Black Hawk Down

As with any "based on a true story" movie, especially one involving complex military operations, there are many ways in which the plot of the movie differs from the actual events.

The exigencies of dramatic storytelling also require that certain practices and procedures are not accurately portrayed.

Though, technically, these might be thought of as goofs, it's a movie, not a documentary.

The sunglasses worn by SFC Hooten ('Eric Bana' (qv)) are Oakley Juliets.

Throughout the film Oakley is one of the very few brand names mentioned (when Pilla is impersonating Capt.

Steele - "If Delta wants to wear Oakleys, that's their business.

I don't wanna see them on again, hooah.

The company does have a Standard Issue range that is intended for military use and the brand itself is highly popular with servicemen.

The appearance of Hoots sunglasses is chronologically incorrect though, the events depicted in the film took place in 1993 and Oakley did not start marketing the specific sunglasses he wears until 1999.

In the satellite image, the helicopter hovering over the city is a Bell UH-1 "Huey" but in the regular aerial shots, it is a UH-60 Black Hawk.

When Mr.

Atto leaves Mogadishu in the Land Rover convoy, the last Rover clearly squeals its tires on a dusty dirt road.

Numerous times in the film when any helicopter lands, we hear the familiar chirp-chirp-chirp sound.

This is characteristic only of the famous Bell H-13G (the MASH chopper), and then only of the rubber drive belt disengaging from the rotor column.

After Sgt.

Busch crawls out of the first Black Hawk wreck, the goggles on his helmet disappear and reappear several times.

While evacuating prisoners, McKnight's voice is very obviously overdubbed, as 'Tom Sizemore' (qv)'s mouth appears to be saying something completely different from what is heard.

When Sgt.

Sanderson was lying prone and ordering one of his Delta soldiers to draw fire from some Somalis on a vehicle, he was waving his left arm.

But when the camera switches to behind him, he is waving his right arm.

Dolly tracks are visible in opening shot.

When Hoot takes over the 0.

50 caliber machine gun, his gloves disappear and reappear between cuts.

A white-shirted cameraman is visible, crouching over a camera in the back of a Humvee when it stops to let the old man past.

While flying into Mogadishu one soldier holds a paperback edition of 'John Grisham' (qv)'s novel _The Client (1994)_ (qv).

In October 1993, this book was only available in hardcover; the paperback was not published until March 1994.

The call to prayer in the beginning was called after the sun had risen.

In Islam, there are no calls to prayer after sunrise until after noon.

When the city forces take over the second black hawk helicopter, a shot from the point of view of the wounded soldier reveals a camera and crane on the right-hand side of the screen.

When Blackburn is lying on the stretcher they put his legs straight.

Next time we see his legs, up close they are clearly bent.

The rifle disappears and reappears in 'Mike Durant' (qv)'s lap between cuts.

The mini-guns and rocket launchers mounted on Little Bird disappear and reappear between shots (being replaced by flat benches) after it breaks formation when it is sent to Walcot's crash site.

As 'Mike Durant' (qv)'s chopper is crashing, the gunners disappear and reappear between shots.

The position of 'Mike Durant' (qv)'s Black Hawk in the satellite images after it crashes.

This is presumably because one is the real satellite image.

(several were used in making the movie) After Gordon is killed in the 2nd crash, Shughart takes over.

We see a shot of a Somali shooting Shughart.

In the next shot Shughart is dead.

After that we see him dropping the g3sas the second time and he is still sitting up.

During the Mogadishu Mile, Rangers and Delta are being left behind by the UN.

In the high shot where the vehicles go downhill then the soldiers appear, there are two crewmembers wearing blue shirts on the roof of the top right building.

The appearance of Hoot's rifle changes throughout the movie, often between shots (this is especially noticeable when he is firing out of the window of the Humvee).

When Eversmann and his men are running back to the their base, he dodges some gun fire and squats behind an old car for cover.

As he does so, his "mark" is visible on the road at the spot where he stops running and dodges behind the car.

In one shot, a Black Hawk helicopter is flying over the ocean; soldiers can been in its cabin with their legs hanging out over the sides.

In the next the shot(s), the same helicopter cabin is empty.

