Newsday didn't like it either
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/ny-etblack2526249dec28.story?coll=ny%2Dmoviereview%2Dheadlines
An Offensive Foray Into Africa
By John Anderson
STAFF WRITER
December 28, 2001
DURING "Black Hawk Down," the ostensibly true story of the 1993 battle of Mogadishu, I kept thinking of God. And country. And Princess Sacheen Littlefeather.
Back in March 1973, Littlefeather was sent to the Academy Awards by Marlon Brando to reject his "Godfather" Oscar, because of how Hollywood had treated the Indians. So a most improbable scenario presented itself: Someday, a Somalian actor, writer or director would be voted an Oscar. And some emissary would reject it because of the way director Ridley ("Gladiator") Scott and producer Jerry ("Pearl Harbor") Bruckheimer had turned his or her people into small game.
"Black Hawk Down" is perhaps a perfect movie for its time. Although jingoistic to the point of laughter and cast with the hoariest kind of cliched war-movie characters, it does have something of a cutting-edge aesthetic: Back in the '90s, the trend in movies seemed to indicate that Hollywood would eventually release only a single feature a year, consisting of a single, prolonged explosion (perhaps with subliminal advertising worked into the dust clouds and bloodstains). "Black Hawk Down," which spends 45 minutes on humanity and another 110 on unrelieved action (this is not an endorsement) is a major step in that direction.
Of course, it is a war film and a technically adept one, about the longest sustained ground battle involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War. On Oct. 3, 1993, a force of 120 American Delta soldiers and Ranger infantry were dropped into Mogadishu, to abduct two of Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's lieutenants. Along the way, two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down. Subsequently, a one-hour mission turned into 15 hours of mayhem, ending with 18 Americans dead and 73 wounded.
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