Black Hawk Down: To critics, it was a Zulu-like whitewashing of history. But for many US servicemen, it remains a painfully true depiction of modern warfare. Photo / File
Outspoken critics of Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down included a Somali warlord - Osman Ali Atto - whose capture by US troops was depicted in the film's opening scenes.
Atto was a businessman and financier to Mohammed Farah Aideed, leader of the Habr Gidr clan and - according to US intelligence - the "Hitler of Somalia".
Moneyman Atto was aggrieved by the lack of consultation. As he told the BBC when Black Hawk Down landed in cinemas - now 20 years ago - he wasn't interviewed and didn't give permission to be portrayed in the Oscar-winning film.
"My rights have been violated [as well as] many other Somali leaders and the people of Somali," he said.
In the film, Atto travels in a three-car convoy, which is swiftly surrounded by US helicopters and duly halted with a single warning shot.
According to Atto, he travelled with just one vehicle, which was fired upon heavily.
"When the helicopter attacked, people were hurt, people were killed," he said.
"The car we were travelling in, I have got proof, it was hit at least 50 times. And my colleague Ahmed Ali was injured on both legs." (Apparently, Ali was shot in both legs to prevent him from shooting back with an AK-47, after which Atto tried to flee.)
Atto seemed especially upset at the depiction of Somali warlords as cigar-chomping, earring-wearing gangster-types.
"I am not smoking cigars, I have no earring on my ears," he protested.
Atto's capture was part of a wider effort that began as Operation Restore Hope in 1992, a UN mission to deliver food to the civil war and famine-ravaged Somalia.
The effort then shifted focus to "nation-building" and the removal of Mohammed Farah Aideed, who seized food shipments, attacked peacekeepers (in one incident killing 24 Pakistani soldiers), and bombed US troops.
A special US task force - Task Force Range - was deployed.
On October 3, 1993 US forces - including Army Rangers, Delta Force, and 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) in Black Hawk and Little Bird helicopters - attempted to capture two more Aideed lieutenants from a building in Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
But a series of accidents and mistakes turned the mission into a disaster. Somali militants brought down two Black Hawk helicopters with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
The mission was meant to take 30 minutes. It turned into an 18-hour firefight and overnight siege - better known as the Battle of Mogadishu.
Eighteen Americans and hundreds of Somalis - including many civilians - were killed. Seventy-three more Americans were injured.
In the fallout of the debacle, images were broadcast on US television of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
Just months later, President Bill Clinton withdrew US forces from Somalia. Ridley Scott's film - a two hour-plus, pulse-pounding, artery-spraying firefight - was based on the best-selling book, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden, first published in 1999.
Scott assured cinemagoers about his absolute fidelity to the truth.
"What we do is to engage the audience for two or two and a half hours and take them into a war that they would normally never experience," he said in an interview with the BBC.
"I thought, just make it as it was. Try not to romanticise it. Try not to sentimentalise it - and leave the audience with questions at the end, not necessarily answers."
The film's technical advisers included Colonel Tom Mathews, who had led a unit of the 160th SOAR into Mogadishu. Matthews declined to be involved in the film at first but his wife talked him into it.
"The Battle of Mogadishu was the most significant military operation of my career," he later said.
"They actually shot down five of my helicopters. They killed five of my guys and wounded a number of others. This was going to be the one time in my life where I could ever possibly influence the outcome of a movie, and if I didn't help try to get it right, I would have had to sit there afterward and say to myself, 'Boy, did they screw that up'."
What plays out is mostly faithful to the real sequence of events, if condensed for what veteran and history professor Ronald L Spiller called "an MTV version of history".
The problem with Black Hawk Down is perspective - perspective, that is, for pretty much anyone who isn't a heroic white American.
Osman Ali Atto being portrayed as a heavyset, cigar-puffing Mr Big-type sums up the film's broader stereotyping.
Though, as the book title suggests, it's a film about modern war - and one released in the shadow of 9/11 (though it was made before the World Trade Centre attacks) - Black Hawk Down is a classic Hollywood war.
It pits beastly foreign menaces against undisputed American heroism - a battle that's in every sense black and white.
Star Jason Isaacs posed the question to Ridley Scott at the time: "How do you stop this film from becoming Zulu, about a bunch of white people fighting off hordes of black people?"
Critics called the film racist while others spoke out against its glaring omissions - namely the whitewashing of the crucial roles played by Pakistani and Malaysian UN troops in the battle.
For its depiction of the battle itself, however, servicemen rank Black Hawk Down among the most accurate war films ever made.
"It's frank and brutal and about as realistic as you can get," Tom Matthews told The Washington Post.
"I think it's a tribute to the guys and gives people an incredible insight into what modern warfare is like."
Speaking in 2019, Mark Bowden recalled that Americans had little idea about what was happening with US forces in Somalia at the time.
