100 BEST WAR MOVIES: 6. Black Hawk Down (2001)

 

BACK-STORY:  “Black Hawk Down” is a film by Ridley Scott (“Kingdom of Heaven”) based on the bestseller by Mark Bowden.  Bowden wrote the definitive history of the Battle of Mogadishu and the events surrounding it.  Ken Nolan adapted the book with input from Bowden.  The movie was filmed in Morocco.  The Pentagon cooperated with helicopters and even provided Rangers to do the fast roping (some of whom had been in the battle).  The movie was a critical and financial success.  It won Oscars for Editing and Sound and was nominated for Cinematography and Director.

SUMMARY:   The movie is “based on an actual event”.  A crawl describes the situation in Somalia leading into the battle.  Scott leads with a quote from Plato:  “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”  300,000 civilians had died in a famine causing the United Nations to send in food shipments.  20,000 Marines were inserted to protect the shipments and the starvation was brought under control.  When the Marines were withdrawn, a local war lord named Aidid who had dreams of ruling Somalia began to make war on the UN peacekeepers.  When 24 Pakastani’s were killed, the U.S. State Department pushed through a UN resolution calling for the arrest of Aidid.  Pres. Clinton sent Task Force Ranger to accomplish the mission.  It consisted of Rangers and Delta Force and was led by Gen. Garrison (Sam Shepard).

               On Oct. 3, a breakthrough occurs when an informant is prepared to finger two more of Aidid’s people.  Garrison outlines the mission to the various leaders (and the audience).  The best laid plans…  Lt. Col. McKnight (Tom Sizemore) points out some possible problems:  daytime negates America’s huge night vision advantage, no armor will be included, they will be going into Aidid’s turf, and the “skinnies’ will be high on katt (the national “I don’t give a shit if I’m shot” drug).  No worries.  We’re Americans and it will only take 30 minutes.  What could go wrong? 

The ingress is in trouble immediately as the Somali early warning system has the militias aping ants swarming from a kicked hill.  The helicopters swoop into the center of the city ala “Apocalypse Now”.  The Delta boys capture the targets at the Olympia Hotel with little difficulty, but things begin to break down when one of the Rangers fast ropes sans rope.  Three Humvees are designated to rush the badly injured Blackburn (Orlando Bloom) back to base.  Everything is going semi-well when one of the Black Hawk helicopters is shot down by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade.) It won’t be the last. The mission now becomes a rescue mission and most of the soldiers get engulfed by the enraged populace. It’s a modern Alamo.               

ACTING:   A                

ACTION:   A+ (9/10)

ACCURACY: A      

PLOT:  B                

REALISM:   A 

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   A+

SCORE:   A+

SCENE:  the snipers defending the helicopter crash site

QUOTE: Hoot:   When I go home people'll ask me, "Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? What, you some kinda war junkie?" You know what I'll say? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:  When I first saw the movie in the theater and then read the book, I thought it was the most accurate war movie I had ever seen.  The research I have done for this post has caused me to back off a little bit on that.  There are inaccuracies, but they are all explainable and acceptable in a Hollywood context.  Nolan and Scott did an admirable job trying to adhere to the book.

               The crawl at the beginning explaining the situation is spot on.  The Rangers/Delta dynamic is substantially as it was, but the movie overplays the rivalry a bit.  In reality, most of the Rangers admired the Deltas.  There was a conflict between the by-the-book Steele and the Delta Force commanders (embodied in the fictional Sanderson).  The mission as outlined by Garrison was correct.  The various potential problems questioned by McKnight and the mistakes made by the individual soldiers with regard to gear are realistic.  Interestingly, other than the brief mention by McKnight, the film does not show that a large number of the Somali men were high on katt and correspondingly unconcerned for their lives.

