Black Hawk Down (film, Update since 2020)
Black Hawk Down is a 2001 war film produced and directed by Ridley Scott, from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. It is based on the 1999 non-fiction book of the same name by journalist Mark Bowden, about the U.S. military's 1993 raid in Mogadishu. The film features a large ensemble cast, including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Sam Shepard, and Tom Hardy in his first film role.
Black Hawk Down won two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing at the 74th Academy Awards. In 2006, an extended cut of the film was released on DVD.
| Black Hawk Down |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Ridley Scott |
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| Produced by | Jerry Bruckheimer
Ridley Scott |
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| Screenplay by | Ken Nolan |
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| Based on | Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
by Mark Bowden |
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| Starring | Josh Hartnett
Eric Bana
Ewan McGregor
Tom Sizemore
William Fichtner
Sam Shepard |
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| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
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| Cinematography | Sławomir Idziak |
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| Edited by | Pietro Scalia |
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Production
company
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Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios
Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Scott Free Productions
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| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
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Release date
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- December 28, 2001 (United States)
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Running time
| 144 minutes
152 minutes
(extended) |
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| Country | United States
United Kingdom |
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| Language | English |
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| Budget | $110.5 million |
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| Box office | $173 million |
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Plot
Following the ousting of the central government in 1993 amid the civil war in Somalia, the United Nations Security Council authorizes a military operation with a peacekeeping mandate. After the bulk of the peacekeepers withdraw, the Mogadishu-based militia loyal to Mohamed Farrah Aidid declares war on the remaining UN personnel. In response, the U.S. Army deploys three of its special operations forces – 75th Rangers, Delta Force counter-terror operators, and 160th SOAR - Night Stalkers aviators – to Mogadishu to capture Aidid, who has proclaimed himself president.
To consolidate his power and subdue the population in the south, Aidid and his militia seize Red Cross food shipments. The UN forces are powerless to intervene directly. Outside Mogadishu, Rangers and Delta Force capture Osman Ali Atto, a faction leader selling arms to Aidid's militia. The US then plans a mission to capture Omar Salad Elmi and Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdiid, two of Aidid's top advisers.
The U.S. forces include experienced men as well as new recruits, including 18-year-old Private First Class Todd Blackburn and Specialist John Grimes, a desk clerk. Staff Sergeant Matthew Eversmann receives his first command, of Ranger Chalk Four, after his lieutenant suffers a seizure. Eversmann responds to mocking remarks about Somalis from fellow soldiers by saying he respects the Somalis and has compassion for the terrible conditions of civil war for the Somali people, saying there are two things we can do, "We can help, or we can sit back and watch a country destroy itself on CNN."
The operation begins, and Delta Force operators capture Aidid's advisers inside the target building, while the Rangers and helicopters escorting the ground-extraction convoy take heavy fire. Blackburn is severely injured when he falls from one of the Black Hawk helicopters, so three Humvees led by Staff Sergeant Jeff Struecker are detached from the convoy to return Blackburn to the UN-held Mogadishu Airport.
Sergeant Dominick Pilla is shot and killed just as Struecker's column departs, and shortly thereafter Black Hawk Super Six-One, piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott, is shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade. Wolcott and his co-pilot are killed, the two crew chiefs are wounded, and one Delta Force sniper on board, Busch, escapes in an MH-6 Little Bird helicopter but dies later from his wounds.
The ground forces are rerouted to converge on the crash site. The Somali militia erects roadblocks, and Lieutenant Colonel Danny McKnight's Humvee column is unable to reach the crash area and sustains heavy casualties. Meanwhile, two Ranger Chalks, including Eversmann's unit, reach Super-Six One's crash site and set up a defensive perimeter to await evacuation with the two wounded men and the fallen pilots. In the interim, Super Six-Four, piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, is also shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashes several blocks away.
With Captain Mike Steele's Rangers pinned down and sustaining heavy casualties, no ground forces can reach Super Six-Four's crash site nor reinforce the Rangers defending Super Six-One. Two Delta Force snipers, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon, are inserted by helicopter to Super Six-Four's crash site, where they find Durant still alive. The site is eventually overrun, Gordon and Shughart are killed, and Durant is captured by Aidid's militia.
