Synopsis
An elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has lead to starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes quickly and terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.

Critique
Black Hawk Down is one of my top ten favorite films of 2001 and to see the DVD arrive in a 3-disc deluxe edition loaded with special features is exciting as hell, but more on the features later. Ridley Scott comes off two successful films, Gladiator and Hannibal, to direct Black Hawk Down, a full blown and exciting action picture.

What makes the film also enthralling is its sense of realism. After about 30 minutes of character introductions and set-up, the film’s money sequence begins. I’m talking about the insertion sequence when the multiple Little Bird helicopters and Black Hawk’s make their way down to the center of the city. From that point on, when the soldiers hit the ground, the race against time and the will to stay alive begins. Black Hawk Down is uncompromising in its vision and depiction of war.

The backbone of the film, however, is Mark Bowden’s novel and Ken Nolan’s subsequent screenplay that expertly captures the danger and characters of the situation. The actors completed a one-week training camp in order to make their performances as Rangers and Deltas as realistic and agile as possible. Their hard work pays off as seemingly all of the actors not only have recognizable faces but are right in the middle of all the action and explosions.

There are also heartfelt moments in Black Hawk Down, such as the deaths of two soldiers trying their best to keep away the enemy and keeping an injured pilot (Mile Durant, played by Ron Eldard) alive. There are too many actors in this film to list here or praise for their great work. I think the best thing is to say they all did one hell of a job.
9.5 out of 10

Video
Columbia Tristar presents Black Hawk Down in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen. This transfer is gorgeous as all the colors in the film are presented in perfect fashion. I didn’t notice any discrepancies with the print and compression artifacts didn’t show up either. The color palette varies from a high saturated look in daylight to a dark, gloomy look during night scenes. Color detail is exceptional here. Dark tones and black levels are very good. Overall, Black Hawk Down looks pristine and clear.
9 out of 10

Audio
Columbia Tristar presents Black Hawk Down in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. This is a film with sound effects galore. Each explosion, gun battle and helicopter sequence makes great use of the surround system. All speakers act alive, but as usual the front speakers have most of the noise, such as dialog scenes; they are clear and easy to understand even amidst all the surrounding noise. Hans Zimmer’s score also comes through very nicely and impacts the soundfield. Again, sound effects are all over the soundfield and it makes for a really good experience. This film not only looks really good, but sounds like it, too.

Black Hawk Down is also available are French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks.
9 out of 10

Extras

Disc 1:

Commentary by Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer – Scott discusses a lot of different areas of the preparation and production of the film. He’s very in-depth in his comments and reveals some of his intentions of making the film, as well as talking about some behind-the-scenes trivia. It’s an informative and interesting conversation on his part. Bruckheimer’s comments and thoughts on the film are equally interesting; however, he’s not on the track as much as Scott. It is obvious Scott and Bruckheimer are not in the same room, but the editing is pretty good.

Commentary by Mark Bowden and Ken Nolan – This second track is also very informative and entertaining. Bowden discusses some of his background with the story and points out things in the film. Nolan reflects on his experience and observations being on the set. In general, both point out some of the changes and additions administered to the script. This track is definitely worth listening to.

Commentary by Task Force Ranger Veterans – This track is probably the most significant since the participants commenting on the film are the real deal. These guys comment on the events in Somalia and different areas of the film, such as some of the administered changes and which parts of the film they feel are true and accurate depictions of events. Subtitles on the bottom of the screen identify who speaks, which is clever and appropriate.

Additional features on this disc include Filmographies and Weblinks.

Disc 2:

"The Essence of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down" (~151 mins) – Slightly longer than the film itself, this documentary is as informative and entertaining as it can get simply because it covers a lot of different areas of the production in a very in-depth fashion. There are six different parts to this documentary and a “play all” function allows you to view it as one feature.

The first part is "Getting it Right," a 23-minute segment on the story and characters, featuring interviews with Scott, Bruckheimer, Bowden, Nolan and just about every cast member (there are a lot of them and each of their comments are sympathetic and informative).

"Crash Course" is the second part; a 30-minute segment on the actor’s preparations to play Rangers. It starts off with every actor getting their hair cut and continues to the learning process. There are three different camps for the actors to train for their roles. Their training makes for a comprehensive and fun look at the process of preparing for a role in a film, literally.

Third up is "Battlefield: Morocco," a 30-minute segment focusing on the making of the film. There’s a lot of on set footage and watching it is a lot of fun, especially when explosives blow up and the action begins. The segment also uses interviews with the actors, some of which appear more often than others, such as a very enthusiastic Jason Isaacs. All in all, I’d say this is my favorite part of the documentary.

