Black Hawk Down

Black Hawk Down is an amazing true story. The writing, directing, and acting are all top notch. The other good news is that, for a war movie, the content in Black Hawk Down is pretty consistent. There are around 20 uses of the f-word, which is less than you’ll hear in half an hour at high school. The violence does include the following, but keep in mind that the context of this being a war movie is key for all of these instances: a man is disintegrated by a rocket, a man is blown in half showing visible intestines (very briefly), a soldier is shot in the head showing a bloody wound (also brief), a man is impaled by an rpg, a man has his thumb blown off in bloody fashion, a soldier has his femoral artery operated on in a scene that shows plenty of very gross arterial blood spray, a solider find a severed hand in the rubble of a crashed helicopter and keeps it in hopes of finding the man who lost it, a man has his arm blown off, a man is shot in the neck showing blood, and there are lots of casualties by use of firearms. There isn’t usually much blood when people are shot, though. Though the movie does have these scenes of at times disturbing violence, the message is undeniably that war is ugly, and that these soldiers are brave, selfless men that fought proudly for their country, even with the forces of evil stacked against them. It can’t be stated enough that once again, even though this film contains some foul language, and, at times bloody violence, the inspiring themes and important messages about selflessness, bravery, and honor trump anything else you might consider objectionable, though it is reasonable to wait until mid-teens to watch this movie. Because of these messages, I can not in good faith mark this movie for too much violence or language, and I highly recommend it to any man or women who is curious about just how far the human will can extend when the safety of their friends and family is at risk.