Black Hawk Down, Directed by Ridley Scott.

¶ … Black Hawk Down, directed by Ridley Scott. Specifically, it will look at a summary of the film, what part of the film was accurate, what impact it had on the period; what impact it had on future periods; and what impact, if any, it may have on you. "Caring about someone's life, rather than your own," is a very powerful and brave belief to breathe under, as declared by producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. "Black Hawk Down" brings out the "heroism under fire" by which every brotherly soldier of the U.S.

Rangers and Delta Force reside. HISTORY AND BLACK HAWK DOWN Somalia - 1993. Two sides were fighting against each other to gain control of Somalia. One was led by "a member of the Abgal (Hawiye) subclan, and the other by General Mohamed Farad Aidid, a member of the Habr Gidir (Hawiye) subclan" (Lefebvre 49). By November 1991, thousands of Mogadishu residents died when fighting began between the two factions.

The capital, Mogadishu, became two separate "cities," separated by a "green line" between the "northern part of the city controlled by Ali Mahdi's forces and the southern half in the hands of Aidid" (Lefebvre 49). Both factions said the food shipments meant for the starving population belonged to them, and as a result, food was not getting to the people. The Somalian people were starving.

"As the result of a two-year drought and internal conflict, by the end of 1992 one-third of Somalia's 7 million people were in danger of perishing from starvation and disease. During 1992 an estimated 300,000 Somalis had died as a result of malnourishment or violence" (Lefebvre 46). The U.N. Security Council had already decided something needed to be done to help the starving Somalis, and had sent 3,000 peacekeepers to deliver food, but there were still many problems. "Before the arrival of the U.S.

Marines the only way relief organizations could operate in Somalia was by paying bribes and hiring one or more of the so-called 'technicals' for protection" (Lefebvre 49). Finally, the U.S., after many meetings, decided to send troops to Somalia to aid in the food distribution. On December 4, 1992, President George Bush agreed to send nearly 30,000 U.S. military forces to Somalia. Under the auspices of the United Nations, their mission would be to provide for the delivery of food and other emergency supplies throughout the country.

Bush's decision to implement Operation Restore Hope came one day after the U.N. Security Council had adopted Resolution 794 calling for the United Nations Unified Task Force (UNITAF) to "use all necessary means to establish as soon as possible a secure environment for humanitarian relief in Somalia." A week later U.S. Marines went ashore at Mogadishu. They would subsequently be joined by troops representing more than 20 countries (Lefebvre 44). After the U.S. And U.N.

troops arrived, there was still general anarchy in Somalia, and General Aidid continued to commandeer shipments of food. This was unacceptable to the United States, and they decided to remove Aidid from power, and replace the government. It was an action unshared with the other U.N. forces. The U.S. went in alone. "I am not sure policymakers understood either Somalis' social structure or how sentiment tempered this. For instance, as a catchphrase 'ancient ethnic hatreds' seemed perfectly designed for making deeper understanding seem all the more superfluous" (Simons 204).

The biggest problem with the U.S. policy in Somalia was our intention to end the famine, remove Aidid, and thereby "revolutionize" the government. Unfortunately, the government did not seem to understand "Ending the famine and ending the crisis which provoked the famine were two separate issues" (Menkhaus 142). Because of mismanagement, miscommunication, and a total lack of regard for the resistance fighters' network of spies and weaponry, what was supposed to be a quick, in-and-out 30-minute operation turned into a nightmare.

"Black Hawk Down" is the story of the U.S. Rangers and the Delta Force who entered Mogadishu to "extract" Aidid and key government officials, and instead, were pinned down for nearly 24 hours in an ambush by Aidid forces, along with men, women, and children who picked up guns to save their city. As the movie says in the opening scene, "Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato" (Black Hawk Down). Black Hawk Down" opens with some background on Somalia, and why the U.S.

forces are there, but it is skimpy at best, and leaves the viewer asking questions, such as, "What did Aidid do with the food? Why was he in charge?" A review of the history of Somalia answers these questions, but the movie does not. The first part of the movie, introduces the characters to make them more sympathetic and give some insight as to why they feel the strong camaraderie they do.

They are "brothers," and this section of the movie helps establish their bond, as well as their disgust with some of their leaders, such as the scene when they make fun of their commanding officer, and he catches them at it. This early part of the film humanizes the characters, and makes the viewer care what happens to them, which of course is the entire purpose, so the viewer can be outraged when they die in Mogadishu.

The main portion of the film follows the Rangers and Delta Force as they enter Mogadishu for the raid; code-named "Irene." Unfortunately, as soon as they leave the base at the airport, spies report their progress, and a large group of forces are waiting for them when they arrive. The mission is doomed from the start, when young Blackburn falls from the helicopter and is critically wounded. From then on, it is unorganized chaos.

A Black Hawk helicopter is shot down, and another goes down trying to rescue stranded members of the team. The convoy leaves some of the Rangers behind as it tries to get out of the city. Through it all, there is continual fighting, groups of men running from sniper fire, and a general feeling of mass confusion. Where the beginning of the movie was easy to follow, this section is frantic, just as it must have been for the men involved in the fight. There was a lack of leadership.

