Black Hawk Down

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Black Hawk Down

Black hawk down poster.jpg

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Writer: Mark Bowden
Ken Nolan
Starring: Josh Hartnett
Ewan McGregor
Eric Bana
Orlando Bloom
Director: Ridley Scott
Music by: Hans Zimmer
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: January 18, 2002 (USA)
Runtime: 144 min.
Language: [[{{{movie_language}}} language|{{{movie_language}}}]]
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Black Hawk Down is a 2001 film by Ridley Scott, based on the book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden. It depicts the Battle of Mogadishu, which was part of the U.S. military's 1993 campaign to capture Somali politician Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The movie stars Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana and Tom Sizemore. It won awards for Film Editing and Sound Editing at the 75th Academy Awards in 2002.

Contents

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Cast

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Based on the best-selling book detailing an ill-fated U.S. Army mission in Somalia on October 3, 1993.

An assault force of Delta Force commandos backed up by nearly 100 U.S. Army Rangers under the command of CPT Mike Steele were dropped by helicopter deep into the capital city of Mogadishu to capture two senior lieutenants of a Somali warlord. The mission is successful and the wanted persons are captured and taken into American custody. However, when Somali militia armed with RPGs down two Black Hawk helicopters, a 30 minute mission becomes a pitched battle between the American forces and Somali militia. The movie recounts the efforts by the American soldiers to get to the crash sites and recover their wounded personnel. Most of the action centers on a few soldiers, such as Sgt. Eversmann and Staff Sgt. Yurek who command Ranger units Chalk Four and Chalk Two, respectively. Other parts of the movie focus on Lt. Col. McKnight and his rescue convoy that gets ambushed throughout the hostile city, Lt. Perino as he leads his Rangers to the first Black Hawk crash site, and the sole survivor of the second crash, Warrant Officer Durant. The soldiers were able to hold off the militia until dawn, when a convoy consisting of the 10th Mountain Division and Pakistani and Malaysian UN troops reached them and they were able to successfully exit the city. During the battle, 19 American soldiers lost their lives, while up to a thousand Somali civilians and militia were killed.

Spoilers end here.
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Trivia

  • All Black Hawks and Little Birds used during the filming were from the 160th SOAR, (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) and most of the pilots were involved in the actual battle on 3/4 October 1993. A lot of the extra Rangers in the film were current Rangers, serving with the 3/75 Ranger Regiment
  • The photo of a wife and child that Durant is looking at is actually a photo of Eric Bana's wife and child. The props department forgot to take a photo of a wife and child with them, so they asked Bana's wife and child who were traveling with him if they could use a photo of them in the movie.
  • Disney passed on distributing this film because of its violent R rating. Its eventual distributor, Revolution Studios, is run by ex-Disney studios chairman Joe Roth.
  • Army pilot Keith Jones reenacted his real-life rescue of Delta operator Daniel Busch (Richard Tyson) for this film.
  • Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore , Ewan Bremner, William Fichtner and Kim Coates all previously worked together in another movie about war, Pearl Harbor (2001).
  • Eighteen soldiers lost their lives during the raid. The epilogue lists 19. Eighteen of the soldiers who died were Rangers and Delta operators. There were also two soldiers, PFC James Martin and Sgt. Cornell Houston, from 2-14 Infantry, 10th Mountain Division, who died during the battles of 3/4 October. The 2-14 Infantry was the Army unit sent in to rescue the Rangers. As well, Matt Rierson, who is also in the list, died days after the battle when Somalians attacked the Airport with mortars.
  • Some of the scenes on the monitors behind Major General Garrison are actual satellite images of the battle.
  • 40 of the actors who were portraying Rangers were sent to Fort Benning to attend a two week crash course in becoming Rangers, 15 of the actors portraying Delta Operators were sent to Fort Bragg and were given a two week Commando Course by members of the 1st Special Warfare Training Group. Ron Eldard went to Fort Campbell and was given a lecture by several Little Bird and Black Hawk pilots about flying and Michael Durant.
  • On the last day of their week long Army Ranger orientation at Fort Benning, the actors who portrayed the Rangers received a letter which had been anonymously slipped under their door. The letter thanked them for all their hard work, and asked them to "tell our story true", signed with the names of the Rangers who died in the Mogadishu firefight.
  • The massive shoot of the "target building insert" sequence was intended to be among the first sequences shot in principal photography, due to its complex nature. However, negotiations to borrow four Black Hawk helicopters from the United States military were so arduous that an agreement was not reached until a month after shooting had commenced. Director Ridley Scott had prepared a rental of four Hueys from Germany that were ready to be painted black and work as substitutes in the event an agreement with the US Department of Defense could not be reached. Fortunately, the US Government was eventually satisfied that the film would portray the incident in a positive light, and shipped the helicopters to the location in two C-5 Galaxy transports. Ridley Scott says this was very fortunate for the film, since the title is "Black Hawk Down" and Hueys have no resemblance to Black Hawks.
  • Two of the Black Hawk helicopters used in the film were named the "Armageddon" (film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer) and the "Gladiator" (directed by Ridley Scott). Producer Jerry Bruckheimer believed this to be a sign of good luck.
  • The scene where a U.S. soldier falls out of the truck in the convoy was an outtake, but director Ridley Scott felt that it was funny and should be left in the movie.
  • The film features soldiers wearing helmets with their last names on them. Although this was an inaccuracy, Ridley Scott felt it was necessary to have the helmets to help the audience to distinguish between the characters because they all look the same once the uniforms are on.
  • Specialist Grimes, portrayed by Ewan McGregor, is a fictional character, though given his administrative position and penchant for coffee, he is unabashedly based on the real-life Ranger clerk Spc John Stebbins, who was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during the battle. However, Stebbins was convicted in 2000 for child molestation and is currently serving a 30-year jail term. As a result, the Pentagon apparently pressured screenwriters to alter his name in the film, although a spokeswoman for the movie defended the change as "a creative decision made by the producers."
  • Despite the fact that Ken Nolan is the only credited writer there were others that contributed uncredited. Sam Shepard wrote most of his own dialogue as Major General William F. Garrison; Eric Roth wrote crucial speeches for Josh Hartnett and Eric Bana to deliver in the closing minutes; Steven Zaillian made a dialogue-driven rewrite; and Stephen Gaghan contributed to the writing of the screenplay.
  • The scene where Staff Sergeant Eversmann runs unprotected across a street under heavy fire to plant a targeting strobe did happen in the actual battle although it wasn't Eversman who did the act; SPC. Twombley was ordered to plant a triangular strobe out in the middle of the street so that pilots could identify their position. In another incident, Technical Sergeant Tim Wilkinson, an Air Force Special Operations para-rescue medic, repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to collect medical supplies and to treat wounded Rangers holed up in different locations. For his bravery, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, a medal second only to the Medal of Honor.
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Criticisms

