My roommate just tried to convince me that the events that Black Hawk Down are based on occurred in 1942. I tried to tell her that it happened in the early '90's but she didn't believe me. In fact, she argued with me about it for awhile. Until she saw, as she was watching the movie, that it happened in the early '90's. Then she shut up about it.
All I'm sayin' is that Black Hawk Down is a friggin awesome movie that tells a story that needed to be told and I have a brother that does the stuff those guys did and you DO NOT mess with me when I KNOW stuff. I don't claim to know everything but what I know I know well.
And she's stupid. So there.
And no, I didn't get to watch Scrubs tonight.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
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In Black Hawke Down, one of the soldiers gets shot in the leg, and it hits an artery. They can't get out of the city in time, and they spend the evening taking turns reaching into his leg and holding the artery closed with their fingers. Eventually they can't save him and he dies. They called him Smitty in the movie.
The person that character was based on went to my High School one year before me, lived with his family about 2 blocks from my house, and when he passed away his mother had to call his father at my families bank and ask him to come home to talk with the officers there.
After the battle, they awarded his son the purple heart post-humously, and gave it to his father. His father gave it back.
We went into Somolia to help them, and when the warlords started fighting back, we weren't willing to go in and expend the force required to get our troops out. They died because our army didn't expect that much resistance, and wasn't willing to step up when they met it.
Anyway, random second hand stories. But every time I hear about or see Black Hawke Down, I have to kinda wonder if it should ever have been made. Somewhere that family has to know that in the minds of many, their son has been reduced to an expendable character in an action-war movie.
-Ryan
There are lots of movies that I watch and wonder why in the hell anyone would take the time to tell "that" story when obviously it must be painful for the families to watch. But mostly that's just because it's also painful for me to watch.
I'm of the opinion that these stories need to be told so that we are maybe, for just a moment, not quite as comfortable sitting on our couches, living our little lives.
Soldiers and their families make tremendous sacrifices and movies like this remind us of that.
Black Hawk Down will never be just another war movie. Just like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, it tells a story that is important for us to know. Not only because it will hopefully make us better people but also to remind us that these people don't die in vain.
The first time I saw this movie my brother was serving in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne. He respects this movie because it tells the horrific story of his comrades and I respect him for fighting the battles I don't want to have to fight.
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