McKnight's column relinquishes their attempt to reach Six-One's crash site, and returns to base with their prisoners and the casualties. The men prepare to go back to extract the Rangers and the fallen pilots, and Major General Garrison sends Lieutenant Colonel Joe Cribbs to ask for reinforcements from the 10th Mountain Division, including Malaysian and Pakistani armored units from the UN coalition.
As night falls, Aidid's militia launches a sustained assault on the trapped Americans at Super Six-One's crash site. The militants are held off throughout the night by strafing runs and rocket attacks from AH-6J Little Bird helicopter gunships, until the 10th Mountain Division's relief column is able to reach the American soldiers. The wounded and casualties are evacuated in the vehicles, but a few Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are forced to run on foot from the crash site to reach the Safe Zone at the stadium.
The end titles recount the immediate aftermath of the mission and end of US military operations in Somalia: Michael Durant was released after 11 days of captivity, after which President Bill Clinton withdrew all US forces from Somalia. During the raid more than 1000 Somalis died, and 19 American soldiers lost their lives. The names of the 19 soldiers who died, including Delta Sgts. Gordon and Shughart, who were the first soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously since the Vietnam War, were listed by name. Mohamed Farah Aidid was killed in 1996. The following day, General Garrison retired.
Cast
75th Rangers
Josh Hartnett as SSG Matt Eversmann
Ewan McGregor as SPC John "Grimesey" Grimes
Tom Sizemore as LTC Danny McKnight
Ewen Bremner as SPC Shawn Nelson
Gabriel Casseus as SPC Mike Kurth
Hugh Dancy as SFC Kurt "Doc" Schmid
Ioan Gruffudd as LT John Beales
Tom Guiry as SGT Ed Yurek
Charlie Hofheimer as CPL Jamie Smith
Danny Hoch as SGT Dominick Pilla
Jason Isaacs as CPT Mike Steele
Brendan Sexton III as PVT Richard "Alphabet" Kowalewski
Brian Van Holt as SSG Jeff Struecker
Ian Virgo as PVT John Waddell
Tom Hardy as SPC Lance Twombly
Gregory Sporleder as SGT Scott Galentine
Carmine Giovinazzo as SGT Mike Goodale
Chris Beetem as SGT Casey Joyce
Matthew Marsden as SPC Dale Sizemore
Orlando Bloom as PFC Todd Blackburn
Enrique Murciano as SGT Lorenzo Ruiz
Michael Roof as PVT John Maddox
Kent Linville as PFC Clay Othic
Delta Force
Sam Shepard as MG William F. Garrison
Eric Bana as SFC Norm "Hoot" Gibson
William Fichtner as SFC Jeff Sanderson
Kim Coates as MSG Tim “Griz” Martin
Steven Ford as LTC Joe Cribbs
Željko Ivanek as LTC Gary L. Harrell
Johnny Strong as SFC Randy Shughart
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as MSG Gary Gordon
Richard Tyson as SSG Daniel Busch
160th SOAR (Night Stalkers)
Ron Eldard as CW4 Michael Durant
Glenn Morshower as Col. Thomas Matthews
Jeremy Piven as CWO Clifton Wolcott
Boyd Kestner as CW3 Mike Goffena
Pavel Vokoun as CWO Bull Briley
Miscellaneous
George Harris as Osman Atto
Razaaq Adoti as Yousuf Dahir Mo'alim, the main commander of Aidid's militia in the film
Treva Etienne as Firimbi, propaganda minister for Aidid and Durant's caretaker
Ty Burrell as United States Air Force PararescueTimothy A Wilkinson
Production
Adapting Black Hawk Down: a Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden was the idea of director Simon West, who suggested to Jerry Bruckheimer that he should buy the film rights and let West direct. West moved on to direct Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) instead.
Ken Nolan was credited as screenwriter, and others contributed uncredited: Mark Bowden wrote an adaptation of his own book, Stephen Gaghan was hired to do a rewrite, Steven Zaillian and Ezna Sands rewrote the majority of Gaghan and Nolan's work, actor Sam Shepard (MGen. Garrison) rewrote some of his own dialogue, and Eric Roth wrote Josh Hartnett and Eric Bana's concluding speeches. Ken Nolan was on set for four months rewriting his script and the previous work by Gaghan, Zaillian, and Bowden. He was given sole screenwriting credit by a WGA committee.
