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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Black Hawk Down (2001)

Black Hawk Down (2001)

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Released 21-Aug-2002

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category War Menu Animation & Audio
Dolby Digital Trailer-City
Featurette-Black Hawk Down - "On The Set"
Trailer-Spider-Man; The One
Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2001
Running Time 138:25
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (76:55) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Ridley Scott
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Josh Hartnett
Eric Bana
Tom Sizemore
Ewan McGregor
Sam Shepard
William Fichtner
Jason Isaacs
Ewan Bremner
Tom Hardy
Tom Guiry
Ron Eldhard
Orlando Bloom
Jeremy Piven
Case ?
RPI $36.95 Music Hans Zimmer


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Spanish
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking Yes, cigarettes and Cuban cigars
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    In Borders two years ago, I remember browsing a large book containing photo-journalism pictures. One particular full-page colour image showed the corpse of an American soldier being dragged behind a truck through the dusty streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, circa 1993. A mob of Somalis jeered and danced in celebration of the spectacle, while the solider lay slack in that macabre repose only the dead possess. My horrified gaze switched back and forth between the tethered body of the American and the broad, triumphant smiles of his executioners. That picture has stayed with me ever since.

    Hence, it was with a small measure of trepidation that I loaded Ridley Scott's recently acclaimed war film Black Hawk Down into my Pioneer DVD player.

    Adapted by Ken Nolan from Mark Bowden's bestselling book, the movie focuses on the events surrounding a relatively basic operation that went from bad to worse, and finally to hell. After spending 30 minutes setting the scene and introducing the main characters, we are thrown headlong into a deadly clash between a detachment of well-equipped American forces and Mohamed Farrah Aidid's guerrilla army. In what may be a simplification for dramatic effect, the cause of all the mayhem, lost lives and political embarrassment occurs in one instant. How the American soldiers and their leaders handle the resultant string of disasters forms the backbone of the story. Hence there is no plot. This is just a realistic depiction of events that went down on October 3rd 1993, sweetened perhaps by Hollywood word-processing, but nevertheless preserving the general facts and respecting those involved.

    No doubt Ridley Scott relished the chance to depict a sustained firefight with all the resources a director of his stature could command, while at the same time testing his mettle against other high profile directors who've tackled the war genre lately with great success. Every cent of the $95 million budget is on screen, assembled with confidence and technical adroitness by Scott and his crew, and aided by the production muscle that comes with a name like Jerry Bruckheimer. Absent are the awkward narrative lurches that wounded Gladiator. What we have here is a smooth, precise machine built by a director at the top of his game. Once things get rolling, the tension never lets up. If you enjoyed the pure thrill of combat shown in Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line, then I suggest installing seat belts onto your lounge suite, because Black Hawk Down hammers out the action with the best of them.

    To say too much more will detract from your enjoyment. Because Black Hawk Down is constructed from real events, it is best seen – as I saw it – with only a thumbnail sketch of what happens. Let me just add that the performances are solid (although the talented Eric Bana is miscast), there is a satisfactory amount of gore, and the special effects are seamless. A number of stunt dogs also deserve high praise for risking their lives to add verisimilitude to the combat sequences.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Shot in Super 35, Black Hawk Down shows up on Region 4 DVD with an absolutely beautiful 16x9 enhanced PAL image, framed at the original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1. Lensed by Polish cinematographer Slavomir Idziak (Proof of Life, Gattaca), the aesthetic choices made for Black Hawk Down would have posed a unique set of challenges for the compressionists at Sony.

    Shaded with stylised film grain, the opening monochromatic shots of Somalis in mourning make a poor first impression. I doubt, though, that the technicians could have improved this sequence. After this prologue, the true nature of the transfer becomes apparent. Sharpness and detail is evident from the textures on metal, clothing and people's faces, not to mention small objects in the background, for example the carpet of housing that represents the city of Mogadishu as seen from a roaring Black Hawk helicopter.

    Shadow detail is intentionally limited, rolling off dramatically due to the high contrast film processing used – maybe our old friend CCE silver nitrate retention? The end result is a stark, almost alien look that I liked very much. Luckily, the omnipresent blacks are thick and inky, although I could make out brighter elements within the upper and lower mattes. This is something I've noticed on a few 2.35:1 transfers, and it is alarming to say the least. There is a mild amount of edge enhancement too, but I doubt the transfer would have worked as well being softer.

    In the now firmly established tradition of contemporary war films, colour saturation is deliberately muted. Skin tones are natural, blood is a grim shade of mauve, and the overall balance remains stable. There is no colour bleed, either.

    There are no film artefacts apart from film grain here and there, for instance at 61:51. The source materials must have been pristine. Film to video issues and compression problems are absent. This transfer is most certainly a down-conversion from a high-definition master, probably the same one created for the Region 1 DVD.

    The layer change at 76:55 was mildly disruptive.

    In summary, Black Hawk Down looks gorgeous. I'm not sure that African towns look exactly like this in reality, but I think Ridley Scott wanted to capture the same flavour that also caught Nicolas Roeg by surprise when he came downunder to film Walkabout. Apparently when he stepped off the plane in Sydney he was heard to say, "My god! This country is one f-stop overexposed!"

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    A thunderous English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack awaits anyone brave enough to venture into Mogadishu with the American task force. There is also a Spanish 5.1 track, which I sampled now and then to hear the American general (Sam Shepard) issuing commands in Spanish.