               The ingress and taking of the suspects is accurate.  Blackburn’s fall, Pilla’s death, and Wolcott’s crash all happened as shown in the film.  The plight of the convoy is realistic.  The movie downplays the confused meanderings for time reasons.  The movement of Chalk 4 / Delta / Rangers to the first crash site is acceptably handled.  The crash of Durant’s bird and the actions of Schugart and Gordon are very well reenacted.  The movie leaves out the support from above by gunships.  Similarly, other than the one awesome run during the night stand at the Alamo, the nonstop efforts of the Little Birds in holding off the skinnies is skipped.

               Probably the biggest fudging occurs towards the end (see “We Were Soldiers”).  McKnight did not lead the relief column and when it arrived, the crash site was under control and not under fire.  The “Mogadishu Mile”was exaggerated because in actuality they did not run all the way to the stadium.

               The biggest discrepancies with the true story is with the characters.  There are about 100 named American soldiers in the book.  The movie pares this down to 39 which is totally understandable.  It was necessary to create composite characters, again for good reason.  The most important is Eversmann.  The movie needed a “star” and Josh Hartnett (coming off “Pearl Harbor”) was tapped.  Eversmann was a good choice for this role, but when the convoy left the Olympia Hotel he and Chalk 4 were on board.  It was Chalk 2, led by a Sgt. DiTomasso, that moved to the crash site.  Some of his men got separated, including Twombly and Yurek, but Nelson (the deafened guy) was with DiTomasso.  Almost all of the Delta guys have fictional names for security reasons, but they seem to be based on actual operatives.  Hoot is mainly fictional for narrative purposes (to act as a point of view), but is loosely based on an amazing warrior named Macejunas.

               The most interesting (and tragic) adjustment was for the Grimes (Ewan McGregor) character.  He was based on Johnny Stebbins who was a clerk that was thrust into the mission (although in reality he was eager to join).  Stebbins, like Grimes, seemed to attract RPGs.  He earned a Silver Star.  The name was changed because before production, Stebbins was convicted of child abuse.

CRITIQUE:  Ridley Scott when he has the right script (“Gladiator”, “Alien”, “Blade Runner”) can be a great director.  He was on his game for this film.  It is hard to imagine the movie being better made.  The cinematography by Slawomir Idziak is amazing.  Academy Awards were awarded for Sound and Editing.  The choice to use the cities of Rabat and Sale in Morocco to stand in for Mogadishu was inspired.  Many of the veterans remarked about how much the sets looked like the real thing.  (Although given the food problem, it is doubtful that the Mog had hundreds of dogs running around.  Watch the movie again.)  The effects are incredible and surprisingly done without a surfeit of CGI.  It is impossible to tell where CGI is used.  Most of the helicopter stunts are real and showcase the amazing skills of the Night Stalkers. Those are real soldiers roping down.

               The score by Hans Zimmer is excellent.  He blends two opposing strains.  There is a techno sound to support the American scenes and North African music representing the Somalis.  In some scenes, like the opening food distribution scene, the two styles meld to stark effect.  Overall, the soundtrack is one of the great war movie soundtracks.

               The acting is top notch from what appears to be an all-star cast.  However, at the time it was not a who’s who list, it was a who’s gonna be who list.  Aside from Shepard and Sizemore, the young cast was on the cusp of stardom.  One fun thing about the movie is recognizing the future stars.  One problem with the movie is you really have to look carefully.  It is not easy to distinguish between the characters even with names inauthentically added to their helmets.  The movie rewards multiple viewings.  On the plus side, no one really stands out because no one embarrasses themselves.  All of the performances are solid.  As per a modern war movie, the actors went through “boot camp” type experiences.  They move and behave like soldiers.

                  The plot has come under some criticism for lack of character development.  This is a misguided condemnation.  The fact is that the film was meant to be about the soldiers, not about a few individuals.  It did not have the same purpose as “Platoon”, for instance.  The closest equivalent that comes to mind is “Pork Chop Hill”.  It is hard to do an accurate account of a battle (which is clearly the intention of the film) and also develop the characters.  You would need a miniseries to do that (like “Generation Kill”).  In spite of time constraints, BHD does sufficient character introductions in the barracks scene.  Originally the movie was supposed to start with the mission so it could have been even less character driven.  Quit complaining.

