somedaybitch

watching Black Hawk Down.

fucking.amazing.film.

cinematically. thematically. its storytelling is so pure.

so many scenes that stop your breath, and possibly your heart.

the scene where the two guys are asking for permission to go down and try to secure the second blackhawk, knowing they were pretty much killing themselves. and then the whole sequence where they secure the pilot. guh.

last year, a time when i left flowers for Larry, i stopped by the Medal of Honor memorial at the cemetary. the names of those two soldiers were the last two on the wall. every name from every conflict going back to the Revolutionary War. no politics. no judgement. just fact.

the scene where the surviving guys that made it back to base are gearing up for a rescue op, because they leave no one behind, and the one guy says he can't go back. the way the scene was handled. the way his c/o talked with him. the guy overcoming his own terror and went out to take care of his own.

the guy they can't save in the field.

the pilot that was captured, when he hears the helicopter loudspeaker, "Mike Durant, we won't leave you behind. Mike Durant, we won't leave you behind."

the guys that gave up their seats for wounded, and ran their way out. the men that bring them water.

the scene, which may gut me the most, and i've mentioned it before, where Sam Sheppard's character is in the OR at the end of the film, and all his soldiers are there...dead, dying...in agony...and the only thing he can think to do that's helpful is grab a towel and start furiously wiping up the blood on the floor.

maaaaan.

and the cast. holy cow. Sizemore and Sheppard are amazing. Josh Hartnett is mindbogglingly good. Bana. Isaacs. William Fichtner. Ron Eldard and Jeremy Piven as the two pilots. so many other actors who's names i can't pull out right now. so very excellent. the smallest roles given depth and scope. /gushing.

Black Hawk Down finally proves that someone can actually rein Bruckheimer in. this should be a film that he is ridiculously proud of.

it proves that one's politics can be set aside when what matters is good storytelling. and sometimes the story is the politics, but even then, what matters is the storytelling. if the storytelling is pure then a viewer on any side of whatever story is being told won't feel like they're being beaten over the head with the director's "point". what's there will just be the story and the viewer will be free to draw their own conclusions.

Black Hawk Down isn't about what Ridley Scott thought about the government's actions, or the military's actions as institutions. Black Hawk Down was solely about the actions of soldiers unwilling to leave their own behind, regardless of rank, regardless of personal cost, and the story never strays from that. the power from that purity is nearly as overwhelming as the courage of the soldiers involved.

an afterthought: hey! that's where i recognize the song from Hand of God when Apollo's successful on his mission! it was the closing credits for BHD.