​Take A Look Back At ‘Black Hawk Down’ And You’ll Realise Its Cast Is Amazing

Black Hawk Down was a great film. Decent. Its only Oscars were in technical categories but it probably deserved more.

And in the 16 years that have passed since its release, plenty has happened that makes Ridley Scott's second best film of the early 2000s - we'll save you the google, the better one was Gladiator - well worth a second look.

Black Hawk Down, if you'll allow the analogy, is like a boxing card with a few decent draws at the top and a load of nobodies on the undercard. Uninteresting, until you look back 10 years on and all those nobodies have gone on to win world titles.

Credit: Black Hawk Down

Just look down the cast list. Back in 2001, we were excited about Ewan McGregor, who was fresh off the back of Moulin Rouge and at the absolute height of his mainstream appeal, and Josh Hartnett, who had just starred in Pearl Harbor, the biggest non-kids movie of 2001 (however crap it was...).

Credit: Black Hawk Down. Ewan McGregor

Outside of those two, however, you might have been forgiven for not knowing too much about the supporting cast: Jason Isaacs - Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter - and Ewen Bremner - Spud from Trainspotting - were probably the best known.

Now go look at it with a little hindsight. It was the film debut of Tom Hardy, one of the most marketable men on the planet in 2017, as well as a mainstream debut for Eric Bana (later to star as the Hulk in 2003 and a million things since), as well as Orlando Bloom, who was unknown before the first Lord of the Rings movie, which was released just a week before Black Hawk Down. Seriously, Bloom's only other named cinema role was as a rentboy in a 1997 Oscar Wilde biopic.

Credit: Black Hawk Down. Tom Hardy

Jeremy Piven from Entourage has a small role, as did Ty Burrell (Phil from Modern Family), Kim Coates (Tig from Sons of Anarchy), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister!) and - pretty much the only character who isn't a gun-toting American soldier - George Harris, aka Kingsley Shacklebolt from Harry Potter, Morty from Layer Cake, Captain Katanga from Raiders of the Lost Ark or (if you're my mam) Clive off of Casualty.

So go dig out Black Hawk Down again as it's just hit Netflix. If the idea of a crack team of the Hulk, two Edinburgh smackheads, Legolas and Jaime Lannister taking on a Somalian version of Clive from Casualty doesn't get you going, nothing will.

Featured Image Credit: Black Hawk Down. Josh Hartnett

Topics: Orlando Bloom, TV and Film, tom hardy, Ewan McGregor

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie