Black Hawk Down: Deluxe Edition DVD Review
Posted by Ryan Keefer on 06.12.2003
The best DVD set to come out this year, at least until November…
Black Hawk Down: Deluxe Edition DVD Review
Release Date: January 18, 2002
Rated R
144 Minutes
By Ryan Keefer
The Film
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor) seems to have started to get into more dramatic fare over the last couple of years, adding producer credits one his resume to projects like Remember the Titans, C.S.I. and Profiles From the Front Line. Black Hawk Down tells the story of the failed military raid on Somali warlord, Mohammed Aidid, in October 1993, which led to the deaths of 19 American soldiers and over 1,000 Somali citizens. It’s hard for me to be impartial on this kind of film, because I’m a war movie geek, and I was in the Army, and I was in at the time of the Mogadishu incident. I’ll try to keep that in the field of play without getting on my soapbox, but the common knock against this movie seems to be that there wasn’t enough time to identify with a particular person and empathize with the situation being dealt to them. With Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Ewan McGregor, Jason Isaacs, and even Orlando Bloom and Jeremy Piven in smaller roles, the action is pretty continuous. However, despite the commercials you see from time to time, it’s not just about “An Army of One.” It’s about teamwork - about the guy next to you, helping him out, and him helping you, both of you trying to get out of any situation, no matter how screwed up it may be. That’s goes for 2, 10 or 50 troops. Also, the book is full of detail, and is told chronologically, which obviously makes it hard to adapt into a 140 minute movie. And if some of the dialogue sometimes sounds too clichéd, that’s because some of it is. In the book, a medic gives one of the wounded soldiers a percocet, and then sarcastically warns him about the danger of mixing drugs and weapons. Sometimes it was that cheesy. To those critics who mentioned the lack of a Somali point of view, consider that when dealing with irregular forces, there isn’t too much that can be focused on. The author of the book, Mark Bowden, did attempt to provide a Somali point of view, however sparse. Whatever my opinion is on the reasoning why they were there, I am proud of the Rangers performance in the conditions they found themselves in.
I don’t think the movie politicizes the incident, nor do I think it’s a larger position on war, conflict, what have you. The movie is a depiction of the events in Mogadishu, and it’s a pretty dedicated depiction at that. Corporal Smith’s wound was that severe, everyone did bring more ammo than water, figuring it would be a cakewalk, and the Delta operators did hunt boar with their rifles and bring them back for a good grilled dinner, and a welcome respite to the usual field cuisine. Despite Columbia’s woeful introduction of Black Hawk Down as a barebones release in 2002, they’ve made up for the error with an outstanding Special Edition.
The Video
For the video, it looks like Columbia used the same transfer for this release (2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen) that they used on their barebones release. All of Ridley Scott’s edits and camera coverage translate pretty well, and blacks are good with fairly small edge enhancement. Because of the near constant action and gunfire during the film, there really isn’t too much of a chance to play with stationary cameras too much, but the detail still looks good.
The Audio
The audio (which won an Oscar) is 5.1 English, French or Spanish, and I think is also the same as the previous release, which isn’t a bad thing, as the soundtrack was loud, and provided for lots of action to the surround speakers. The subwoofer also gets a workout in some of the scenes with the Black Hawks and Little Birds, as you can almost feel the pounding sounds from the rotorblades. While it would have been nice to see a DTS track included for this release, the informative extras, which I’ll get into momentarily, can make one forget about it.
Special Features
As far as the extras go, this 3-disc set is as comprehensive as it gets. To start with, Disc 1 includes 3 commentary tracks that look at various aspects of the film and the incident. The first is with Director Ridley Scott (Alien) and Bruckheimer. As is the case with other Scott commentaries, it is full of information, opinion and anecdotes. The two were recorded separately, and Bruckheimer is seldom heard on the disc. Scott talks about the problems adapting the book, and how the actors came together for the project. He does, in a certain aspect, compare Hartnett to Gary Cooper, so debate that point amongst yourselves. Scott talks about getting coverage for the scenes he shoots, as well as how he reuses sets for different scenes in the film (if possible). Both provide their thoughts on the decision to bring the release of the film forward in a post-9/11 world, and both also mention the great reactions that they received from GIs who have seen the film as well. Scott’s commentary touches on many points, film-related and otherwise, and is a very good commentary.
