Black Hawk Down (film)

Black Hawk Down is a 2001 Academy Award-winning war film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the book Black Hawk Down: a Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden, which depicts the Battle of Mogadishu, a raid integral to the 1993 U.S. effort to capture the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid.

The movie features Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, Ewen Bremner, William Fichtner, Sam Shepard, and Orlando Bloom. The film won two Oscars, for Film Editing and Sound in 2001.

Plot

In a raid, a task force of Delta Force soldiers, Army Rangers, and Special Operations Aviation Regiment attempt capturing two of Aidid's senior subordinates in the Bakaara Market neighborhood of Mogadishu. The mission is led by Maj Gen William Garrison, and was supposed to take no more than 1 hour. The extraction by the Delta team is successful, but the Somali militia, armed with RPGs, shoot down two Black Hawk helicopters, and the resulting rescue extends the mission to over 15 hours.

The film follows many characters through build-up, the assault and rescue. It shows how Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann was placed in charge of Ranger Chalk Four, before portraying the raid and successful extraction of the wanted persons, and shows the first injury, as PFC Todd Blackburn falls from a helicopter as it maneuvers to avoid an RPG. This is the beginning of the indication that the troops are overwhelmed by the volume of enemy militia, and builds up to the two helicopter crashes: Super Six-One piloted by Cliff "Elvis" Wolcott, and Super Six-Four piloted by Mike Durant. Durant is taken prisoner after the two Delta snipers who requested to be inserted near the crash site of Super Six-Four are killed while defending him.

The film also follows two Chalk Four machine gunners who are supposed to return with the extraction team, but miss the humvees as they leave, and get lost. One of them is deafened by machine-gun fire, but they eventually make their way back to Eversmann. Cpl Jamie Smith attempts to rescue one of them, whose backpack full of ammo has been shot and exploded, but Smith gets shot too, and eventually bleeds to death.

The film begins to reach its conclusion as the U.S. forces regain control with strafing runs by Little Bird helicopters, and a convoy of troops from the 10th Mountain Division, along with other United Nations forces, arrives to extract the wounded. Back at the base, Norman "Hoot" Hooten begins to restock on ammunition, preparing to go back out on the next mission, and Eversmann tells a dead Jamie Smith that he will fulfil his dying wish.

The film ends with text informing the viewer that 19 Americans and approximately 1000 Somalis died in the conflict, Mike Durant's release, and about the death of Mohamed Farrah Aidid in 1996.

Background and production

Black Hawk Down originally was idea of director Simon West, who suggested to producer Jerry Bruckheimer that he buy the film rights to the book Black Hawk Down: a Story of Modern War, by Mark Bowden, with him (West) directing; in the event, West moved on, to direct Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001).

Despite Ken Nolan being credited as screenwriter, others contributed to it, uncredited; Sam Shepard (MG Garrison) wrote most of his dialogue; Eric Roth wrote Josh Hartnett and Eric Bana's concluding speeches; Steven Zaillian re-wrote much dialogue; Stephen Gaghan contributed to the writing of the screenplay. Composed mostly of participant accounts, Spec 4 John Stebbins became the fictional "John Grimes", because Stebbins was convicted by court martial, in 1999, for sexually assaulting his daughter. Reporter Bowden said the Pentagon requested the change. He wrote early screenplay drafts, before Bruckheimer gave it to a screenwriter; the PoW-Captor conversation, between pilot Mike Durant and militiaman Firimbi, is from a Bowden script draft.

For military verisimilitude, the Ranger actors took a crash, two-week Ranger course at Fort Benning, Ga.; the Delta Force actors took a two-week commando course, from the 1st Special Warfare Training Group, at Ft. Bragg, N.C. Ron Eldard and the actors playing 160th SOAR helicopter pilots were lectured by captured aviator Michael Durant at Fort Campbell, Ky. The U.S. Army supplied the matériel and the helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment; most pilots (e.g. Keith Jones, who speaks some dialogue) participated in the battle on 3-4 October 1993. Moreover, a platoon of Rangers from B-3/75 did the fast-roping scenes and were extras; most fought the battle.

