Black Hawk Down (2001)

160 elite U.S. soldiers drop into Somalia to capture two top lieutenants of a renegade warlord and find themselves in a desperate battle with a large force of heavily-armed Somalis.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Mark Bowden (book), Ken Nolan (screenplay)

Stars:

Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore

Won 2 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 37 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Hartnett	...	Eversmann
Ewan McGregor	...	Grimes
Tom Sizemore	...	McKnight
Eric Bana	...	Hoot
William Fichtner	...	Sanderson
Ewen Bremner	...	Nelson
Sam Shepard	...	Garrison
Gabriel Casseus	...	Kurth
Kim Coates	...	Wex
Hugh Dancy	...	Schmid
Ron Eldard	...	Durant
Ioan Gruffudd	...	Beales
Tom Guiry	...	Yurek (as Thomas Guiry)
Charlie Hofheimer	...	Smith
Danny Hoch	...	Pilla

Storyline

Action/war drama based on the best-selling book detailing a near-disastrous mission in Somalia on October 3, 1993. On this date nearly 100 U.S. Army Rangers, commanded by Capt. Mike Steele, were dropped by helicopter deep into the capital city of Mogadishu to capture two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord. This led to a large and drawn-out firefight between the Army Ranges, US Special Forces, and hundreds of Somali gunmen; resulting in the destruction of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters. The film focuses on the heroic efforts of various Rangers to get to the downed black hawks, centering on SSG Eversmann, leading the Ranger unit Chalk Four to the first black hawk crash site, Chief Warrant Officer Durant who was captured after being the only survivor of the second black hawk crash, as well as many others who were involved.

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Plot Keywords:

somalia | u.s. soldier | u.s. army | gunfight | street shootout | 

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Taglines:

Reporting for Duty Christmas 2001

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Genres:

Drama | History | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for intense, realistic, graphic war violence, and for language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English Somali Arabic

Release Date:

18 January 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Black Hawk Down

Filming Locations:

Morocco

Box Office

Budget:

$92,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$274,347, 30 December 2001, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$108,638,745

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$172,989,651

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Scott Free Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

144 min 152 min (extended)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS (8 channels)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Soldiers of the Royal Moroccan Army played Somali militiamen.

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Goofs

As Yurek, Twombly, and Nelson make their way to Walcott's crash site, Yurek is hailed on the radio by Eversmann. While talking to him, Yurek is seem detaching the magazine of an AK rifle from a dead militiaman. This would have pointless, because AK models at the time fired either 7.62x39mm bullets or 5x45mm bullets, depending on the model. These are incompatible with his M16, which fires 5.56x45 bullets.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Dan Busch: There. Technicals, nine o'clock.

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Crazy Credits

There are no studio logos at the beginning and the only opening credit is the title.

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Alternate Versions

A longer version of the scene where Sanderson inspects Grime's foot was filmed, but cut. Sanderson finds a piece of shrapnel lodged in Grime's foot, but he didn't feel it cause it cauterized on impact.

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Connections

Referenced in Gintberg på kanten: Forsvaret (2012)

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Soundtracks

Right Turn
Written by Jerry Cantrell
Performed by Alice in Chains (Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell) feat. Chris Cornell and Mark Arm
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

So many elements combine to make this movie good.. especially the music

I've just got this movie on DVD - I did see it on the big screen and it blew my mind. Being from Australia we had practically no idea of what was going on in Somalia, and after seeing this movie and then reading the book - it is an eye opener.

Now that I've watched it a few more times, I've noticed one thing with this movie. The music. Aside from the story and the cinematography and the editing which all are so well done that you feel like you are there with them; the music is a big contributor to the feel of the movie, and in my opinion, more so than in a lot of films.

It is very subtle, it has taken me 10 viewings to even notice there was music there. It really helps create the atmosphere, going from lighthearted, almost fun in the beginning with various rock/pop tracks into deep and moving operatic styles as the story progesses into the war and further.

It is the top of my list of favourites for many reasons, but I think mostly it is the way the whole package comes together to tell the story of what happened that makes it so good.

Well worth viewing many times over.