.40:1) aspect ratio preserving the theatrical presentation for both
standard and widescreen televisions and was down converted from a high
definition master.
After
nearly a year between the releases of the original standard edition of “Black
Hawk Down” American DVD consumers can now finally purchase this definitive
3-Disc Deluxe Edition that is without a doubt one of the most comprehensive DVD
compilations to arrive this year so far. It is on par with last year’s DVD
release of “Pearl Harbor: The Director’s Cut: Vista Series 4-Disc Set” and
the recently released “Windtalkers: Director’s Edition: 3-Disc DVD
Collector’s Set.” In fact despite being released by separate studios, all
three collections look great together on bookcase and definitely make for a
great gift idea if you know someone who loves all three films.
There
is so much extra material included within the set that after taking three days
to go through it all I feel like I got “Black Hawk Down” coming out of my
ears. To make it a bit easier to describe the features and hopefully easier for
readers to digest the information, I will be separating the discussion of the
extra materials under three separate headings according to the disc they appear
on.
In addition to the already described viewing and listening options related to the film, viewers can also listen to three separate feature length audio commentary tracks beginning with the first track which is a mix between two separate commentaries with Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Producer and Director Ridley Scott. Scott dominates the majority of the track with Bruckheimer’s comments presented in a supporting manner to the production facts Scott reveals. Ridley Scott is one of the more interesting Directors when it comes to discussing his own work. After hearing several commentaries of his on various DVD releases over the last few years, I just feel he is a great and articulate speaker who is candid about his views related to his films and in some cases the plight he went through to get them made. I have heard him do something similar to this before on the “Gladiator: Signature Selection” DVD, but I just love how he rationally will explain a reason for doing something that he had to do such as find a way of showing the actor’s faces and giving the viewer something to go on so that we can recognize and follow characters without getting lost. Scott will admit that the Rangers and Delta Force would be far more non-descript in appearance and yet he will rationalize a reason why it is okay if we can identify certain characters from others in such a way that I find myself agreeing with him even if the dramatization did not happen exactly the way it happened historically.
The
second audio commentary track features Screenwriter Ken Nolan and Author Mark
Bowden. This commentary actually runs a bit longer than the Scott/Bruckheimer
commentary and covers the development of the story through Bowden’s initial
interviews with the real Rangers and Delta Force who were there in Mogadishu
during the events of the film through the writing process with over twenty
drafts written through post production as well as combining certain elements for
the screenplay. Interestingly enough, Bowden comments that he felt Nolan’s
screenplay was more faithful to the spirit of the book than his first draft. The
third commentary track features the military advisors and Ranger Task Force
Veterans who point out exactly any inconsistencies in the film from the actual
events, but at the same time comment how happy they are the film captures with
respect the valiant manner in which the Rangers and Delta Forces worked together
to save their comrades and even to some respect how the film tries to show some
different points of view related to the conflict, which was the first of it’s
type to occur since the Vietnam War. All three commentaries are indexed into 28
chapters according to the topic of discussion and matching the action of the
corresponding scene in the film. Filmographies for the cast and crew wrap up the
extra features on disc one.
The second disc contains the feature length documentary “The Essence Of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down,” which is actually longer than the feature film itself with an approximate running time of 150 minutes. This documentary can also be viewed as several shorter featurettes made up of “Getting It Right: Story And Character” 23 minutes, “Crash Course: Military Orientation” 30 minutes, “Battlefield Morocco: On Location” 30 minutes, “Hymn To The Fallen” 18 minutes, “Digital Warriors: Visual Effects” 18 minutes, and “After Action Report: Final Thoughts” 25 minutes. As a whole this documentary is excellent, but everyone will have parts that they find more interesting than others. Personally I enjoyed learning about the writing process for the film in “Getting It Right: Story And Character” and always find it interesting to see what the actors have to learn in order to make their action more believable as depicted in “Crash Course: Military Orientation” and I am also amazed at the flawless blending of computer generated imagery and practical effects as illustrated in “Digital Warriors: Visual Effects.”
There is a 15-minute production design featurette entitled “Designing Mogadishu” and a featurette of Jerry Bruckheimer’s personal “Black Hawk Down” photos (5:27) coupled with no less than 12 photo galleries. Multiple angle demonstrations of the storyboards with finish scene comparison and optional commentary is provided for both Storyboard and Scott’s own personal drawings known as “Ridleygrams.” Both of these features run about 7 minutes each. There is also a title design exploration with optional commentary by the designer with several distinct styles explored. The deleted scenes are presented in a letterboxed (2.40:1) aspect ratio with English Stereo Sound and optional commentary by Director Ridley Scott. The deleted scenes can viewed as one 20-minute reel or individually and are made up of “Narrated Opening” (3:16), “Downtime” (1:30), “Ping Pong Injury” (: 44), “Snafu” (3:14), “Triage” (1:08), “Night Moves” (1:42), “Taking Stock” (5:30), and an “Alternate Ending. (2:20).
Disc Three
Disc three features
the History Channel program “The True Story Of Black Hawk Down” 100 minutes
and the PBS Frontline Special “Ambush In Mogadishu” as well as an
interactive timeline of the events depicted in “Black Hawk Down” that all
help to add an extra bit of historical context to the film. Assistant Director
Terry Nedham provides optional commentary to a multi-angle dissertation on the
“Target Insertion Sequence,” which gives viewers the options of viewing six
different shot angles individually or collectively by using the angle function
on their DVD player’s remote control. Then there are three filmmaker
“Question and Answer Sessions” recorded between late 2001 and early 2002 at
“BAFTA” (10:26), “Motion Picture Editor’s Guild” (10:30), and the
“American Cinematheque” (11:43). Finally the exploration of the film
concludes with a look at the promotion of the film that includes “Gortoz A Ran – J’Attends” Music
Video performed by Denis Prigent and Lisa Gerrard (3:55) and presented in a
(2.40:1) aspect ratio as well as a soundtrack spot (: 32), the (1.85:1)
theatrical trailer presented with full Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (2:30)
and three 1 minute and 3 seconds TV spots, six 33 second TV spots, and one 18
second TV spot. There is even a gallery of one-sheet concept poster art. Bonus
trailers for “Tears Of The Sun” (2:30) and “Basic” (1:54) are both
presented in (1.85:1) aspect ratios and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound.
Each disc features full motion
main menus with animated transitions to standard interactive still frame menus
and all are easy to navigate. A coupon for a $5 dollar rebate is enclosed within
the three-disc Digipack gatefold inside the cardboard slipcase for consumers who
purchase both “Black Hawk Down: 3-Disc Deluxe Edition” and “Tears Of The
Sun: Special Edition.”
Without a doubt, this is an excellent comprehensive DVD set that is well worth buying or upgrading to if you bought last year’s standard edition release. “Black Hawk Down: 3-Disc Deluxe Edition” is available on DVD-Video now at retailers on and offline from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Box Set Now By Clicking On The Text Link
Below!
Black Hawk Down (3-Disc Deluxe Edition)