Friday, Dec. 21, 2001

Black Hawk Down

This is big-time, big-budget moviemaking at its best. A hugely complex re-creation of a 1993 special forces fire fight in Somalia, it is masterfully orchestrated by director Ridley Scott. Brutal, bloody, breathless in pace, it shows us modern warfare's newest, ugliest face and finally becomes, like all great war movies, an antiwar movie — at least in the beholder's savaged eye.