Black Hawk Down: More Than A War Movie

General Muhammad Farah Aidid, a Somali warlord, has been confiscating U.N. food shipments in Somalia, resulting in the death by starvation of some 300,000 Somalis. The world responds by sending an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers on a humanitarian mission. The task: capture the General’s top advisors in the hopes of capturing the elusive Aidid. The timeframe: half an hour.

Upon reaching the place where the key advisors held their meeting, the US troops encounter unexpected resistance from Aidid’s militia. Two helicopters were brought down by enemy rockets. What was supposed to be a simple 30 minute extraction mission became a complicated 24 hour rescue mission.

I first heard of  the movie during an International Law class; my professor was discussing the complexities of war and he suggested we watch Black Hawk Down. I did watch the movie; my understanding of war wasn’t any clearer. Nevertheless, I saw the purpose of the movie, and that was to deliver to its audience the ghastly experience of a soldier during this Somali mission in 1993. It delivered quite magnificently. From the cinematography to the screenplay, the movie made me sympathize with those troops out there . I was glued to the screen for fear that I would miss a single frame; never mind that the movie seemed to be all explosions and gunfire. It helped of course that Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, and Ewan McGregor were there.

Lunch Out

…to eat lunch away from one’s home or away from one’s place of work.

Colleagues and I planned a lunch out every salary day – 15th and 30th of the month – just to break the monotony of office lunch. I decided to document the same for the fun of it.

16 October 2009

We had our lunch out at Reyes Barbecue, UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub branch. A bit of a background: the UP-Ayala Land TechnoHub, or simply TechnoHub, was once a wide expanse of barren land located across the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Today, it is home to call centre agents. Besides business process outsourcing companies, there are dining, cafe and novelty shops in the area.

Anyway, lunch. The establishment offers grilled dishes, from the simple pork barbecue to the exotic grilled chicken ass. I had the grilled tuna and ice tea for a reasonable price of Php190.00. My dish came with a really tasty java rice and enselada. The grilled tuna was savoury, made even tastier by the establishment’s famous peanut sauce.

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The Replacements: Predictable, but fun

Edward O’Neil, the owner of the Washington Sentinels, is in a quandary. His team of professional football players is on strike, with a few more games left for the season. He calls on Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) from retirement to remedy the situation. With the assurance that O’Neil not interfere with his coaching style, McGinty assembles a team of misfits led by washed-out all-American quarterback Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves). McGinty and his motley crew then kick some ass in winning the games left of the season to do something that Washington has not done in seven years – advance to the playoffs.

Said to be loosely based on the 1987 NFL strike that forced the team owners to hire replacement players to rescue the business, The Replacements carries a simple enough story with a predictable ending. It is what happens in between that makes the movie sell, for me anyway. The movie talks about sports, without trying too hard to be a serious sports movie. It has romance in between, but it does not try too hard to be a chick flick either. What the movie does try hard to do, to a fault, is to please. Admittedly though, I had fun. It had Keanu Reeves on it so it should be a good enough reason to sit through the whole 1 hour and 58 minutes. And it’s not everyday that you get to see a bunch of guys line dance to Gloria Gaynor. Bring in the popcorn and you’re in for a relaxing night.

Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever.