Black Hawk Down

IMDb writes, "123 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis." Scott (Alien) directs this very well done war movie based on a true story. The soundtrack is amazing. Hartnett (Pearl Harbor), McGregor (Trainspotting), Sizemore (Red Planet), Bana (The Hulk), Fichtner (Crossing Lines), Shepard (The Right Stuff), Coates (Sons of Anarchy), and Dancy (King Arthur) are some of the soldiers. All in all, I say: SEE IT after you read it.

Amazon describes the plot as, "Ninety-nine elite American soldiers are trapped in the middle of a hostile city. As night falls, they are surrounded by thousands of enemy gunmen. Their wounded are bleeding to death. Their ammunition and supplies are dwindling. This is the story of how they got there-and how they fought their way out. This is the story of war. Black Hawk Down drops you into a crowded marketplace in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia with the U.S. Special Forces-and puts you in the middle of the most intense firefight American soldiers have fought since the Vietnam War. Late in the afternoon of Sunday, October 3, 1993, the soldiers of Task Force Ranger were sent on a mission to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take them about an hour. Instead, they were pinned down through a long and terrible night in a hostile city, locked in a desperate struggle to kill or be killed. When the unit was finally rescued the following morning, eighteen American soldiers were dead and dozens more badly injured. The Somali toll was far worse: more than five hundred killed and over a thousand wounded." 

My dad read this; he loves these war bios. I never really got into many of them, but this one blew me away. I heard a review of it on NPR and didn't remember hearing much about Somalia in the news, so I did some research. Everyone in the US - media and all blamed Clinton, but it was a UN mission and not a US mission. It was poorly handled though - we (the world) was just beginning to get the hang of how urban warfare should be fought. Also, we (US) didn't seem to have much experience with a country in anarchy like Somalia. Very interesting. It will make you cry - the ending of both the book and movie brought tears that would not stop. All in all, I say: READ IT.