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My brother's birthday is coming up, and in the past I've heard him murmuring about wanting to see this movie. I see that a special 3-disc DVD full of all kinds of extras is available -- do you think this would make a good present? |
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I've seen many better war flics. If you are set on war flics, I have suggestions. |
Any other DVDs you could suggest? (He's really into Japanese animation and live-action films, so that might be a possibility.) (I may just buy Black Hawk Down for myself, if I can't find it in my video store. It looks like two of the actual soldiers who were in the fight provide a commentary track...I can't pass up the chance to hear that.) |
where did my post go. well, i dont have a DVD player, so I cant vouche for DVDs but some movies he might like based on what you've told us about him here. Apocolypse Now Redux The Deer Hunter There is also a documentary on the Black Hawk Down story that came out about the same time the movie did. It was on A&E or Bravo or whatever for months. Its far more interesting than the movie and they talk to a dozen or so veterans who were there. If he likes Japanimation, check out Ralph Bakshi. Though technically not Japanimation, his style has some Japanimation in it. In particular he might like American Pop, Street Fight, Fritz the Cat. He sometimes melds actual film and animation. Bakshi also did a 1978 version of Lord of the Rings you might dig for collectors sake. |
He did a great anti-war film too, Wizards. He also had the abortive but awesome Mighty Mouse series in the late 80s. According to IMDB.com, he was also the inspiration for Comic Book Guy in the Simpsons. |
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They're ALL the same guy! |
actually, i never have. well. wait. thats a lie. but it was a long long long time ago and i was trying to hawk the first edition Mighty Mouse comic book. |
Isn't Fritz the Cat, uh, "adult"? I can't give that to my brother for his birthday. :) Felix the Cat, on the other hand... |
American Pop would be a better consideration if you want to give him something G-rated. |
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anyway. Black Hawk Down. lame. Ralph Bakshi. cool. there. your shopping made easy. |
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I liked the "Second Renaissance" one with the robot uprising, but then I've never seen the Matrix... I also liked the animation in the one (directed by the Cowboy Bebop guy) about the boy in school who has to run from the agents. I got bored by the very last one, and I didn't like the one about the man and the woman who fought with swords....memory is fuzzy.... |
its on my Direct TV. Fuckin A. All week its their "Country is Cool" programming. Thus far i've watched the Birth of Country, which includes a vast part on Hank Sr. A tribute to Johnny Cash by other stars including Keb Mo. last night i watched Willie Nelson birthday allstars something or other show. he did a duet with that pretty girl, the one who swept the grammy's this past year, the one who calms me the fuck down. yeah. her. and a david allen coe documentary/interview. theres to be a program on wilco, hank williams III and others. you get this channel? if you do, its some good stuff. Its timely because Ive been listening to a lot of Willie lately. This past weekend under the shooting stars camping, thats all we listened to by the fire...Willie and Johnny. Im just beside myself when you realize how many songs those two motherfuckers combined have created. Songs we take for granted. oh and there some new channel that supposedly caters to men and they show ren and stimpy reruns along with that Stan Lee show starring Pam Anderson called Stripperella. But they blur the naughty bits. fuckers. i fuckin loved Aeon Flux. Whatever happened to MTV's liquid city? |
The Aeon Flux directed one, the last one- me hate. I think it tries too hard to be 'trippy'... "It'll like totally blow your mind, MAN!" I really like the one with the runner. 'Final Flight..' blows because pretentious computer animation can go to hell. I spit on it! I love 'Simulation' (with the white-haired ninja chick) because it's by the guy who made "Ninja Scroll"! YEAH! NINJA SCROLL! |
I loved it. I loved how it was very plainly told -- it's not about War, it's about this one 20-hour period, and there were no political or ideological messages beat over your head. It was just a telling of the events. The DVD extras are phenomenal. You get two documentaries (PBS' Frontline and the History Channel's special) on the battle, with interviews with many of the soldiers who were there (like Michael Durant, the helicopter pilot who was captured and held prisoner for 11 days), the US ambassador to Somalia, some of the actual Somali militiamen, Mark Bowden (the journalist who wrote the original book), and other important figures. You could see that many of the events in the movie (even small moments, like someone checking their rearview mirror at such a time, or small lines of dialogue) occurred just like that in real life, based on the interviews. There's a 2.5-hour documentary on the making of the movie, with interviews with the director, various cast members, the writers, special effects people, and the veterans who served as technical advisors. You get to see scenes of the Ranger and Delta Force training the actors had to go through before filming. (The Delta guys got to blow stuff up on their first day! Pretty nice.) 3 Q&A sessions held with an audience and the director, technical advisors, and/or cast members. Other extras I haven't seen yet -- other "making of" stuff and storyboards and pictures...things like that. The commentary tracks are incredible, especially the commentary from the four men who were actually in the battle, one of which (Danny McKnight) is played by Tom Sizemore in the movie and has a pretty big role (I really liked hearing from him). It was neat to hear the actual veterans talk about what in the movie was changed, condensed, or fictionalized, and what was completely accurate. At the end of the movie, these guys said the movie was as close to a documentary as you could hope to see in a Hollywood production. They had to condense ~20 hours into two, and ~500 people into about 35 characters, so it's not entirely accurate, but the feel and the major events were all true to reality. (Except they said that the tension between the rangers and the Delta ops was exaggerated in the movie -- in real life they worked together pretty seamlessly.) Frankly, I think if I had seen this movie in the theatres, I wouldn't have appreciated it as much as I do now after seeing and hearing all these interviews with the real people involved in the mission. If you have even the slightest interest in learning about what really happened that day, you should rent or buy this DVD set. I spent a whole day watching the movie and all the extras, and I didn't even notice the time go by, the material on the screen was so engrossing. I can't wait to give this to my brother...I bet he'll love it. |
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My God, I learned so much this weekend. If you read the "Q&A with the author" comments on Mark Bowden's site, you'll get to read comments from many of the Rangers and one or two of the Delta ops who were there and who correct Bowden's mistakes. Pretty neat. |