The second commentary is by Bowden and Ken Nolan, the screenwriter of the film. Recorded together, both provide a very enjoyable, and sometimes informative commentary. Nolan does a dead on impression of Scott (which kinda borders on Dr. Evil), and he uses it in relaying some of the stories involving working with him. Bowden also points out incidents that occurred that did not make the film, and both answer some of the criticism surrounding the film (that it was racist, or that a lot of it was made up). A couple of comments Nolan made stood out to me. First was the comparison of this film to The Outsiders, in the sense that a lot of young talent was together in one project, and a good deal of that talent will go on to even bigger things. The second was the mention of Richard Tyson, who played Busch, and Nolan’s mention of his role as Buddy in Three O’Clock High. A shout out should go to Nolan for remembering this, and that, along with the fun nature of the commentary, makes it good to listen to.
The final commentary includes 4 soldiers who were there during the incident, namely MSG Matt Eversmann, COL Tom Matthews, COL Danny McKnight and COL Lee Van Arsdale. Each of the soldiers talks about where they were in the incident, and the role they play in the film (Matthews was a technical advisor). The commentary is recorded together, and Columbia made the distinction between the men by subtitling who the speaker was on the film when the commentary is playing. The men talk about their time there, and Van Arsdale recalls memories of Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon, who received posthumous Congressional Medals of Honor for their actions in Mogadishu, along with Dan Busch, another fallen comrade. They do a good deal of explaining military jargon to the layman, which is always helpful, and they compared the operation to other previous ones from a tactical standpoint. McKnight mentions a story of seeing a fellow Mogadishu veteran in a movie theatre where the film was playing, and is a fairly entertaining story. Everyone is very polite of each other, with very little interruption, and they all express their thanks to Bruckheimer and Scott for bringing the book to celluloid. The commentary may be a bit drier than the other two, but it is not without its share of information, and worth the time to listen to. Selected filmographies for 8 cast and 12 crew members wrap up the Special Features on Disc 1.
Disc 2 contains what I believe to be the most complete Making Of feature that I’ve seen. In The Essence of Combat: Making of Black Hawk Down, the feature clocks in at 2 hours and 31 minutes, and you have the choice of playing the 6 sections individually, or you can sit back and hit the Play All choice on the disc. Getting in Right runs for 23 minutes, and Scott, Bruckheimer, Bowden and Nolan talk about where they first heard about the Mogadishu incident, and Bowden’s inspiration to put the articles together, which would eventually turn into the book, and later, the first draft of the screenplay. The actors talked about the people that they played, and those who were playing hybrids of several people discussed that also, as well as their research for the role. This leads, conveniently enough, into the 30 minute Crash Course. This is one of the best pieces on the stereotypical “actor boot camp” that you’re going to see. From haircuts and PT to graduation, you’ll see a great deal of material. The extensive cooperation from the Department of Defense helped to send the actors to their respective bases for training. The Rangers trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, the Delta operators trained at Fort Bragg, and the Black Hawk pilots trained at Fort Campbell. Durant gave the actors playing the pilots a briefing about his experiences, and a good deal of time was spent in a simulator. Because the Delta may or may not exist, according to the government, there wasn’t too much info that could be shown, though one of the actors (William Fichtner, The Perfect Storm) talked about how fun it was, and compared what the Rangers did to what the Delta were doing, which, among other things, was playing with live ordinance to blow a door and enter a room. The Rangers did a good deal of this also, first in marked out walls, followed by actual rooms. The actual Rangers in Somalia came to Benning for a beer session with the actors, and both the Ranger and Delta camps concluded with an urban training and warfare scenario. Battlefield: Morocco is a 30 minute On Location look at the location of the film. From Scott’s decision to shoot there, along with the logistics, hiring of extras, and getting all of the pieces to fit together and work properly for the target building scene. The actors also talk about working with