Most of Black Hawk Down, was photographed in the cities of Rabat and Salé, Morocco, because they resemble Somalia; the film features no Somali actors. The Task Force Ranger base sequences were filmed at Kénitra.

Cast

Actor	Role	Notes
Josh Hartnett	Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann	U.S. Army Ranger, leader of Chalk 4. Compilation of both Eversmann's actual experience in the operation, as well as of U.S. Army Rangers Tom DiTomasso and Larry Perino's experiences during the operation.
Ewan McGregor	Specialist John 'Grimsey' Grimes	U.S. Army Ranger (based on John Stebbins)
Tom Sizemore	Lieutenant Colonel Danny McKnight	Commander of the 3rd Ranger Battalion
Eric Bana	Sergeant First Class Norm "Hoot" Gibson	Delta Force operator (based on Norm 'Hoot' Hooten)
William Fichtner	Sergeant First Class Jeff Sanderson	Delta Force operator (based on Paul Howe)
Ewen Bremner	Specialist Shawn Nelson	U.S. Army Ranger
Sam Shepard	Major General William F. Garrison	Commander of Task Force Ranger
Gabriel Casseus	Specialist Mike Kurth	U.S. Army Ranger
Kim Coates	Master Sergeant Tim 'Griz' Martin	Delta Force operator
Hugh Dancy	Sergeant First Class Kurt Schmid	Delta Force medic in real life, portrayed as a Ranger medic in the film
Ron Eldard	Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Durant	160th SOAR pilot
Ioan Gruffudd	Lieutenant John Beales	U.S. Army Ranger
Tom Guiry	Staff Sergeant Ed Yurek	U.S. Army Ranger
Charlie Hofheimer	Corporal Jamie Smith	U.S. Army Ranger
Danny Hoch	Sergeant Dominick Pilla	U.S. Army Ranger
Jason Isaacs	Captain Mike Steele	Commander of Bravo Company, 3rd Ranger Battalion
Zeljko Ivanek	Lieutenant Colonel Gary Harrell	Commander of Delta Force component
Glenn Morshower	Lieutenant Colonel Tom Matthews	Commander of 1st Battalion, 160th SOAR
Jeremy Piven	Chief Warrant Officer Cliff 'Elvis' Wolcott	160th SOAR pilot
Brendan Sexton III	Private First Class Richard 'Alphabet' Kowalewski	U.S. Army Ranger
Johnny Strong	Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart	Delta Force sniper
Nikolaj Coster Waldau	Master Sergeant Gary Gordon	Delta Force sniper
Richard Tyson	Staff Sergeant Daniel Busch	Delta Force operator
Brian Van Holt	Staff Sergeant Jeff Struecker	U.S. Army Ranger
Steven Ford	Lieutenant Colonel Joe Cribbs	10th Mountain Division Commander
Ian Virgo	Private John Wadell	U.S. Army Ranger
Tom Hardy	Specialist Lance Twombly	U.S. Army Ranger
Gregory Sporleder	Sergeant Scott Galentine	U.S. Army Ranger
Carmine Giovinazzo	Sergeant Mike Goodale	U.S. Army Ranger
Chris Beetem	Sergeant James 'Casey' Joyce	U.S. Army Ranger
Tac Fitzgerald	Sergeant Keni Thomas	U.S. Army Ranger
Matthew Marsden	Specialist Dale Sizemore	U.S. Army Ranger
Orlando Bloom	Private First Class Todd Blackburn	U.S. Army Ranger
Enrique Murciano	Sergeant Lorenzo Ruiz	U.S. Army Ranger

Reception

Box office performance

When Black Hawk Down was first released on December 28, 2001, it had a limited release, opening at only 4 theatres, but it still earned $179,823 in its first weekend, for an average of $44,956. However, on January 18, 2002, the film had its wide release, opening at 3,101 theatres and earning $28,611,736 in its first wide release weekend to finish first at the box office. As it opened on the Martin Lurther King holiday, the film earned an additional $5,014,475 from the extra day of the long weekend. Black Hawk Down would go on to finish first at the box office for the next two weekends. When the film was pulled from theatres on April 14, 2002, it had grossed $108,638,745 domestically and $64,350,906 internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $172,989,651.