Next up is "Hymn to the Fallen," an 18-minute look at the scoring of the film featuring an interview with Hans Zimmer and footage of Zimmer playing music with a band of musicians. This area of film interests me as I’m an avid listener of film scores. That’s why this segment is pretty cool, however, it runs a little too long (despite having the shortest running time of all the other segments).

"Digital Warriors" is a 25-minute segment on the film’s visual effects. It’s an entertaining and informative look at how some of the film’s effects are created and the way they seemingly blend in with reality. The last part is "After Action Report," a 25-minute segment with interviews of the cast and crew as they reflect on the actual event, the soldiers and the film. It also runs a little long, but is nevertheless informative and even a bit heartfelt.

Image & Design – This area of the second disc includes a few features. First up is “Designing Mogadishu,” a 15-minute look at the production design (locations and surroundings). There is also a production design image archive, storyboards (a 7-minute feature with optional commentary by storyboard artist Sylvain Despretz), Ridleygrams (a 7-minute feature on Scott’s famous storyboards with optional commentary by Sylvain Despretz), Jerry Bruckheimer’s BHD photo album (a 6-minute feature with optional commentary by Bruckheimer) and a general still photo gallery.

Title Design Explorations (~3 mins) – This is part of Image & Design menu, but is worth explaining in more detail. This is more of a montage of various designs for the film’s opening credits; however, the producers ultimately deemed them inappropriate for the context of the film. Some of these explorations are quite cool, such as the actual sun-burning of the film’s title onto a piece of cardboard paper. You can choose to view this featurette with optional commentary by the designer.

Deleted/Alternate Scenes (~20 mins) – The last feature on the second disc are about a dozen deleted and alternate scenes, most of which run between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. They add some additional information to the story and the characters. The audio option is a commentary by Ridley Scott explaining the reasons for leaving these out of the film.

Subtitles: Spanish, Portuguese, Korean

Disc 3:

Historical Archive – This area includes two documentaries on the events depicted in the film. The first one is the 100-minute "The True Story of Black Hawk Down," presented by the History Channel, which includes information and harrowing images of the event, plus the situation in Somalia that sparked military action. The second one is the 60-minute PBS documentary "Frontline: Ambush in Mogadishu." It’s also provides a lot of detail on the event in addition to showing actual footage. Both of these documentaries are well produced, written and directed. This menu also includes a mission timeline of the numerous events that day in Somalia.

Target Building Insertion – This multi-angle feature captures the fast and complex sequence. You can view this feature by switching between six different camera angles or select the play-all set-up displaying all six cameras at once. The assistant director offers his commentary on this feature or you can just listen to the production audio.

Question & Answer Forum – First up is the session at BAFTA, featuring Ridley Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Jason Issacs, Mark Bowden and Tom Matthews. Meanwhile, Pietro Scalia attends the second Q&A at the Editor’s Guild while Scott and Bruckheimer attend the third at the American Cinematheque. All three sessions add up to circa 33 minutes.

Theatrical Poster Concepts – I remember browsing through various poster concepts on the 12 Monkeys DVD. The concepts for BHD are just as interesting to look at. Some of these designs are actually pretty good, some even better than the final poster (Josh Hartnett sitting inside the helicopter). I didn’t think to count the total amount of concepts, but I’d say at least 50 concepts are included here (perhaps a bit less, perhaps a bit more).

Rounding out the third disc is the film’s Theatrical Trailer, a dozen or so TV spots, a music video ("Gortoz A Ran’s - J’Attends" performed by Denez Prigent and Lisa Gerard) and bonus trailers (Basic and Tears of the Sun).

You can select to view the film with optional English, Spanish, French, Chinese and Thai subtitles. The DVD’s menus are somewhat animated. The 144-minute feature is organized into 28 chapters over two discs.
10 out of 10

Overall
Black Hawk Down is not only an exciting, but also heartfelt and true in its depiction of the events in Somalia. Ridley Scott and crew perform at their best. The video and audio presentations are handled really well and make the experience of watching the film a truly great one. The bulk of the special features are simply amazing. This DVD is definitely worth buying, even if you own the previous bare-bones release. Black Hawk Down’s 3-disc deluxe edition comes highly recommended.

Overall DVD Rating: 10 out of 10 (not an average)

Dennis Landmann
www.moviefreak.com