Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" is based on actual events that took place during the U.S. army mission in Mogadishu (Somalia), in which an elite ranger unit was dropped by helicopter in October 1993 to capture two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord.

If things had gone according to plan, the whole mission would have been completed in 45 minutes. Instead, the soldiers became embroiled in a firefight against hundreds of gunmen, leading to the destruction of two U.S. helicopters and the death of 19 Americans and hundreds of Somalis.

That's the plot. It's not a melodrama where you follow a plot develop around the central characters - it's the realistic story of a brutal war told through striking images.

For more than two hours, you feel as if you're on a battlefield with the film's heroes, with bullets flying everywhere, tearing people apart. Bloody faces, helicopters crashing and exploding, bursts of tracer bullets, heaps of dead bodies... When it's all over and the lights are turned on in the theater, it's hard to get up and return to normal life. I noticed people leaving the theater in the middle of the film, apparently unable to stand the incessant roar of guns, screams, explosions and the presence of death.

Still, the film showed the war from only one side. The impression one gets is that the American soldiers show exaggerated levels of bravery, professionalism and physical attractiveness, and everybody seems a little too ready to die as a hero. Besides, the soldiers' friendliness toward the "civilian" population was not believable, considering the obvious fact that everybody, including small children, was portrayed as armed and ready to stab any American soldier in the back. I can only conclude this is another instance of Hollywood rewriting history. In any case, the film will hardly leave anyone unmoved.