Here's the movie that I'll be rooting for at Oscar time (that's only if it gets a Best Picture nomination which it should). "Black Hawk Down" is my choice for the #1 film of 2001. This may be the best war movie that I've ever seen. There have been great war movies made in the past like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Platoon", but "Black Hawk Down" got to me like no other war movie ever made. Maybe the fact that our country is at war right now made me think about our U.S. soldiers and the fight that were in because of the horrible September 11 tragedy. So you can see that this is an important film to see right now. "Black Hawk Down" is a powerful motion picture about the true story of a U.S. military raid that went disastrously wrong in Somalia in 1993. Director Ridley Scott shows us the horrors of being in a war and how bloody it can get. It's heartbreaking. "Black Hawk Down" has an impressive cast of actors playing the soldiers. Josh Hartnett comes off much better here than he did in "Pearl Harbor" as the leader of a squad which includes Ewan McGregor ("Moulin Rouge"), Tom Sizemore ("Saving Private Ryan"), and William Fichtner ("The Perfect Storm"). Sam Shepard also stars as the major who gives order to the soldiers. "Black Hawk Down" has plenty of action but this movie is not about action. It's about war and the soldiers who fight in it. This is Ridley Scott's best film to date. It's better than his Oscar winner from 2000, "Gladiator". Though he didn't win the Best Director Oscar for that film (which went to Steven Soderbergh for "Traffic"), if nominated for Best Director this year, Scott would be my personal choice for the Best Director Oscar for "Black Hawk Down", because he did an outstanding job on this film. However, that will be tough to come by (Ron Howard of "A Beautiful Mind" and Robert Altman of "Gosford Park" are currently the front-runners for the Best Director Oscar). Scott produced the film with Jerry Bruckheimer, and what an amazing turnaround for the long-time producer after the disappointing "Pearl Harbor". Remember in my review of that film, I complained that the film was ruined by the directing job of Michael Bay. I had said that Steven Spielberg or James Cameron would have done a better job if one of those guys had directed that movie. Ridley Scott is another one. He could have made that film better too, and his direction on "Black Hawk Down" is proof of that. Bruckheimer redeemed himself by choosing Scott to direct this film and he did himself some good in that department. Good job by all. "Black Hawk Down" is a great movie that's powerful and emotional. It's my favorite movie of 2001.
**** (out of four)
**** (out of four)