The convoy literally "got lost," and people kept asking where it was. In an interview on Frontline, PFC Anton Berendsen said, "The forward observer up on the top in a helicopter telling us 'go right,' 'go left,' and we started getting lost. And you can just imagine, you know who you feel when you're driving in the city and you're lost, that feeling of desperation. Just magnify it times a hundred" (Weiss).

Finally, the convoy abandoned 90 Rangers who were pinned down to get the wounded back to the base. Then, another group of Rangers had to go in to try to get their men out. Through it all, their motto was "leave no man behind," but it was a difficult motto to keep. This section of the film not only showed the unholy odds the Rangers were facing, it showed how they stuck together, and attempted to save one another.

They were genuinely upset when one of their comrades fell, and they did anything to get the wounded out of harm's way. In the scene when the first Ranger is killed while manning the 50-caliber gun on HumVee in the convoy, the characters seem amazed that one of their men was killed in what was supposed to be a simple exercise. Later, they are not so much surprised as angry, and determined to get out alive.

This section of the film very realistically portrays the horror of war, and how men are terribly maimed and killed. This showed the validity of their training, and how they attempted to keep the mission together, and keep the men together, even after the mission turned into disaster. This was the longest portion of the film, and it seemed even longer because of the continual action, and the feeling that this nightmare was never going to end. This seemed to capture what the men were feeling perfectly.

The aftermath was only shown for a few minutes at the end of the film, but it was enough to make the story more poignant, and yet more worthless. One character says, "What's changed? Nothing" (Black Hawk Down), and he was correct. The aftermath of the fighting seemed to show that nothing the Rangers had done made a difference. Somalians still starved. Aidid was still in power, and 19 American men had been killed.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY Was the film historically accurate? Of course, given the limitations of a two-hour plus movie, a lot of liberty has to be taken with the content, especially since the entire episode lasted fifteen hours or more. However, the historical accuracy seems reasonably correct, especially in the fighting scenes, where the director was attempting to get the most impact across to the viewer.

He showed dramatically how tight the Rangers and Delta Force are, and how they are trained as a team, and how each man is a brother to the other. This all came across in the film, and seems to be very accurate from the interviews of actual Rangers who participated in the raid on the Frontline web site.

Specialist Mike Kurth summed up the Ranger creed when he said in an interview on the site, "If I get shot and I'm dead, I know my buddies aren't going to leave until they get me with them. I mean who wants to be a part of a unit that when you get shot, they're just gonna leave you out on the street to get mauled?" (Weiss).

Another point of the film that was not clear, and was made more clearly in the historical records was why the Somalis hated us so much. This was very unclear in the movie, especially when what seemed like the entire city converged on the downed helicopters. It made sense that Aidid's forces would certainly protect their General, but it was not clear why the rest of the population was fighting, especially when at the end, an entire group was gathered along the road where the Rangers were running out.

In another Frontline interview, PFC Anton Berendsen said the locals called the Americans the "Dogs of Darkness, and the "Evil Ones in the Hanger" (Weiss). This helped to make it a little more clear why at least a large portion of the Somalis were against us. They felt we were somewhere we did not belong, and so we were the "evil ones." These live interviews on Frontline give credence to the film, but also help point out its flaws.

No film can be 100% accurate in its portrayal of an actual event. There simply is not time in the film to depict everything. There also has to be some sort of Hollywood "formula" for the film to be exciting enough to keep an audience's attention for two hours or more. This film was exciting and horrifying at the same time. If the action of some of the men, and the historical accuracy was not perfect, it certainly was far from shoddy.

The film tried to stay as accurate to the story as possible, while still creating the tension and action necessary for a successful commercial film. IMPACT What impact did the ambush have on Somalia at the time? It certainly showed Aidid and his supporters they could bring down elite fighting forces of the United States. Since the Rangers did not capture Aidid, he went on to rule for two more years before he was killed.

As the captured General said early in the film, "This is our war, not yours." Ultimately, U.S. troops were all removed by 1994, and the Somali problem still continues, one of unrest and dependence on foreign aid. "It may be an exaggeration to claim that the Somali state is a creation of external assistance, but it is indisputable that the state has never been remotely sustainable by domestic sources of revenue" (Menkhaus 126). Therefore, the impact at the time was of course immediate and devastating.

1,000 Somalis died as a result of the October 1993 ambush. A large portion of central Mogadishu was destroyed or heavily damaged by the firefight. Mogadishu citizens lost their livelihood. A vivid example of the loss was during one of the last scenes of the film, when the Pakistani armored vehicles are leaving the area, and they stop for an old man carrying a dead child. War does not choose its victims, and innocent people always die as a result of war. Additionally, the U.S. military looked stupid from the onset.

What was supposed to have been a simple half-hour "extrication" turned into a nightmare, and it made the military look inept. The later impact of the Mogadishu affair was embarrassment by the U.S. government, and a reevaluation of foreign policy, especially when the U.S. gets involved in other countries' wars. It is always difficult to stand back and watch a country destroy itself, but in the case of Somalia, intervention did not work, and certainly was not the answer.

Additionally, the entire incident created the need to review foreign aid policy, and revolutionize it. Among those donors at the forefront of new thinking on foreign aid to Somalia is the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is attempting to operationalize these new approaches.