His book began as a series of popular articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer - known for bombastic blockbuster fare as Top Gun, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor - snapped up the rights before the book even hit shelves.
Bruckheimer, said Bowden, wanted to make Black Hawk Down "very realistic, almost documentary-like".
Bowden wrote the first draft of the screenplay, which was then picked up by screenwriter Ken Nolan. With the film set for production in Morocco (where Ridley Scott had also filmed some of Gladiator), the King of Morocco offered to supply tanks, Humvees, and helicopters.
But the filmmakers wanted authentic US hardware and personnel too, so requested to use Black Hawks, Little Birds, and Army Rangers for the production.
Consequently, an early version of the script found its way to Colonel Tom Matthews, who was by now working at the Pentagon for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Matthews admitted that he was "thoroughly unimpressed" with the script.
"I told them that I didn't have a very good impression of war movies from Hollywood," he said.
Once Matthews agreed to enlist as an adviser, almost all of the Pentagon's top brass had to sign off on the film's use of Black Hawk helicopters, equipment, pilots and other personnel.
"All the stars were aligned for Black Hawk Down," said Tom Matthews.
"Had this production started after 9/11, you wouldn't have had access to one of those helicopters and you wouldn't have been allowed near any of the Rangers. It was just a very fortuitous window of time with the right people amenable to do this, with the forces available to do it."
The Pentagon (which charged a reported US$2.2 million for its troubles) wanted Black Hawk Down to be made - likely as a chance to reframe the Battle of Mogadishu.
"I think the army wanted this film to be made because of the misconception that it was a fiasco," Ridley Scott told the BBC.
"From their point of view, it wasn't a fiasco. They went in there and did what they wanted to do. What they were most furious about was that then they were withdrawn."
The film has an impressive cast of character actors and up-and-coming names - Josh Hartnett, Jason Isaacs, Sam Shepard, Tom Sizemore, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Ron Eldard, and a fresh-faced Tom Hardy (making his film debut) - who prepared with military training.
Actors playing Rangers went to Fort Benning, Georgia; Delta Force went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and the helicopter pilots went to 160th SOAR HQ in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Jason Isaacs, playing Ranger Captain Mike Steele, was made to take charge of his men for the week's training.
"I was getting people out of bed, telling them when they could stop and have a drink of water, calling people by their character names," he said.
Filmed between March and June 2001, Black Hawk Down looks - and feels - stunning: a searing assault of the nerves and senses, put through the Hollywood filter. Gruesome, gritty war has rarely looked so good.
The film begins with an attack by Aideed's men on a Red Cross food distribution centre.
Dated October 2, 1993, it's a fabricated event - an amalgam of the reported attacks on UN peacekeepers.
But for Rangers Sgt. Matt Eversmann - played by Josh Hartnett in the film - the scene was real enough. He recalled arriving to see the sequence being filmed.
"The hair on the back of my neck just stood up," he told The Washington Post.
"That scene, the way they were dressed, the backdrop, it was unbelievably accurate. It was so surreal that I had to stop, sit down and take a breath. That has been my impression of the whole film."
The fictional version of Eversmann plays up to a Hollywood type - an idealist who's fighting the good fight (he "respects" the Somalis and wants to help, while everyone else calls them "skinnies").
Putting the emphasis on the honest-to-goodness soldier helps the film to sidestep some of the more complicated issues surrounding the US military's role in Somalia.
Actor Brendan Sexton said that dialogue questioning the US's operation in Somalia was cut from the finished film.
"For a target audience of males aged 15 to 30, Ridley Scott has produced a celebration of American courage and spirit without a serious explanation of why we were forced, in the end, to rely on those two very real American characteristics," wrote Ronald L. Spiller.
"Mark Bowden's complex tale of modern war has become a simple story about not leaving any man behind."
Indeed, what's crucially missing from Black Hawk Down is context: that by the time the US showed up for its humanitarian effort in Somalia, the worst of the famine was over; that US forces had previously supported and bolstered Aideed's standing at a time when disarmament between the Mogadishu clans looked possible; and how in July 1993, US forces bombed a Habr Gidr clan meeting, reported to be peace talks between Somali elders.
The missile attack by multiple Cobra helicopters killed a reported 54 people, effectively uniting Somalis against the American forces.
Also missing is the fact that just over a week before the Battle of Mogadishu, Somali militants brought down another Black Hawk helicopter with RPGs.
There's also plenty in the build up to the action that's true.
As seen in the film, Matt Eversmann was put in charge of Ranger Chalk Four - his first time in charge - because another officer had a seizure; the troops believed they'd only be gone for 30 minutes - the mission was a quick "snatch and grab" - so they left behind night vision equipment, water, and body armour; and as the mission is underway, Private Blackburn (Orlando Bloom) fell 70ft from a helicopter (in the film because the chopper swerves an RPG, though in reality he just fell).
After capturing the targets, the Americans were blocked in and surrounded by Somali militants - trapped and pinned down overnight.
According to Neville Leigh's book, Day of the Rangers, veterans of the battle were impressed with the film overall: the uniforms, helicopters, and story details.
Helicopters were piloted by real members of the 160th SOAR - including Mogadishu veterans - though the film had multiple real-life soldiers "rolled up into one".
In reality, around 160 men went into the mission - the film whittles them down to around 40 characters.
Josh Hartnett's Eversmann, for instance, leads his men to the first Black Hawk crash site to secure the area and ensure that (as the tagline goes) no man gets left behind - he actually takes on the roles of around four real-life soldiers.
One notable change is Ewan McGregor's Grimes, a coffee enthusiast and desk clerk thrust into the action.
The character is based on John Stebbins, who really was a clerk known as "chief coffee maker", though the US Army requested that the film change his name.
The real Stebbins was court martialed and sentenced to 30 years for raping his six-year-old daughter.
Other true details include two Delta Force snipers, Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon (played by Johnny Strong and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who were inserted at the second Black Hawk crash site to protect the injured pilot Michael Durant (Ron Eldard).
Shughart and Gordon were ultimately overwhelmed and killed, and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Durant, as seen in the film, was taken hostage but released after 11 days.
The death of one soldier - blown in half while Tom Sizemore's Danny McKnight watches on - was exaggerated, while another grisly scene, showing a soldier finding and pocketing his pal's severed hand, really did happen.
There are some omissions: hinted at but never fully fleshed out tensions between the Rangers and Delta Force operators; the significant numbers of Somali child soldiers; and the reality of civilian deaths.
In the film, the US troops are precious about only shooting militants and leaving women and children out of it.
"The audience can only conclude that, in real life, the several thousand civilian casualties must all have been hit by bullets ricocheting off genuine, kite-marked warlords," wrote historian Alex von Tunzelmann about the film.
The technical advisers, however, were sticklers for detail.
Lt Col Lee Van Arsdale, who led the real-life rescue column in Mogadishu, was irritated by a small error.
"There's a scene where Eric Bana gets on the helicopter with his gun muzzle pointing up," he says.
"That's wrong. You always get on the helicopter with the muzzle pointed down so that if it discharges, the bullet won't hit the rotor blade and make you crash. We always harped on that, but that was a second-unit shot and neither Tom [Matthews] nor I were there for that."
The most Hollywood moment comes at the film's climax, as surviving Rangers and Delta Force operators run all the way from the city to safety of the Pakistani-controlled football - known as the "Mogadishu Mile".
In truth, some troops were forced to escape from the city on foot because there was no room on the rescue convoy.
They were meant to run alongside the vehicles but Malaysian drivers sped away.
They did run but not all the way out of the city and to the stadium, Hollywood-style. They were met by a convoy of ground vehicles.
Released in the US on December 28, 2001, Black Hawk Down soon came under fire.
The Somali Justice Advocacy Centre called for a boycott for portraying Somalis as "violent savages".
While Mark Bowden's original book included Somali accounts, the film version was less interested.
"They were not characterised, they were not telling their story," said Yusuf Hassan from the BBC's Somali service.
"At that time, I was covering the conflict as a journalist, and I know that the people who were fighting were not only supporters of Aideed. Many of them were just people in the neighbourhood who got caught up in this fire and were trying to defend their homes, as they thought they were under attack."
A pirated version of the film premiered in Mogadishu in early 2002.
A New York Times journalist reported on the event: "The Somalis were cheering when the American soldiers were shot and cheering when the helicopters went down."
Particularly outrageous by modern standards is the fact that the Somalis are not played by Somali actors.
"There is not a single word of the Somali language, no Somali music, nothing of our culture," said one Somali viewer.
The crucial role of Malaysian and Pakistani troops, who participated in the battle and rescue, are also all-but written out.
Instead, Pakistanis appear at the end, offering refreshments to the American heroes.
Brigadier-General Abdul Latif Ahmad, commander of Malaysian forces in Somalia at the time, said: "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."
The film was similarly denounced by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in his autobiography.
"The bravery of the US troops notwithstanding, we deserved equal, if not more, credit," he wrote.
"But the filmmakers depicted the incident as involving only Americans."
For US troops who were there, however, reframing the Battle of Mogadishu as a success is absolutely correct.
"The reality of war is that good men who are well trained are going to die at the hands of an inferior enemy," said Matt Eversmann.
"That's been true from the time of Hannibal to Gettysburg to Normandy and Mogadishu. But I'll tell you until my dying breath that was our finest hour and something I am fiercely proud of. I get really bent, as a lot of the guys do, when I hear people refer to the action on October 3rd and 4th as a failure. That is wrong. That is untrue."
- Telegraph Media Group
The Kiwi actor has been part of the Star Wars universe for more than 20 years.