While Second Lieutenant John Beales is having an epileptic seizure, 'Days of the New' (qv)'s "Die Born" is being played by the soldiers in the background.

This album was not released until 2001.

While running the "Mogadishu Mile" at the very end, there is a close-up shot where a Delta unit lifts his rifle, it recoils against his shoulder, and we hear several shots, but he doesn't pull the trigger - his finger lies flat against the trigger guard The.

50 caliber machine guns on some of the Humvees are dummy guns whose barrels flop about as the vehicles drive over rough terrain, such as when Blackburn goes to the shooting range to meet Eversmann.

The position of Grimes and Blackburn at the shooting range.

When the soldiers are waiting for the mission to get underway they are discussing the details while shooting baskets, in the background there is a group of farm houses set in a green field.

When Sgt.

Struecker enters the lead Humvee in the three-vehicle column to return to base, he closes the door which is missing the glass in the window.

In the next shot where Struecker is driving the Humvee, the glass has re-appeared.

When 'Mike Durant' (qv)'s crash site is overrun, Randy Shugart is shot 11 times with a Tokarev pistol which only holds eight rounds.

When the muezzin (who recites Azan (Moslem call for prayer)) calls for the morning prayer on the minaret, we can see that the sun had already risen.

Which means the time for morning prayer is already over.

The muezzin should have recited the call for prayer at least an hour earlier (which is done all over in the Moslem countries).

Cliff Wolcott's helmet model changes right after his helo is hit by an RPG.

He wouldn't have switched helmets during a flight.

After Blackburn falls, Eversmann ropes out of the helicopter.

When he begins down the rope, another Ranger grabs the rope to descend after him.

However, the long shot of the rope and the scene after Eversmann reaches the ground indicate no one was following him.

When Garrison says," Good luck boys, and be careful.

No one gets left behind," briefly in the hangar you see two white shirted crew members and the camera.

When Chalk 4 are pinned down by a.

50 caliber machine gun, a Little Bird is waiting above.

In the shot from the top, it is a Bell Huey, then when it fires at the gunner it is a Little Bird again.

In the first few scenes of the movie, Muslims are shown praying towards the east, proved by the sunrise they are facing.

But the holy city of Mecca would be to the north, northwest of Somalia, not to the east as it is from in North America.

Before Sfc.

Randy Shughart gives CWO 'Mike Durant' (qv) his fallen comrade, MSgt.

Gary Gordon's rifle, CWO Michael Durant is already seen with the rifle in his lap for one small scene (the last scene of him before Sfc.

Randy Shughart gives him the rifle).

At the start of the film, most of the pilots were shown with SPH-4A/B flight helmets, but a few are wearing newer HGU-56/P helmets.

The movie takes place in October 1993, but the Army did not begin fielding the HGU-56's until 1995.

The black that is on Grimes face changes from fully black to half of his face black during the scene when he's giving coffee to Sanderson When Gordon is defending the second crash site he switches from his sound-suppressed M4 sniper rifle to his Colt M1911A1 pistol.

The first time he uses his 1911 pistol, he fires 7 shots rapidly to kill charging Somalians.

The first shot locks the slide back but the next six are clearly added in because the shells don't fly out and the gun still fires despite the slide being locked back.

The next six muzzle flashes must have been added in post-production.

when CPT Steele calls out SFC Hooten to point out the safety of his weapon, it is obvious that when Hooten turns around, the right side of his rifle is facing outward but when Steele's finger is pointing at the safety lever, the left side of the rifle is facing outward After Pvt Blackburn falls out of the Black Hawk, SPC Grimes and Waddel are talking about why he is not firing yet.

You see Sgt Eversmann and Schmid attending to Blackburn while Eversmann waves for Gallentine (the one with the radio phone) and he approaches and is kneeling by Blackburn in the background.

In the next shot Gallentine again runs to and kneels by Blackburn.

When the first Black Hawk is shot down, after it hits the ground you see its aileron at the rear without a pattern.

The next time you see it (when the aircraft turns on its side) it has patterns on it.

When the soldiers are firing the mini guns from the helicopters, the shells are falling out too slowly.

