I'm Confused About Black Hawk Down

[snooze72]

Does the song appear in the film or not?? I know it's not on the soundtrack album, and that it was a point of contention yada yada, but a lot of reviews seem to talk about it being in the movie.? ?I haven't seen it, so I don't know.? ?

[speed-stone]

no.

[snooze72]

Weird.? Must have been in a pre-screening or something.

Here's the Village Voice review...

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0152,hoberman,31031,20.html

American soldiers don't seem to know exactly what they're doing here, but most of them are gung ho to do it anyway. Scott introduces the various army rangers and Delta commandos amid a welter of overlapping dialogue in a barracks the size of an airplane hangar. The cast includes a few young hotties (Ewan McGregor, Brandon Sexton III), but only Pearl Harbor vet Josh Hartnett makes much of an impression as a good-natured sergeant, aglow with ideals. Led to expect an hour-long mission in the Mog, the men are ready to rock and roll. Scott sensitively puts on Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" to set the mood, as the local villagers spot the Black Hawk helicopters flying overhead and phone ahead to their friends in town.



And here's another one...

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/reviews/blackhawkdown/text.htm

War is indeed ugly, but in Scott?s vision of things, it can also be picturesque. Slawomir Idziak?s cinematography captures a series of perfectly aligned Black Hawks as they make their way across a sunlit sky. On the ground, the actors, headed by pretty boy Josh Hartnett as Sgt. Eversmann, are shot in military-chic poses with dirt and fake blood arranged for maximum visual impact. The Somalis, needless to say, are portrayed less generously. Reduced to chanting jungle creatures (at one point the Guns ?N Roses song "Welcome to the Jungle" plays on the soundtrack), they swarm like an army of insects intent on overrunning the opposition by their sheer number. White versus black soon becomes the dominant visual motif. The reduction of the enemy to a faceless mass is a bit of a necessary evil in war movies, particularly those told from the American perspective as this one is, but as each line of Somali fighters is mowed down, there?s a feeling that Scott is enjoying it a little too much. Incidentally, the movie?s biggest injustice is in relegating the sole black American soldier, Specialist Kurth (Gabriel Casseus), to a bit part, when according to several accounts, he figured quite prominently in the battle.


And FTR, this one seems to have the original real life version played in a different place...? (And it says Falling to Pieces was used instead, but I thought it was Minstrel Boy)...? ?

www.moviemistakes.com/film1817/trivia

 According to veterans of the actual event, when the Rangers got the go-ahead for the mission and were getting their gear ready, "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N Roses was playing on the base's loudspeakers. There were some half-serious comments among the men about the appropriateness of this song. However, the film's producers failed to secure the rights to use "Welcome to the Jungle," so they substituted Faith No More's "Falling to Pieces"--which is perhaps thematically in line with what happened on the raid.

[jameslofton29]

Weird.? Must have been in a pre-screening or something.

Here's the Village Voice review...

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0152,hoberman,31031,20.html

American soldiers don't seem to know exactly what they're doing here, but most of them are gung ho to do it anyway. Scott introduces the various army rangers and Delta commandos amid a welter of overlapping dialogue in a barracks the size of an airplane hangar. The cast includes a few young hotties (Ewan McGregor, Brandon Sexton III), but only Pearl Harbor vet Josh Hartnett makes much of an impression as a good-natured sergeant, aglow with ideals. Led to expect an hour-long mission in the Mog, the men are ready to rock and roll. Scott sensitively puts on Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" to set the mood, as the local villagers spot the Black Hawk helicopters flying overhead and phone ahead to their friends in town.



And here's another one...

http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue10/reviews/blackhawkdown/text.htm

War is indeed ugly, but in Scott?s vision of things, it can also be picturesque. Slawomir Idziak?s cinematography captures a series of perfectly aligned Black Hawks as they make their way across a sunlit sky. On the ground, the actors, headed by pretty boy Josh Hartnett as Sgt. Eversmann, are shot in military-chic poses with dirt and fake blood arranged for maximum visual impact. The Somalis, needless to say, are portrayed less generously. Reduced to chanting jungle creatures (at one point the Guns ?N Roses song "Welcome to the Jungle" plays on the soundtrack), they swarm like an army of insects intent on overrunning the opposition by their sheer number. White versus black soon becomes the dominant visual motif. The reduction of the enemy to a faceless mass is a bit of a necessary evil in war movies, particularly those told from the American perspective as this one is, but as each line of Somali fighters is mowed down, there?s a feeling that Scott is enjoying it a little too much. Incidentally, the movie?s biggest injustice is in relegating the sole black American soldier, Specialist Kurth (Gabriel Casseus), to a bit part, when according to several accounts, he figured quite prominently in the battle.


And FTR, this one seems to have the original real life version played in a different place...? (And it says Falling to Pieces was used instead, but I thought it was Minstrel Boy)...? ?

www.moviemistakes.com/film1817/trivia

 According to veterans of the actual event, when the Rangers got the go-ahead for the mission and were getting their gear ready, "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N Roses was playing on the base's loudspeakers. There were some half-serious comments among the men about the appropriateness of this song. However, the film's producers failed to secure the rights to use "Welcome to the Jungle," so they substituted Faith No More's "Falling to Pieces"--which is perhaps thematically in line with what happened on the raid.

