[OT] Blackhawk Down

My review. 

Having read the original articles (long before it 
was a book), seen the movie on opening night 
(knowing what the story was in detail ahead of 
time), and having also just watched a 2 hour 
documentary on things. 

1) John A makes a fairly accurate assessment of 
many of the failings of the mission. His 
assessment of superhero games is blinkered, 
but that's our John.... <*grin*>

2) Someone pointed out the tension between 
the Delta and Rangers. This comes out very 
clearly in the original accounting. The Rangers 
were coming to pieces from the casualties and 
long time under fire. The Delta guys were in no 
mood to screw around. I particularly recall a 
story of one Delta guy riding around (I think) 
with a busted leg and shooting away anyway 
out of the Humvee. Anyway, this aspect is totally 
done away with in the movie.... no friction to be 
seen (a few eyes rolled aside maybe, but no 
actual friction). The Rangers are shown (to my 
mind) as far more gripped and together even 
when things started going bad than the 
impression the original story gave me. 

3) The streets and alleys in the movie seemed 
much wider than the streets in the actual city 
(saw them on the documentary). And so was 
the crash site (#2 I think). The real city of 
Mogadishu looked far worse. 

4) The movie glossed over (except in brief 
mention) the problems the UN troops 
presented... mind you I think they had some 
justification, not having been clued in by the US 
forces ahead of time.... but they still were 
obstructionist in terms of getting the relief 
column with armour together and headed into 
the city. 

5) The fire in the movie, though it looks intense. 
was far less than that in reality I suspect. Or at 
least its effects. The book details Humvees 
driving 10 mph with three tires blown off and 
on fire. Hummers in the movie didn't take quite 
that much punishment. And I never saw the 
barricade crashing that was mentioned in the 
book. 

6) I don't recall the bit with the IR beacon/flare 
and the run across the open to place it.... but it 
might have happened. 

7) The actual Rangers weren't quite as 
photogenic or rah rah. The ones in the 
documentary came off as real people, warts 
and all, trying to deal with a real bad situation 
they'd gotten into. 

For all that, I did like the movie and in many 
substantive ways, it told the story as it 
happened. A little more clean and nice than the 
actual one (despite the gore here and there, 
and I still don't think the gore here matched 
that first 20 mins of SPR) both in terms of the 
condition of people and vehicles and in terms of 
the relationship between the Rangers and Delta 
and the morale effects of the situation on the	
young Rangers. 

Tom Sizemore played a kind of impressive 
character, as did the lead Delta guy (name 
forgotten) - though I did find their portrayal of 
his ability to blend with the populace at the 
beginning funny - one white guy with fancy 
shades in the midst of a crowd of non-whites.... 
stick out? naw! :) 

Also, I have to give my utmost respect for the 
two Delta snipers who fastroped into crash site 
#2. They knew what they were getting 
themselves into, and they deserved their 
medals. 

The movie does capture the feeling of the chaos 
of street fighting against a disorganized foe, 
where non-combatants randomly appear in the 
middle of a fight and some of the people you 
are fighting are kids of 12. It captures the 
effects of not taking the high ground. It 
captures how fast a simple and elegant plan 
can go to hell and how bad that can be if you 
don't have backup strategies in place. 

The book, if it is anything like the original web 
stories (which Los put me onto as they came 
out or shortly after), is probably well worth the 
price as a keeper for your shelf. 
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Thomas Barclay
Co-Creator of http://www.stargrunt.ca 
Stargrunt II and Dirtside II game site
"In God We Trust... on Cold Steel We Depend."
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