Awards

The film won the following awards:

• the 2002 Academy Award for Best Editing (Pietro Scalia)
• the 2002 Academy Award for Best Sound (Michael Minkler, Myron Nettinga, Chris Munro)
• the 2002 Golden Reel Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA for Best Sound Editing - Effects and Foley, Domestic Feature Film
• the 2002 Harry Award

It was also nominated for the following awards:

• the 2002 Academy Award for Best Director (Ridley Scott)
• the 2002 Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Slawomir Idziak)
• the 2002 AFI Film Award for AFI Cinematographer of the Year (Slawomir Idziak)
• the 2002 AFI Film Award for AFI Director of the Year (Ridley Scott)
• the 2002 AFI Film Award for AFI Editor of the Year (Pietro Scalia)
• the 2002 AFI Film Award for AFI Movie of the Year (Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott)
• the 2002 AFI Film Award for AFI Production Designer of the Year (Arthur Max)
• the 2002 MTV Movie Award for MTV Movie Award Best Action Sequence (First helicopter crash)
• the 2002 MTV Movie Award for MTV Movie Award Best Movie
• the 2002 WGA Award (Screen) for Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published (Ken Nolan)
• the 2002 Teen Choice Award for Film - Choice Actor, Drama/Action Adventure (Josh Hartnett)
• the 2002 Teen Choice Award for Film - Choice Movie, Drama/Action Adventure
• the 2002 Golden Reel Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA for Best Sound Editing - Dialogue and A.D.R., Domestic Feature Film
• the 2002 Golden Trailer for Best Drama
• the 2002 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Ridley Scott)

Controversy

Soon after Black Hawk Down's release, several organizations, including The Somalian Justice Advocacy Center in California, called for its boycott and denounced what they felt was its brutal and dehumanizing depiction of Somalis.

In a radio interview, Brendan Sexton, an actor in the movie, testified that the version of the film which made it onto theater screens was significantly different from the one recounted in the original script. According to him, many scenes asking hard questions of the U.S. troops with regard to the violent realities of war, the true purpose of their mission in Somalia, etc. were cut out.

Sexton wrote an article in 2002 where he maintained that Black Hawk Down failed to explain the reasons behind the Somali population's opposition to the U.S. military presence in their country:

The Somalis are portrayed as if they don't know what's going on, as if they're trying to kill the Americans because they -- like all other "evildoers" -- will do anything to bite the hand that feeds them. But the Somalis aren't a stupid people. In fact, many were upset because the U.S. military presence propped up people tied to the old, corrupt Barre regime.

In a review featured in The New York Times, film critic Elvis Mitchell also expressed dissatisfaction at the film's "lack of characterization".

Malaysian military officials whose troops were also involved in the fighting have raised complaints regarding Black Hawk Down's accuracy. Retired Brigadier-General Abdul Latif-Ahmed, who at the time commanded Malaysian forces in Mogadishu, wished to set the record straight in an interview with the AFP news agency:

Malaysian movie-goers will be under the wrong impression that the real battle was fought by the Americans alone, while we were mere bus drivers to ferry them out.

Critics also charge that the African American actors chosen to play the Somalis in the film do not in the least bit resemble the racially unique peoples of the Horn of Africa nor does the language they communicate in sound like the Afro-Asiatic tongue spoken by the Somali people. The abrasive manner in which lines are delivered and the film's inauthentic vision of Somali culture, they add, also fails to capture the tone, mannerisms and spirit of actual life in Somalia.

Soundtrack

References

External links

• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• Warlord thumbs down for Somalia film, BBC News [[29 January] 2002]
• Medal of Honor Recipients on Film
• Rotten Tomatoes link