the pyrotechnics during filming, which gets emphasized when a couple of the actors are interrupted by gunshots from a firefight being shot. Hymn to the Fallen spends 18 minutes talking about the score with Hans Zimmer. A lot of what is shot here is using a handheld DV with the night effect turned on, so get used to the night vision hue on this segment. If you had any doubts about when this piece was shot, don’t, as Zimmer expresses many reservations about the score he was composing, but it does turn out well, and what was also kinda cool was to see Scott and Zimmer checking out the film with an initial score behind it, and Scott giving him his impressions of it, something I don’t recall seeing from other behind the scenes pieces. Digital Warriors spends 25 minutes talking about the CG effects that were involved in the film, with the major scenes that were created, as well as adding effects to existing shots. You see lots of animatics and element shots here, which help provide a good idea of what goes into the process, and you see what the final results were. The After Action Report is an additional 25 minutes, and includes the thoughts of those who were there, and what they’d like to see viewers take away from the film. The actors talk about their impressions of the incident both before and after the training, and everyone seemed to be a bit embarrassed at not knowing more about it, and a bit disappointed that it fell off the front page of the newspaper so quickly.
To sum it all up, in The Essence of Combat, 43 members of the cast and crew were interviewed. Some spoke briefly, others with larger roles had more time. If anyone is ever going to put together a behind the scenes piece again, this is the way to do it. From beginning to end, this feature is filled with an enormous amount of material, and easily can be watched on its own.
But there’s still more on disc 2, including 8 deleted/alternate/extended scenes with 2.0 audio that run about 20 minutes total. You can play each individually, or you can play all, and there is commentary from Scott on each, who discusses why the scenes were cut. Some of the scenes were ones that were also in the book, such as the reason for Sizemore’s injury and life in the hangar, including one scene where Steele (Isaacs) enters the stadium, and sees the troop list of those killed or wounded. If there was a scene to put back into the film, this would have been the one. There is an alternate opening scene, where a different quote is included, and Eversmann (Hartnett) reads what later turned out to be the opening narrative that appears on screen. Some of the scenes are admittedly for dramatic impact, including one scene between Garrison (Sheppard) and Eversmann, which, according to Pietro Scalia in a Q & A session he appears in later, was one of the scenes he hated to cut.
The Image and Design portion of the disc is also broken down into several sections as well. Designing Mogadishu is a 15 minute piece where Production Designer Arthur Max talks about the difficulty is getting reference material from the original Mogadishu, and it also has pictures from the location scout, as well as what buildings were built and added to the Moroccan country. The Production Design Archive includes production sketches and pictures from various aspects of the shooting. There is an introduction included, which essentially is a key to help determine who drew what sketches. A play all feature is included, or you can select from the 7 different sections included. There are just over 140 sketches in this section by my count. There is a Storyboard section that’s just over 7 minutes, and can be viewed separately or in comparison to the film. You can also listen to the commentary provided by Sylvain Despretz. Despretz talks about his role as the artist, how he’s worked with Scott, and what his opinions on storyboarding in films should be. The Ridleygrams are in much the same vein, and run just as long, but contain storyboards drawn by Scott. This also contains commentary by Despretz, and he talks of Scott’s background, and helps to provide insight into Scott’s artwork, and how challenging he can be fore storyboarders. Jerry Bruckheimer’s Black Hawk Down Photo Album is essentially a 6 minute slideshow featuring Bruckheimer’s photos, taken during filming and between scenes. He also talks of his beginnings in photography, and includes some background into the pictures that were taken, about 50 in total. There is an even larger photo gallery broken down into 12 sections totaling about 270 pictures. There is a Title Design Exploration, which is a 3 minute piece featuring Flavio Campagna, along with the titles he shot, which did look a bit abstract for the film. But if it’s laying around, why not throw it into the set?
