Black Hawk Down / Jarhead / The Kingdom Blu-ray Region B

Triple bill of war films. In 'Black Hawk Down' (2001), following a series of attacks by a Somalian warlord on a Red Cross distribution centre, a group of US Rangers are sent on a mission to capture two of his close associates in the capital city Mogadishu. However, after successfully apprehending their targets, the Americans come under heavy attack from the residents of the city. In the ensuing chaos, a US Black Hawk helicopter is shot down, and the surviving crew find themselves trapped in a confused and relentless battle with the enemy. In 'Jarhead' (2005) young recruit Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) joins up with the US Marines on the eve of the 1990 Gulf War. After a brutal spell in boot camp, during which Swofford and his fellow recruits are systematically geared up for the conflict, the Marines are dispatched to the deserts of the Persian Gulf to take part in a war that sees them required to do very little in the way of fighting. Bored and frustrated in the middle of nowhere, the young soldiers resort to a macabre sense of humour as they wait for the conflict to escalate. Finally, in 'The Kingdom' (2007) when a terrorist bomb detonates inside a Western housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, an international incident is ignited. While diplomats slowly debate equations of territorialism, FBI Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) quickly assembles an elite team and negotiates a secret five-day trip into Saudi Arabia to locate the madman behind the bombing. Upon landing in the desert kingdom, however, Fleury and his team discover Saudi authorities suspicious and unwelcoming of American interlopers into what they consider a local matter. Hamstrung by protocol, and with the clock ticking on their five days, the FBI agents find their expertise worthless without the trust of their Saudi counterparts who want to locate the terrorist in their homeland on their own terms. Fleury's crew fin...