Black Hawk Down UMD-Video For PSP Review

Buy This UMD For PSP Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!

Title: Black Hawk Down

Region: One

Genre: Combat Action Thriller

Stars: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, Kim Coates, Jason Isaacs, Brenden Sexton III, Richard Tyson, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Writer: Ken Nolan

Based On The Book By: Mark Bowden

Director: Ridley Scott

Feature length: 144 minutes

Languages: English Stereo Sound

Subtitles: English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Thai Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 12

Sound: Stereo Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2001/UMD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Home Video Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

In October of 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers were 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 became 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 slick and 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 designed to stop the death of civilians and the continuation of famine at a biblical level, but the food was used to buy arms for the warlords. 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 practical 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 18 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 as well as domestically. Look at 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 by all.

The UMD version for PSP crops the image from the anamorphic (2.40:1) aspect ratio to fit the (1.78:1) widescreen aspect ratio of Sony’s PlayStation Portable. This hurts to spectacular compositions, but even on high definition television broadcasts, it is not unheard of for feature films tobe reframed for 16 by 9 televisions and in some cases even (1.33:1). The intimate nature of viewing films on the PSP does give “Black Hawk Down” on UMD a distinct advantage though. Since your focus is directly placed upon the high quality LCD screen, the characters take on a larger than life quality and the English Stereo Sound might make one want to look over their shoulders to make sure they are still where they are supposed to be. English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Thai Language Subtitles are encoded onto the UMD as options, but I suppose for optimum picture quality, there are not even any preview trailers on the disc.

I love this movie and am happy to be able to enjoy it on UMD as well as DVD. “Black Hawk Down” is available on UMD-Video for PSP now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Return To The Previous Page

Buy This UMD For PSP Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!