An open-and-shut operation to capture?lieutenants of a warlord in a city of a Third World country turns into a fight for survival.

While this sounds like something made up at a whim of a studio director, “Black Hawk Down” follows what took place in October 1993 in Mogadishu, Somalia, taking the lives of 19 American soldiers.

The plot mostly consists of all that could go wrong – helicopter crashes, death and capture – going wrong. It is through the heat of battle that American armed forces come together to save their fellow countrymen, living up to the military?philosophy and movie tagline: Leave no man behind.

Following the boot prints of other such war movies, such as “Saving Private Ryan,” an ensemble?cast?covers more than one vantage point of the battle. As in recent war movies, kill or be killed is not the only point of war, with soldiers’ woes and responsibilities being emphasized. Important?topics like U.S. involvement in Somalia and the rigors of active service come up as soldiers question themselves and superior officers.

The key difference is action that actually pauses periodically to show soldiers’ personal emotion.

“Black Hawk Down” is solid for what it is: a graphic drama on what soldiers go through and lessons learned. Still, not very much innovation was added to this film.