Black Hawk Down: Steelbook Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Black Hawk Down: Steelbook Edition



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
The early 2001 year was an absolutely INSANE year for America, as well as Hollywood cinema. 9/11 had just happened a few months earlier and Ridley Scott released his epic war drama Black Hawk Down in theaters less than 3 months later. I remember a lot of people were upset about pushing war dramas and brutal war films in a time when America was united and off as a whole towards the middle east, but for some reason Ridley Scott was teflon at that point. It may have caused a controversy here and there, but more people were interested about it due the fact that Scott was helming the film. And despite those controversies, Black Hawk Down was hailed an instant classic by pretty much all the critics.

Now I’m going to admit that I didn’t see Black Hawk Down when it came out theatrically. I was in my sophomore year at college and avidly dating what I thought was the love of my life (awwww, the naivety of youth) and subsequently missed it. Years later on DVD I didn’t really care to see a gritty war drama when I was more interested in sci-fi and horror, and it wasn’t until the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war that I actually settled down and got it as one of my first introductory films to HD. Needless to say, Ridley Scott made a stone cold classic with this war drama. It had an ensemble cast that eclipsed even Saving Private Ryan, and dealt with a horrific incident in ways that appealed to the action junkies, and the brutal war drama junkies at the same time.

Back in the early 90s after Operation Desert Storm, Bill Clinton sent in a small force of Army Rangers and Delta Force operators to help step in and avert a mass genocide in Somalia by the various militias and war lords dominating that area. Food and aid was given when said warlords were stealing all of the people’s supplies, only for the forces to watch as the warlords stepped right back into the void when the American forces pulled back. The story here focuses around one of the biggest fuster clucks of the entire operation, when a delta/ranger convoy gets ambushed by Somali militia forces in Mogadishu, and everything goes sideways in a hurry. One of the black hawk copters goes down with all the crew onboard, a Ranger falls from another Black Hawk forcing troops to rappel down and attempt a rescue, leaving American troops under enemy fire with no chance of a rescue until the following morning.

Black Hawk Down is a non stop energy ride of epic proportions. We’re dropped straight into the middle of the Mogadishu storm in a matter of minutes, introducing us to a hardened cadre of Rangers lead by Eversmann (Josh Hartnett) who are teaming up with Delta to go on a milk run mission. Most of them are hardened tough guys, but there are a few recruits in the form of Private Blackburn (Orlando Bloom), and pencil pusher Grimes (Ewan McGregor, who forever taught us all that pushing the plunger down on a french press was more an art form than a task) who throw things into the fire pretty quick. The film’s action runs that fine line between appealing to an action junkie war lover, but also showcasing some absolutely brutal war scenes that cause introspection and a more somber outlook on the “glory” of war. Needless to say, this is a film that literally grabs you by the jugular and doesn’t let go until the 2 hours and 30+ minutes are up (and yes, this includes the 6 minute longer extended cut AND the theatrical cut on board)




Rated R for intense, realistic, graphic war violence, and for language




4K Video: Video:

I never picked up the 2019 Sony 4K UHD back when it came out, so I have no point of comparison, but the difference between it and the 2006 Blu-ray (it was one of Sony’s debut titles for the Blu-ray format) is nothing short of jaw dropping. I’ve always considered the Mpeg2 encoded Blu-rays one of the finest in Blu-ray’s opening salvos during the format war, and proof that a film didn’t have to be AVC encoded to look good (VC-1 and MPEG2 required much more bitrate than the more efficient AVC encoding). The 2.5 hour film was given a full BD 50 to explore when many studios were using 25 gig single layer discs, and it was always a superb demo disc. However, the 4K UHD from the steelbook absolutely tears the 2006 disc apart without even breaking a sweat. The heavily grainy film just looks cleaner and more precise, with tons more detail levels in the streets of Mogadishuh, as well as more defined grain structure. The film is given a very heavy monochromatic aesthetic, with deep grays and dusty yellows (more like Ridley’s brother Tony more than Ridley’s color palette's), but blacks are deep and inky, with no signs of major artifacting or banding going on. Fine details are superb, with facial tones and dusky night shots equally brilliant. Skin tones lean a bit yellowish considering, but all in all, I have NEVER seen the film look this good. As I said, I have no frame of reference with the 2019 disc and it’s HDR10 only color tuning, but the Dolby Vision application is utterly superb. The film just thrives off of dark black levels, and the DV grading just makes all those indoor night time shots look as pristine as could be. Absolutely amazing transfer.








Audio:

Just like the video, that old 5.1 LPCM track was an utter monster back then. In 2006 I was kicking dual SVS PB10-ISD’s and I swore I could bring down my entire apartment complex with the audio track. Fast forward 17 years (wow, has it really been 17 years?) and my twin SVS PB-3000’s are absolutely sobbing at the assault this new Atmos track dishes out. The old 5.1 track was great, but this takes it to a whole nother level. The best way of describing this is the same 5.1 awesomeness, just with a a much more agile sound stage and even more devestating low end. The Atmos tweaks make it so that the sound design of individual discrete object dances around the stage at will, with mortars blasting from all sides of the listening position (and you able to pick out where each mortar lands), helo’s roaring overhead, or the sounds of a rusty old jeep screeching across the front of the room. Bass is absolutely devastating, with each impact and slam pushing the listener back into their seat. Dialog is clear as can be (outside of the lost dialog from yelling in the middle of a war zone) and I honestly didn’t think my ears stopped ringing until the credits rolled.






Extras:

• Theatrical Version of the film presented in high-definition
• Audio Commentary by Director / Producer Ridley Scott & Producer Jerry Bruckheimer
• Audio Commentary by Author Mark Bowden & Screenwriter Ken Nolan
• Audio Commentary by Task Force Ranger Veterans
• "The Essence of Combat: Making Black Hawk Down" Documentary
• The History Channel® Presents: "The True Story of Black Hawk Down"
• PBS Presents: "Frontline: Ambush in Mogadishu"
• 8 Deleted & Alternate Scenes with Optional Commentary
• "Designing Mogadishu" Featurette
• Production Design Archive
• Storyboards with Optional Commentary
• Ridleygrams with Optional Commentary
• Target Building Insertion: Multi-Angle Sequence with Optional Commentary
• Q&A Forums: BAFTA. Motion Picture Editor's Guild & American Cinematheque
• Jerry Bruckheimer's BHD Photo Album
• Title Design Explorations with Optional Commentary
• "Gortoz A Ran – J'Attends" Music Video performed by Denez Prigent & Lisa Gerrard
• Photo Galleries
• Theatrical Poster Concepts
• Trailer & TV Spots

Final Score:
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Black Hawk Down was 2001’s Saving Private Ryan (said this before), and still remains one of my favorite ensemble cast war movies. Ridley Scott was delivering pure gold back then, and I still love to pop this disc in every few years and experience it. The new 4K UHD steelbook is awe inspiring, and has some nifty packaging to boot. Like usual, I doubt that anyone who has the 2019 4K UHD disc will really see much visual improvements (the differences between the HDR10 and the DV variants has always been slight with the Sony discs), but the new packaging and the added Dolby Vision improvements makes it a no brainer for those of you with the aging Blu-ray. Great movie, great buy, must watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Joshn Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Ioan Gruffudd, Jason Isaacs, Glenn Morshower
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Written by: Mark Bowden, Ken Nolan
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DT-HD MA 5.1, French (Canada), French (Parisian), Italian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Russian, Thai DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R
Runtime: 144 minutes (Theatrical) / 151 minutes (Extended)
Blu-Ray Release November 7th, 2023

Recommendation: Great Buy

 

[Epoxy1]

Absolutely love this movie. I watched it last year when my wife was out of town at the highest level my ears could stand. I'm sure my neighbors thought WWIII was coming to the neighborhood

Great review Michael.

 

[Michael Scott]

Absolutely love this movie. I watched it last year when my wife was out of town at the highest level my ears could stand. I'm sure my neighbors thought WWIII was coming to the neighborhood

Great review Michael.

lol, yeah the Atmos track on this is crazy. sounds like a war zone in your living room