               Another criticism is of the lack of coverage of the Somali point of view.  This is also unfair.  Considering the movie is a tribute to the American soldiers, it is asking too much that the enemy be given equal treatment.  They could have easily been demonized (and perhaps should have been), but the movie is sympathetic in a fair way.  One of the militiamen (‘sunglasses guy”) is featured in several scenes and gets to shoot down the first Black Hawk.  (He also gets a crowd-pleasing demise.)  Another interrogates Durant and forcefully represents the Somali point of view.  He also gets the best line when Durant turns down a cigarette.  “That’s right.  None of you Americans smoke anymore.”  Overall, the Somalis are depicted as worthy foes.  The movie does not portray them as katt-crazed nuts (which many were).  It also does not show the use of women and kids as human shields. By the way, although the movie struck some as racist because it was an almost all-white force versus black people. In actuality, there were only two black soldiers in the American units.

               There has never been a better movie about modern urban warfare.  The action is incredibly intense and yet may not even equal what it was like in Mogadishu that day.  For instance, there were a lot more RPGs fired.  And the gunships were under-represented.  The depiction of graphic wounds is stomach-turning, but realistic.  The movie does an excellent job on battlefield medicine with the attempts to save Smith being particularly powerful.  More importantly, the film is tactically sound in that it accurately reflects the tactical mistakes made that day. It also is one of the few combat movies that realistically shows that it is hard to hit a moving target, even with a machine gun. And the movie makes it clear that death in battle is often random.

               The biggest strength of the movie is it gets the military ethos right.  It was meant to be a tribute to the participants and that mission was accomplished.  The families of the dead were given some closure.  Schugart and Gordon, in particular, deserved this film.  The film has been wrongly labeled pro-war.  That is ridiculous.  It is pro-military, however.  Obviously the Pentagon felt that way considering the immense cooperation.  That is not to say that the military got a puff piece.  The movie does not sugarcoat the mistakes that were made, but it does not bludgeon us with them either.  I would hope the movie is required viewing at West Point.  God forbid the military should learn from its mistakes.  (Interestingly, although the Pentagon truthfully insists the mission was successful, the movie does not convey that.)  Significantly, the movie also does not take a stand on the policy of sending Task Force Ranger to Somalia.  Or the Clinton decision to turn tail and run after the battle.

CONCLUSION:  This movie belongs in the top ten war movies of all time.  It is also in the top ten most accurate war movies of all time.  It has many of the things I look for in a war movie for it to be considered great and important.  It accurately tells a story that needed to be told (ex. “The Great Raid”), it memorializes soldiers who deserved the accolades (ex. “We Were Soldiers”), it is realistic in tactics and soldier behavior (ex. “ A Walk in the Sun”), and it is entertaining.  It is hard to get those first three and also arrive at the fourth.  You may have noticed that I grade war movies on action using a scale of 1-10.  Surprisingly, many war movies do not have a lot of action per running time.  Once the mission begins, BHD is almost continuous action.  And it’s true, not bull crap. 

P.S.  There are three things I take away from this movie.  1.  America (and the military) puts a very high premium on soldier lives as we got further from the Vietnam War.  It was the biggest firefight since Vietnam and the twenty years had a softening effect.  When the first death occurs, everyone is stunned and the 19 deaths were treated like a disaster.  Imagine that reaction in any of our previous wars.  2. The military cares a lot about its wounded and dead.  Blackburn (the first of many casualties) has three Humvees detached to transport him back to base.  That was 1/3 of the convoy!  3. Our modern volunteer military is very efficient.  Most of the Rangers had never seen combat and were fighting against a lot of Somalis who had.  They gave way more than they got and survived against enormous odds.