The visual effects, and most of all the sound effects, really capture the hell and the chaos that is war. For example, I was most blown away (what a great pun) by the grenades in this film. When one exploded, it exploded violently and loudly, but not in a big ball of fire (which we see all too often from Hollywood). But what was most impressive, and eye opening, is what happens afterwards. Smoke and dust quickly fill the air. Meanwhile, you hear (and almost feel) dirt and rock falling all around you for a few seconds after the initial explosion.

Another aspect of this movie's realism was in the amount of disgusting stuff displayed throughout. It was almost as if they were trying to break a record for the most blood and detached body parts ever seen in a single war movie. However, while nauseating at times, it is effective in reminding us of the terrible nature of any military conflict. We really are naive if we ever think otherwise.

The only real detraction from this movie's effectiveness is towards the end when one of the Captains nonchalantly walks out of his truck to greet some of his men. He does this right in the thick of the crossfire between the Somalian rebels and the Americans. He doesn't even duck or move quickly to get under cover. He just stands there like he is at the mall picking out a T-Shirt. That was ridiculous, but luckily the rest of the film is nothing like this short scene. Nevertheless, it does stick out like a sore thumb.

What this film contains in special effects and realism it completely lacks in story. The characters in this film are based on real-life American heros, but we don't learn much about them. We just realize that there are different types of soldiers there. There is a young teenager there. There is an inexperienced coffee maker and pencil pusher asked to "fill in." We also see a bit of the differences and conflict between the Army Rangers and the Delta Force. The Rangers are strong on discipline and protocol. The Delta Force are strong on the execution of military maneuvers and fighting; basically, they get the job done.

But all that this movie gives us is a rough sketch of characters and groups of characters. What is painfully missing is any sort of theme or meaning or explanation for what is going on. Much worse, since this is based on an actual event in our history, we aren't given enough facts about the situation. For example, we see that the Americans capture a group of Somalian rebel leaders, but we aren't told that just days later then-President Clinton releases them for political reasons. This movie also missed a great opportunity to bring in the tragic events of September 11 into perspective. It could have informed us that the Somalian warlords were being financed and supplied with weapons from Bin Laden's Al-Quaeda network. It could have made a poignant point how we could have avoided a lot of evil in the world and upon ourselves by being more agressive against terror early rather than allowing it to grow and to prosper. Instead this film winds up being like a dumb blonde; it might look sexy, but there's not much going on upstairs.

It boils down to this: without a complete set of facts and without any sort of driving motivation for the events which take place, we are left with nothing more or less than a battle. The script pretty much could have been the following.

		Scene 1:  Somalia
		(Battle)
		The End
	

Awesome visual and audio effects. Not much else.