Disc 3 is also broken down into several sections. The first section, the Historical Archive, helps to bring the historical perspective in place. The PBS Show Frontline: Ambush in Mogadishu is a 55 minute piece covering not just the events, but also the ramifications of the mission, both before the incident (and the military’s frustration with not being “in the loop” with regard to decisions relating to Mogadishu) and after (the lessons learned from a U.S. foreign policy point of view). I don’t believe I saw a production date for it, but the piece discussed the Rangers advance into Afghanistan, as well as some of the impact that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda had on the warlords in Somalia.
The History Channel Presents: The True Story of Black Hawk Down is just over 90 minutes, and was made around the time of the theatrical release of the film. While this and the Frontline piece both incorporate a mixture of news footage, re-enactments, radio transmissions and footage from the video cameras that the command center employed, the History Channel piece incorporated many more interviews from other areas than Frontline did. Where Frontline had some interviews with the troops “in the shit,” the larger focus was on the official point of view, with interviews from numerous Generals and diplomatic envoys. The History Channel had several interviews with involved Somalis, including one Aidid assistant who was one of the targets of the initial raid. The Somalis’ point of view is represented in this piece, perhaps providing a better representation than the movie did. Many more US troops were interviewed as well, including the downed Black Hawk pilot Mike Durant, who provides details about his time as a prisoner. Bowden is interviewed also, and his time serves as a commentary to the events. Because it’s the History Channel, it sticks to the story, and in my opinion, was a better piece than Frontline’s. Both are very well done, and their inclusion is appreciated. There is a Mission Timeline, which when you highlight a box of time, shows a brief clip of the relevant scene from the film. The maps that also describe the action are large enough and are sufficiently detailed.
There are three Q & A Forums that are 11 minutes each, fairly full of technical information, and feature differing parties on each also. Pietro Scalia, who won an Oscar for Best Editing on the Film, makes a solo appearance at the Motion Picture Editor’s Guild in Los Angeles. He also talks about the difficulties he had in editing the film, as well as any regrets about what was left on the cutting room floor. He also speaks briefly on the relevance of the film in a post-9/11 environment. Scott and Bruckheimer speak at the American Cinematheque, also in Los Angeles. Scott talks about adapting the book, but Bruckheimer takes up the majority of the time, discussing getting the Department of Defense approval, getting the location and working out arrangements with Morocco, and the marketing ideas behind the film. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) held their own forum, which included not only Scott and Bruckheimer, but also Hartnett, McGregor, Isaacs and Matthews. The moderator tries to make things a bit more tongue in cheek (asking the actors “Is war REALLY hell?”), but it stuck to the serious tone, with everyone answering at least one question. The actors talk about their Fort Benning experience, and Matthews does answer the persisting “Where are the Somalis?” question to some degree.
There is a 5 minute, multi-angle feature showing the amount of coverage used for the Delta insertion into the target building. You can skip through all 6 cameras used to shoot the scene, or look at the seventh which features all six on one screen. You can listen to the production audio if you like, or First Assistant Director Terry Needham can provide commentary on it as well. Like Scalia Needham also talks about his working relationship with Scott, and the role of an AD. He also talks about the events surrounding shooting the scene, and the impositions on the Moroccan locals. In his 5 minutes, Needham provides a busy, even entertaining track worth listening to.
The Promotion section includes the trailer, as well as 10 different TV spots. Trailers for Tears of the Sun and Basic are included as well. 68 different poster concepts are used, some of it definitely falling into the cheesy category, while others were pretty cool. There is a music video(???) included by Denez Brigent and Scott musical collaborator Lisa Gerrard. It’s an interesting song, and it serves the feel of the movie well.
The Film: 9.5
The Video: 8.5
The Audio 9.0
The Extras: 10
The 411: This set makes a convincing case for DVD of the year, with 3 commentary tracks, and numerous extensive special features. The exhaustive 2 hour 30 minute Essence of Combat takes its place as the gold standard of featurettes, and is reason enough to swallow the double dip money. Anything remotely considered for this set was included, and is one of the most thorough treatments a film is going to get. A must-own.
