Anyone else think Black Hawk Down is one of the Worst war movies of all time?

And Star Trek?

 

Man, were you Vietnam or something?

This is either something someone who’s never seen combat would say or something someone who has seen way more than all of us would say haha. We’re here for you, man.

 

And fire in the sky.

 

Not familiar with that war.

That one guy in Anger Management was in Grenada though so I consider that a war movie..

 

Yes....I was a medic for ten years and a cop for ten more.
Blackhawk Down was the perfect storm of wrong decisions made from the top down. When that happens, violence becomes random for the soldiers . You see it during accidents in civilian life. You can do everything perfect, and your world can still end.
Off topic, but “Gone Baby Gone” is a very good depiction of police work and violence. Cops get shot through walls, closed doors like soldiers get killed doing everything right.

What ? You think there’s a magic formula for survival ?

 

Props to you, man. That’s a whole other level compared to us Iraq/Afghan kids.
Four of my closest friends were cops after. I was too banged up. One quit the force after several years. Got tired of body slamming crack heads and getting spit on every day.

Have you seen South Land? Curious of how you felt about it. I loved that show.

FWIW, my personal take is that cops are more “heros” than Vets, as they do it for years, day in and day out, with less praise and no year off work up before another tour. Especially the ones in the inner cities, man. No way you can say to me you support the troops but hate cops. Some backwards people out there ha.

 

Any other favorite cop shows from folks?

I like those more than war movies.

Waiting for @Acabsurf to say, Bright.

 

more like police academy.

 

I'll jump in on this one

Unfortunately, most stories that are true don't always end up being the sexiest. Sure black hawk down has action, bunch of one liners, and embellished war. However, it was the largest direct combat engagements in urban warfare since vietnam, using tactics, techniques , and procedures exercised in theory and implemented in a small level. The use of surgical strike forces in military operations in urban terrain, coupled with close rotary wing support, and taking high risks to force/target/aircraft during a daylight raid in an area hostile to everyone. The violence on the screen wasn't the intended goal of the movie. The goal was to show the US involvement in foreign matters attempting to use small units to influence national matters in a manner that does not reflect complete military domination.

 

Not Brooklyn 99 ?

 

That’s good to hear. 90% of police work is public relations. Pretty different from soldiering. But, the common thread between the two, is training. If there is a problem involving the police, IMO, it is most often traced back to training and decisions made by those up the ladder. That’s very similar to the military from my experience.

 

Picking apart movies make them awful.

BHD hasn't aged well, but it still entertaining.

 

I hear you. I agree....In reality, the only movies that do age well, are fantasies to begin with.
“ the wizard of Oz “ syndrome.
If you look at “ to hell and back” with Audie Murphy who had much input in its making, it seems pretty lame by today’s standards. IMO, it’s more a technological and political deficiency in deciding what’s appropriate for the audience of time they were made.
I get that, and still like “ to hell and back” like I like many other old war movies. .

 

They went after Murphy for that movie for YEARS. One of my favorites

 

For sure....mine too. I mean, who couldn’t like Audie Murphy....Do we think the audience of the times would have accepted the actual gore of BHD and “saving private Ryan ?” No. It was a feel good movie, meant to appeal to kids as well as adults. Nothing wrong with that. Audie was still an awesome guy regardless of the politics of the movie.

 

I liked We Were Soldiers Once, but like most movies the book was much better.

 

I also liked the 1976 version of Midway. It was interesting to learn about the tactics and how decisions were made.

 

Midway was a childhood favorite as well.

 

When the film first came out, I went to see it with 2 friends who were long time SF ops. One of them was DF stationed at the soccer stadium when the events went down. He was part of the response unit. He teared up through a lot of it, and said that it was uncomfortably real, CF.

 

My dad was a WWII combat vet - Western Pacific. Made 11 amphib landings as a combat engineer - pre first wave demolition. Years before it came out, he described several scenes of "The Pacific" and in particular where the landing craft was hung up on coral a hundred yards off beach. The eye witness account he gave of going over the side in deep water made the movie sort of scary to watch - it came out years after he had passed.

We were watching the earlier movie "Saving Pvt Ryan" and as the engineers were running along with charges, trying to blow the wire - he said "that was my job".

Sometimes the movie makers get it right.