What a stupid speech. I have not read the script to Black Hawk Down. I did, however, read the Philly Enquirer articles as they went online and I saw the movie. Mark Bowden's writing was then and is now about putting the reader in the perspective of those he documents; BHD goes from a bunch of special forces troops attempting to keep order in a forgotten corner of the world for abstract reasons to an absolute in-your-face shitstorm in which your perspective constricts to about six inches in front of your face. The movie captures this quite effectively. Somalia is/was an archetypal example of failed foreign policy through proxy warfare but it's hardly the only one. At the time of this speech the US had been boots-on-ground in Afghanistan for four months; the exact opposite argument has been made there by people hella smarter than a B-list actor.
It's hardly the first time an actor in a movie chooses to bitch about the movie after the fact... but cash the paycheck anyway. It's also not the first time doing so discourages producers from hiring said actor, which explains more than a little about Brendan Sexton III's career.
We hired him :D...which explains more than a little about Brendan Sexton III's career.
That seems a bit harsh to me. Although it might not be the most advised career move, if you felt that the project you joined wasn't the project that came to fruition, I don't think there's anything wrong with writing about your feelings on it. I saw the movie too. Although I think it was fine as an combat flick, I felt it didn't have much story, and the potential for one was there. IMHO most people that viewed it probably didn't walk away feeling conflicted, at least in the way that someone that knew more about the situation would. I bet the same version of BHD would be received a bit differently today.
Sorry, dude. You're wrong on this one. All Quiet on the Western Front didn't start with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand; Platoon didn't start with the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Mark Bowden is first and foremost a master of involvement through minutiae and Blackhawk Down is a prime example of this. That the movie even had Mohammed Farrah Aidid in it is a sop to those looking for broader context; the story/book itself wasn't even about the war, it was about a particular skirmish on a particular day. It isn't The Winds of War and never was. It isn't even Hamburger Hill. It didn't have much story. It was one long gripping firefight serialized for publication in a newspaper. You're not supposed to feel conflicted. Casualty ratios during the Battle of Mogadishu were on the order of 100:1 in the United States' favor and the movie captures this quite effectively. It's about a small number of highly-trained soldiers against an entire city. A rag-tag, poorly-organized, poorly-motivated city, but a city nonetheless. And it's presented acutely from the viewpoint of those soldiers. As to reception? c'mon. Before Black Hawk Down we had Platoon Saving Private Ryan and Full Metal Jacket. War was hell, but at least it was nuanced. Since then we've had Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper. What gray we had has become pure black and white.
Well, I'll concede on that point.Before Black Hawk Down we had Platoon Saving Private Ryan and Full Metal Jacket. War was hell, but at least it was nuanced. Since then we've had Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper. What gray we had has become pure black and white.