I think it is horrible that GNR did not let the song be used in the film. Those young men went to their deaths with Jungle being the last song they ever heard.

[Skeba]

Maybe it's the lack of sleep that makes me this stupid in the mornings to bitch about these things, but james: why'd you had to quote a post that long just to add one sentence? Especially since it's the one right before yours? With all the new people coming and the posting increasing, it'll be really annoying to read if everyone did that.

And another thing and all of this of course is something everyone could do (doesn't have anything to do with james' post but): when you quote. try to quote only the part to which you are replying. Makes following the conversation a lot more easier.

[da_pope]

Axl should have just let them use the damn song. 

[jameslofton29]

Maybe it's the lack of sleep that makes me this stupid in the mornings to bitch about these things, but james: why'd you had to quote a post that long just to add one sentence? Especially since it's the one right before yours? With all the new people coming and the posting increasing, it'll be really annoying to read if everyone did that.

You're right. Its really fucking late here, and I'm not running on all cylinders. You know how I usually quote posts, but I was just reading what the guy posted and quoted the whole thing.

[ssiscool]

Axl should have just let them use the damn song.?

yeah he should of.

[crthiel]

Axl better let them use a song in Guitar Hero 2.

Thats all I have to say.

[speed-stone]

i'm glad axl controls what can be used or not used by gnr material, that way we won't have to worry about the classics being whored out to car commercials to make money to buy booze for. axl seems to be one of the last rock stars who understands the value of not selling out.

[pasnow]

Snooze you should watch it, it's a good film.? That's odd, I thought I read somewhere they were looking to use an STP song also, but couldn't get the rights done in time, and had to go with a Hendrix song. Don't get me wrong, Hendrix is great, but seems a bit out of place. Like it's a Vietnam era war movie.

[pilferk]

From what I've heard, WTTJ was in early screeners, previews, and rough cuts while they were trying to secure the rights to the song. 

When it became obvious they couldn't get them, they replaced the song prior to release.

[pasnow]

Yeah, I will cringe at the thought of hearing "You know where you are..."  at the beginning of a Coors Light commercial.. Ughh.

Oddly enough, I heard on the radio the other day Courtney Love sold something like 70% of the rights to Nirvana's collection (She was hurting for money I suppose).. So it'll only be a matter of time to see them in commercials.. Oh, but she says 'They will be selective and only use it tastefully' yeah right, some attorney fed that one into her ears before she signed on the dotted line.

[Thorazine Shuffle]

I would imagine that the producers of BHD didn't want to pony-up the money that Axl was requiring for usage in the movie. 

The same thing happened in the movie "Rock Star".  When the lead character Chris walked off the stage and left the band at the end of the movie, the producers wanted to use the song "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin.  But LZ required a price too high, and they used an original piece instead.

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

sacrilegous to mix GNR with the army.

but hey, black hawk down is not that bad of a movie, visually interesting.

[pilferk]

I would imagine that the producers of BHD didn't want to pony-up the money that Axl was requiring for usage in the movie.?

The same thing happened in the movie "Rock Star".? When the lead character Chris walked off the stage and left the band at the end of the movie, the producers wanted to use the song "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin.? But LZ required a price too high, and they used an original piece instead.

Actually, no.? In this case, at least, money wasn't the stumbling block.

Axl was willing only to give them the rights to use a rerecorded version of the song, with the new band (a la SCOM on Big Daddy).

The rest of the "old" guard were unwilling to sign off on that.

So it set the two sides up in a squabble.

The film makers actually wanted the "orignal" version, anyway.

So when it became apparent they weren't going to get that, AND that the two sides of the GNR camp weren't going to agree, anyway, it was pretty obvious they weren't going to get the rights to the song.

So they swapped it.

I remember reading, somewhere (aintitcoolnews.com , maybe) that the film makers were pretty bummed about it. They were really striving for a realistic piece, and, knowing the reports out there that WTTJ was part of the story, they were pretty much willing to pay whatever (within reason) it took to get the song. 

[The Dog]

The only shame of it to me is not having a killer song in an awesome movie....but look, if Axl didn't want it in the movie, then he didn't want it in the movie....maybe hes really anti-war, anti-american military/politics. ?I don't think its that big of a deal, like i said, its just a shame.

there are SOOOOO many movies too where Jungle could be used, maybe he doesn't want it getting overplayed as the song in movies that comes on right when the main character(s) are about to enter a world o' shit.

I also liked the use of faith no more's song b/c it was more fitting with the times (early 90s) then jungle (late 80s), it fit the rest of the music they played at the base (I think they get in some AIC too).

----oops, just read shuffles post, there goes my theory haha.....that makes sense about the old/new guard.

[alexh0618]

Snooze you should watch it, it's a good film.? That's odd, I thought I read somewhere they were looking to use an STP song also, but couldn't get the rights done in time, and had to go with a Hendrix song. Don't get me wrong, Hendrix is great, but seems a bit out of place. Like it's a Vietnam era war movie.

There is an STP song in there. "Creep" is being played when the guys are sitting around at the base.

[da_pope]

Axl was willing only to give them the rights to use a rerecorded version of the song, with the new band (a la SCOM on Big Daddy).

Ya... Simply because he didn't want Slash and co. getting royalites.
Greedy Bitch.

[Verse Chorus Verse]

Axl should have just let them use the damn song. 

They should have let him use the re-recorded version