    Dialogue is sometimes hard to hear, especially when characters speak aboard flying helicopters or in the heat of combat. The mix tended to drop the centre channel level, causing me to strain my ears and sometimes resort to subtitles. Whether this is intentional or the fault of my set up is not clear; the volumes on my decoder were set as they normally are. No distortion problems are apparent, and ADR is obvious on occasion, although sound synchronization is fine during the whole feature.

    The music by Hans Zimmer (Pearl Harbor, Gladiator, The Pledge) is not always effective, or rather the mix of styles employed failed to blend into a unified whole. This may have been a conscious decision to mirror the chaotic developments in the story – who knows. Both the original compositions and the pop songs from 1993 (by Faith No More and others) are presented with all the gloss that Dolby Digital can muster – nicely distributed across a wide front soundstage with good separation, snap and clarity.

    Sound designers love helicopters, I am convinced of it. With a flair that recalls Apocalypse Now, any chances to lay down helicopter noise in creative ways are never wasted. In Black Hawk Down the surrounds are utilized to their fullest potential to place rotor engine sound effects in all parts of the room: split rears, side walls, front, centre, and at one stage on the C2 liaison 'copter I somehow heard rotor blades whirring all round the ceiling.

    Other sound effects took advantage of the 5.1 format to make the viewer duck for cover, as vicious machine gun fire rips from the speakers and those terrifying RPGs pan at you from all directions. While doing all this, the surrounds spread about all of the traditional ambient sounds you find in war films: ricochets, men screaming in pain, explosions, debris flying everywhere, and command centre PA announcements. This is a rich, gymnastic, immensely enjoyable soundscape littered with the melodies of destruction. Great fun.

    Low frequency support is first class as well. Explosions, collisions and the like engage the subwoofer often. Some of the explosions really pack a wallop, reaching down into the lower frequencies before tapering off wonderfully. Black Hawk Down features some of the best use of bass I've heard in a 5.1 soundtrack; detailed and polished, but still realistic and not overblown.

    Despite the occasionally indiscernible dialogue, this Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has great dynamic range and frequency response, with an immersive soundfield that will have you looking around for that hovering Black Hawk gunship or RPG ambush. Crank it up loud.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menus

    The animated menus are 16x9 enhanced with an elegant design. Dolby Digital 2.0 music from the movie, one of Hans Zimmer's better compositions, plays in the background as you make your choices.

Featurette - On the Set: Black Hawk Down (24:03)

    This is a promo-style documentary that contains footage of the filmmakers talking about the production. It is better than most infomercials and is a very welcome addition. The video is a 4x3 transfer, matted to 1.85:1 and of high quality. (One could speculate that a special edition would have a 16x9 enhanced behind-the-scenes documentary.) Shots of the movie are matted to 2.35:1. Sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 and Spanish subtitles are available.

Theatrical Trailers (x2)

Cast and Crew Filmographies (x13)

    Filmographies and portraits are presented for Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Sam Shepard, Ron Eldhard, 'Fiddley' Ridley Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, Hans Zimmer, Arthur Max, Slavomir Idziak, and Mark Bowden. Production heads Simon West, Mike Stenson, Chad Oman and Branko Lustig are listed in the index but have no filmography information on hand. Were they just vying for immortality on DVD?

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The initial US DVD and the Australian DVD are practically identical, although a three-disc special edition is planned for Region 1 in 2003 (and also France), and the two-disc Region 2 package is already out.

    Compared to the initial US DVD, the current Region 4 DVD misses out on:

    The current Region 1 DVD misses out on:

    Compared to the UK special edition, the current Region 4 DVD misses out on:

Summary

    One inspired wit called Black Hawk Down a Jerry Bruckheimer art film. It is true that every shot could be a postcard, but this still may be stretching things a tad too far. What we have here is a full-blooded action picture, filled like a ration pack with all of the essentials we have come to expect: heroism, bravery, sacrifice, despair, responsibility, camaraderie, bad rock songs, severed limbs, comic relief, explosions, quirky characters, virtuoso cinematography, Academy Award-winning sound engineering, faceless opponents, and a modicum of politicising, save for a perfunctory sprinkling of idealism from Josh Hartnett's character, who was "trained to make a difference", and some it-all-comes-to-this pearls of wisdom from battle-hardened Norm 'Hoot' Hooten (Eric Bana using a bad Southern accent).

    Kudos to editor Pietro Scalia (JFK, Gladiator) who won an Oscar for his work in Black Hawk Down. This movie is another class act that can sit proud beside Enemy at the Gates and Tigerland as an accomplished contemporary war film. One just hopes that no pooches were blown up during the making of this picture.

    Our Aussie DVD delivers a breathtaking video transfer together with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that takes no prisoners. I enjoyed the Spider-man trailer more than the featurette, but the documentary acts as a convenient recovery piece after the movie. In summary, this is a no-brainer. Grab it.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Rod Williams (Suss out my biography if you dare)
Monday, July 01, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-737, using Component output
DisplayLoewe Ergo (81cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderDenon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital decoder.
AmplificationArcam AV50 5 x 50W amplifier
SpeakersFront: ALR/Jordan Entry 5M, Centre: ALR/Jordan 4M, Rear: ALR/Jordan Entry 2M, Subwoofer: B&W ASW-1000 (active)

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