Some critics view the film as blatant propaganda on behalf of US military intervention, even though the the US military was there at UN request to protect food shipments to civilians from Somali warlords. Unlike Scott's earlier film G.I. Jane, Black Hawk Down received the full cooperation of the US military and he allowed the military a veto over every aspect of the film in order to receive this level of military involvement. Some argue that this resulted in a biased finished product.

The film is shot entirely from the point of view of the American soldiers. Unlike Mark Bowden's book, the film does not depict the extensive civilian casualties of the Battle of Mogadishu, or the use of civilians as human shields by the Somali militia.

The film also portrays the delays in UN rescue as stemming in part from spite on the part of UN forces at not being informed about the mission, possibly suggesting they were willing to let US soldiers die for petty politics. Bowden's book argues that the delay was more due to inadequate contingency planning on the part of all parties involved.

Other omissions and inaccuracies are listed in articles such as "What Black Hawk Down Left Out" in Slate [1], which argues among other things that the Somalis who engaged the American soldiers that day believed themselves to be acting justly in response to disproportionate and cruel American and international military tactics against them. The Somalis were apparently especially outraged by two retaliatory UN attacks shortly before the Ranger raid, in which many women, children and clan elders were killed.

The Malaysian government critisized the movie for not giving the Malaysian soldiers involved in the rescue mission enough recognition. One Malaysian soldier died during the rescue attempt. An American soldier wrote in a letter that he was grateful for the bravery and courage of the Malaysian soldiers, which helped prevent the deaths of 200 of his compatriots.

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The making of the film

Much of the film was shot in Morocco. About 40 actors who were portraying Rangers were sent to Fort Benning and were given a two week course on becoming Rangers, several actors portraying Delta Operators were sent to Fort Bragg and were given a two week course in commando tactics while the actor portraying Michael Durant was sent to Fort Campbell and spoke to members of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The Directors enlisted the help of the US Army, which loaned the directors Black Hawks, Little Bird light helicopters, (with pilots from the 160th) a platoon of Rangers (to do the fast roping scenes) and the ground vehicles and weapons.

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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)
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References

  • Scott, Ridley (2001). Black Hawk Down. Sony Pictures Entertainment. Culver City, California (USA).
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External links and references

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations from:

fr:La Chute du faucon noir nl:Black Hawk Down ja:ブラックホーク・ダウン no:Black Hawk Down pl:Helikopter w ogniu sv:Black Hawk Down

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