Black Hawk Down [Blu-ray] [2001]

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Editorial reviews

Synopsis
On October 3, 1993, Army Rangers and members of the elite Delta Force participated in a covert operation in Mogadishu, Somalia that went horribly wrong. Sent to abduct two lieutenants of a vicious Somali warlord, the soldiers found themselves surrounded by hostile militia. Two Black Hawk helicopters were shot down and many men lost their lives. Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer told the story of the battle in his exhaustively researched, critically acclaimed book, Black Hawk Down, and filmmaker Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and screenwriter Ken Nolan have done an amazing job of bringing the dramatic story to the screen. Like Bowden's book, the film does not thoroughly examine the context of the conflict, but gives a detailed and intense blow-by-blow account of the fighting. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Josh Hartnett as a competent but nervous Ranger sergeant leading his first mission, Ewan McGregor as a desk jockey who excels when sent into combat, Eric Bana (The Incredible Hulk) as a cocky and enigmatic Delta, and Ron Eldard as a downed Black Hawk pilot. The violence of the film is brutal and nearly constant. Scott unflinchingly captures the chaos and mayhem of battle with tremendous visual finesse.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-24 rating:
Movie: 3.75/5 Picture Quality: 4~5/5 Sound Quality: 5/5 Extras: 2.5/5
MPEG-2 BD-50 / Region Free
Running time: 2:24:19 (Theatrical version)
Movie size: 37,233,334,272 bytes
Disc size: 45,638,838,470 bytes
Average video bit rate: 25.56 Mbps
LPCM 5.1 4608Kbps English
DD AC3 5.1 640Kbps / French

#Audio Commentary-Mark Bowden (Author) and Ken Nolan (Screenwriter)
#Audio Commentary-Ridley Scott (Director) and Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer)
#Audio Commentary-"U.S. Special Forces Veterans '93"
#Making Of-"The Essence Of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down"
#Blu-Wizard

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review by: Christian Silver date: 2008-06-02 rating:
Boring shooting-gallery.
Bought this some time ago on DVD. If the movie is better on Blu-Ray; doesn`t matter. The story is REALY boring.
If you like war-movies where there is a lot of shooting, running, shouting and the story-line can be put into one word "war", then this is absolutely a movie FOR YOU. For those of us who enjoy a story, a plot and dont like a movie were the major parts of scenes are running, shooting, shouting and basically men trying to survive it is a movie to avoid. Despite good acting by some of the actors; stay away!
Just my opinion of course...

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review by: mlen date: 2008-05-30 rating:
Best modern war movie ever !
Black Hawk Down is one of my favourite war movie ever seen on screen. No question about to buy it on blu. The quality of the disc is tremendous, true fanstastic colors and powerful sound made this movie a true masterpiece. Story summary: US Marines and Delta Forces under a special mission in Mogadishu, Somalia: To hunt high ranking warlords. But the mission became a desaster. Enemies powerful guerilla forces were underestimated and could shot down 2 Black Hawk Helicopters. The mission failed and US Special Forces had only one goal: To survive and leave no men behind ! Ridley Scott at his best.

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review by: date: 2008-04-25 rating:
Worth watching if you don't have it on DVD already
Well, the film has been reviewed a lot already. A full on action movie that disturbs as much as it gets the adrenaline pounding, the US charge in gung-ho and things rapidly go bad. From there it is a downward spiral into disaster. Worth watching but don't think you are going to come away from the film with a smile on your face.

As for the quality of the blu-ray disc. The audio is very good, though not DTS, only 5.1 (and also uncompressed 5.1 - for which I need an HDMI connector on my amp which I don't have unfortunately)

The visual quality is good. The way the film is shot means that many of the scenes (most of them) are grainy, so frankly you are not going to get the benefit of HD in many of them. I can recall only a couple of scenes where I knew I was watching BluRay, the rest of the film could just as well have been an upscaled DVD. Having said that the colour palette was very rich and vibrant. I am surprised at a few of the reviews saying that this is a film to show off HD. It is good but not the best for HD I have seen.

I have a Sony D3500 40inch TV playing from a PS3 and have been wowed by other Blu Ray films, notably Starship Troopers (in the digitally rendered scenes).

Overall, a good, exciting but depressing film, with a good Blu Ray transfer. Worth getting if you don't have the film on DVD already.


review by: mb date: 2008-04-16 rating:
A classic got even better
You will probably know the story-line by now but believe me, seeing the movie in HD is a new experience. It is not just the picture detail and vibrancy but also the sound - stunning, especially if you are lucky enough to have a surround sound system. A must purchase for any BR collection even if this type of movie is not your normal choice. Enjoy.

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . Blu-ray
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . BBFC Rating (intended_use_browse-bin) . 15
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Release Date (feature_three_browse-bin) . 2000 and later
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 0
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Standard Edition
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . English

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