Right
up front, I have to say that BLACK HAWK DOWN ($27) is a highly
charged war movie that doesn’t pull any punches. With Ridley Scott in
the director’s chair, BLACK HAWK DOWN wages an all out war on the
audience’s senses, by presenting them with the grim horrors of military
conflict in excruciating detail. This, of course, doesn’t make BLACK
HAWK DOWN any the less of a riveting motion picture experience that
commands the viewer’s full attention. Based upon actual events, BLACK
HAWK DOWN tells the story of what is supposed to be a routine mission-
one that goes horribly wrong, and then proceeds to get progressively
worse.
BLACK
HAWK DOWN is set in Somalia in October of 1993, when starvation was
rampant, and hundreds of thousands of its people died. In an effort to
help stabilize the situation in Somalia, an elite squad of US Army Rangers
was sent into sent into the capital city of Mogadishu to apprehend two
lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. What should have been to be a
"by-the-numbers" mission becomes severely complicated by the
unprecedented levels of resistance within the city, which leads to one of
the Black Hawk helicopters being shot down. With the motto of "no one
gets left behind" the objective becomes that of a rescue mission to
get all of the trapped soldiers out of hostile territory- all the time
under heavy gunfire that leads to numerous casualties. The top-flight
ensemble cast of BLACK HAWK DOWN includes Josh Hartnett, Ewan
McGregor, Jason Isaacs, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Eric Bana, Sam
Shepard and Orlando Bloom.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made BLACK HAWK DOWN available on
DVD in a 2.35:1 widescreen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. BLACK HAWK DOWN features an outstanding
transfer that has been made even better by its presentation under the
auspices of the Superbit banner. The image appears very sharp and is
highly defined, even with the more artistic aspects of some of the film’s
cinematography. Colors are stylized and appear intentionally subdued at
times, but otherwise, they are beautifully rendered. Blacks appear deep
and true and whites appear accurate. Contrast is purposely harsh, which
plays exceedingly well into the film’s intended look. The film elements
appear to be in great shape, without significant flaws. There is a very
noticeable grain structure running through much of the movie, which gives
the movie a very gritty and realistic quality. The Superbit process keeps
digital compression artifacts completely at bay.
As
a Superbit release, BLACK HAWK DOWN comes with 5.1 channel
soundtracks in the flavors of both Dolby Digital and DTS. The soundtrack
is absolutely marvelous, and everything one would expect from a recent,
action intensive war movie. Highly aggressive, the mix utilizes all of the
discrete channels fully to put the middle of the film’s near continuous
sonic barrages. Sound effects are totally convincing and the bass channel
is certain to shake one’s listening room down to its foundation. Even
with the pounding sound effects on the track, dialogue is intelligible,
well mixed and never drowned out. Incidental music and the score come
across with excellent fidelity and musical presence. As for the
differences between the two digital soundtracks, well, DTS does come out
on top by producing a warmer, tighter sound with an even more potent
bottom end than the standard bearer. Of course, if your system doesn’t
take advantage of the DTS encoding, don’t feel bad, because the Dolby
Digital track definitely kicks. The DVD also includes subtitles in
English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese, and Korean. As a
Superbit title, BLACK HAWK DOWN features the most basic of
interactive menus, which provide one access to the standard scene
selection and set up features, but no supplemental content.
BLACK
HAWK DOWN is an outstanding war movie that makes for an outstanding
Superbit DVD release. If getting the best possible video and audio is your
criteria for making a DVD purchase, then you can’t go wrong with the
Superbit version of BLACK HAWK DOWN, as it is indeed a killer disc.
Recommended.
Right
up front, I have to say that BLACK HAWK DOWN ($27) is a highly
charged war movie that doesn’t pull any punches. With Ridley Scott in
the director’s chair, BLACK HAWK DOWN wages an all out war on the
audience’s senses, by presenting them with the grim horrors of military
conflict in excruciating detail. This, of course, doesn’t make BLACK
HAWK DOWN any the less of a riveting motion picture experience that
commands the viewer’s full attention. Based upon actual events, BLACK
HAWK DOWN tells the story of what is supposed to be a routine mission-
one that goes horribly wrong, and then proceeds to get progressively
worse.
BLACK
HAWK DOWN is set in Somalia in October of 1993, when starvation was
rampant, and hundreds of thousands of its people died. In an effort to
help stabilize the situation in Somalia, an elite squad of US Army Rangers
was sent into sent into the capital city of Mogadishu to apprehend two
lieutenants of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. What should have been to be a
"by-the-numbers" mission becomes severely complicated by the
unprecedented levels of resistance within the city, which leads to one of
the Black Hawk helicopters being shot down. With the motto of "no one
gets left behind" the objective becomes that of a rescue mission to
get all of the trapped soldiers out of hostile territory- all the time
under heavy gunfire that leads to numerous casualties. The top-flight
ensemble cast of BLACK HAWK DOWN includes Josh Hartnett, Ewan
McGregor, Jason Isaacs, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Eric Bana, Sam
Shepard and Orlando Bloom.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made BLACK HAWK DOWN available on
DVD in a 2.35:1 widescreen presentation that has been enhanced for
playback on 16:9 displays. BLACK HAWK DOWN features an outstanding
transfer that has been made even better by its presentation under the
auspices of the Superbit banner. The image appears very sharp and is
highly defined, even with the more artistic aspects of some of the film’s
cinematography. Colors are stylized and appear intentionally subdued at
times, but otherwise, they are beautifully rendered. Blacks appear deep
and true and whites appear accurate. Contrast is purposely harsh, which
plays exceedingly well into the film’s intended look. The film elements
appear to be in great shape, without significant flaws. There is a very
noticeable grain structure running through much of the movie, which gives
the movie a very gritty and realistic quality. The Superbit process keeps
digital compression artifacts completely at bay.
As
a Superbit release, BLACK HAWK DOWN comes with 5.1 channel
soundtracks in the flavors of both Dolby Digital and DTS. The soundtrack
is absolutely marvelous, and everything one would expect from a recent,
action intensive war movie. Highly aggressive, the mix utilizes all of the
discrete channels fully to put the middle of the film’s near continuous
sonic barrages. Sound effects are totally convincing and the bass channel
is certain to shake one’s listening room down to its foundation. Even
with the pounding sound effects on the track, dialogue is intelligible,
well mixed and never drowned out. Incidental music and the score come
across with excellent fidelity and musical presence. As for the
differences between the two digital soundtracks, well, DTS does come out
on top by producing a warmer, tighter sound with an even more potent
bottom end than the standard bearer. Of course, if your system doesn’t
take advantage of the DTS encoding, don’t feel bad, because the Dolby
Digital track definitely kicks. The DVD also includes subtitles in
English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese, and Korean. As a
Superbit title, BLACK HAWK DOWN features the most basic of
interactive menus, which provide one access to the standard scene
selection and set up features, but no supplemental content.
BLACK
HAWK DOWN is an outstanding war movie that makes for an outstanding
Superbit DVD release. If getting the best possible video and audio is your
criteria for making a DVD purchase, then you can’t go wrong with the
Superbit version of BLACK HAWK DOWN, as it is indeed a killer disc.
Recommended.