The book relied on a dramatization of participant accounts, which were the basis of the movie. SPC John Stebbins was renamed as fictional "John Grimes." Stebbins had been convicted by court martial in 1999 for the rape and forcible sodomy of his six-year-old daughter. Mark Bowden said the Pentagon, ever sensitive about public image decided to alter factual history by requesting the change. Bowden wrote early screenplay drafts, before Bruckheimer gave it to screenwriter Nolan. The POW-captor conversation, between pilot Mike Durant and militiaman Firimbi, is from a Bowden script draft.
To keep the film at a manageable length, 100 key figures in the book were condensed to 39. The movie also does not feature any Somali actors. Additionally, no Somali consultants were hired for accuracy, according to writer Bowden.
For military verisimilitude, the Ranger actors took a one-week Ranger familiarization course at Fort Benning, the Delta Force actors took a two-week commando course from the 1st Special Warfare Training Group at Fort Bragg, and Ron Eldard and the actors playing 160th SOAR helicopter pilots were lectured by captured aviator Michael Durant at Fort Campbell.
The U.S. Army supplied the materiel and the helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Most pilots (e.g., Keith Jones, who speaks some dialogue) had participated in the historic battle on October 3–4, 1993.
On the last day of their week-long Army Ranger orientation at Fort Benning, the actors who portrayed the Rangers received letters slipped under their doors. It thanked them for their hard work, and asked them to "tell our story true", signed with the names of the men who died in the Mogadishu firefight. A platoon of Rangers from B-3/75 did the fast-roping scenes and appeared as extras; John Collette, a Ranger Specialist during the battle, served as a stunt performer.
Many of the actors bonded with the soldiers who trained them for their roles. Actor Tom Sizemore said, "What really got me at training camp was the Ranger Creed. I don't think most of us can understand that kind of mutual devotion. It's like having 200 best friends and every single one of them would die for you".
Filming began in March 2001 in Salé, Morocco, and concluded in late June.
Although the filmmakers considered filming in Jordan, they found the city of Amman too built up and landlocked. Scott and production designer Arthur Max subsequently turned to Morocco, where they had previously worked on Gladiator. Scott preferred that urban setting for authenticity. Most of the film was photographed in the cities of Rabat and Salé; the Task Force Ranger base sequences were filmed at Kénitra.
Reception
Box office
Black Hawk Down had a limited release in four theaters on December 28, 2001, in order to be eligible for the 2001 Oscars. It earned $179,823 in its first weekend, averaging $44,956 per theater. On January 11, 2002, the release expanded to 16 theaters and continued to do well with a weekly gross of $1,118,003 and an average daily per theater gross of $9,982. On January 18, 2002, the film had its wide release, opening at 3,101 theaters and earning $28,611,736 in its first wide-release weekend to finish first at the box office for the weekend. Opening on the Martin Luther King holiday, the film grossed $5,014,475 on the holiday of Monday, January 21, 2002, for a 4-day weekend total of $33,628,211. Only Titanic had previously grossed more money over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. Black Hawk Down finished first at the box office during its first three weeks of wide release. When the film was pulled from theatres on April 14, 2002, after its 15th week, it had grossed $108,638,746 domestically and $64,350,906 overseas for a worldwide total of $172,989,651.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
The film begins with the quote, "Only the dead have seen the end of war," misattributed to Plato. Research shows this quote first appeared in the works of George Santayana. The film epilogue adds: "During the raid over 1000 Somalis died and 19 American soldiers lost their lives. CWD Donovan Briley; Staff Sgt. Daniel Busch: Spec. James Cavaco; Staff Sgt. William Cleveland; Staff Sgt. Thomas Field; Sgt. First Class Earl Fillmore; CWO Raymond Frank; Master Sgt. Gary Gordon; Sgt. Cornell Houston; Sgt. Casey Joyce; Pfc. Richard Kowalewski; Pfc. James Martin; Master Sgt. Tim 'Griz' Martin; Sgt. Dominick Pilla; Sgt. First Class Matt Rierson; Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz; Sgt. First Class Randy Shughart; Cpl. Jamie Smith; and CWO Cliff 'Elvis' Wolcott. It goes on: "Delta Sgts. Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart were the first soldiers to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously since the Vietnam War. Michael Durant was released after 11 days of captivity. Two weeks later, President Clinton withdrew Delta Force and the Rangers from Somalia. Major General William F. Garrison accepted full responsibility for the outcome of the raid. On August 2, 1996, warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid was killed in Mogadishu. The following day, General Garrison retired."
Wallpaper picture of Black Hawk Down's Movie Poster
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