Few film directors know how to display heroism as effectively as Riddley Scott. Great movie.

8.5/10 Black Hawk Down rarely takes a moment to slow down, and it’s all the better for it. The first half hour or so is setup, which can be a bit rough to get through. After that, though, the rest is practically one huge action sequence (or three concurrently running action sequences), and that’s what I love about it. Obviously, it’s not the fun action you might see in a Marvel movie. It’s gritty and intense, yet still electrifying. Watching the different groups defend their positions and eventually converge to be lifted out of the city was a really unique way to do the movie. And, thankfully, the action is well filmed. I think there’s even one shot that was meant to be a reference to the iconic helicopter shot from Apocalypse Now. The score is admittedly cliché for a story that takes place in this region of the world, but I can imagine Black Hawk Down was part of the wave of movies that created (or at least popularized) that cliché sound, so I’ll give it a pass. The acting and characters never really passed serviceable for me. They’re not bad, definitely on the good side of things, but it felt like barely any of them for development. I get that this is basically trying to recreate a real event, but the bare bones character beats didn’t hit as much as they felt like they should have. Surprisingly, the deaths still worked.