A raining stream would fall out, not a small line of shells.

When Eversmann goes to see Jamie Smith's body at the end of the movie, he says to Smith that he will go and talk to his "mom and pop" when he gets home.

He then pats Smith's chest and Smith's eyes twitch showing that he isn't really dead.

After Super6-1 goes down and an RPG is shot at the crew chief defending the position, the wire that the RPG is attached to is visible after passing through.

When a Ranger throws out a frag grenade, Sgt.

Eversman warns his men by yelling "Grenade!" Proper designation would be to yell "Frag out!" as yelling "Grenade!" warns the men of an incoming grenade, not an outgoing one.

When Shughart and Gordon are defending 'Mike Durant' (qv)'s helicopter, at one point, Gordon shoots a Somali in a yellow shirt.

After he is killed, Shughart shoots the same Somali a few seconds later.

In several scenes, such as in the lunch line when Steele is getting onto Hoot about his weapon, it is possible to see the knobs on the carry handles, revealing them to be M4A1s.

These were not developed until 1994.

During the entire movie, when the soldier's are talking on the AN/PRC-119A radios they are able to talk and receive transmissions.

However the radio is on "Stand By" and there is no RF cable attached to the antenna connector.

So even if the radio was on they would not be able to talk on those radios.

When PFC Blackburn and SSG Eversmann first meet, PFC Blackburn's subtitles incorrectly show him as saying, "Yes sir, you want me to shoot?" when he actually says, "Yes sarn't, you want me to shoot?" The distinction between the two is very important as in the United States Army, Sergeants are never referred to as "Sir".

Only commissioned officers are referred to as "Sir".

"Sarn't" is a common shortening of "sergeant".

The uniforms worn are 3-color desert combat uniforms (DCU) with 6-color "chocolate chip" desert Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) helmet covers.

This is correct.

The new DCUs adopted in 1992 (after Desert Storm) had entered the supply chain by 1993 and had begun to be issued before the Somalia incident.

Elite formations like the Rangers and Special Forces are usually the first to receive new equipment, and were so equipped in Mogadishu in October 1993.

The reason they still wore the older camouflaged helmet covers was due to the fact that the covers had not been issued yet.

It is has been historically quite common for US helmet covers and other camouflage accessories to lag behind in the distribution of new patterned uniforms.

When Eversmann's team proceeds to the first crash site, the supervisor reports"Hostiles advancing parallel west your position.

" This would be misleading as the enemy is actually east of the team, according to the direction of the shadows as well as the fact that the scene takes place in the afternoon, well after 03:45 PM.

It is questionable if the mission supervisor would use this kind of orientation, instead of rather saying something like "enemies at 9 o' clock".

On their way to the first crash site, Eversmann's team members sneak around a house corner.

A Somali opens fire with a heavy machine gun and a RPG is being shot, both hitting the house corner hard and debris is flying around.

After a Little Bird has taken out the Somali, the team advances.

In the following shots, the house corner shows no traces of the impacts.

When Pilla gets shot, the first KIA, he lands on Thomas on his right shoulder and soaks his uniform in blood.

In one scene when Streuker's column is ready to depart the base, it appears that Thomas's left arm (not his right) is covered in blood.

However, this is due to the fact that the audience is looking through Sgt Streuker's point of view, who is watching Thomas through the mirror of his Humvee.

After shooting the technical with his grenade launcher, Grimes ('Ewan McGregor' (qv)) dives into a little hole in the ground when Sanderson ('William Fichtner' (qv)) warns him of an incoming RPG.

As he dives, you can see a camera crew visible on the left side of the screen.

When the sharpshooter takes out the Land Rover carrying Atto, the vehicle changes from a Defender model to a Discovery in the close ups and distance shots.

During the scene when the soldier has a seizure while watching TV, the soldiers around him hold him down and someone yells out to put something in his mouth.

Both of these actions are wrong.

You neither hold down or put anything in the mouth of someone having a seizure.

The soldiers should know this as they all go through basic first aid in training.

When Blackburn gives his Military I.

D (which consists of only numbers) to Grimes, you can clearly see that when he types it into the database he uses the letter keys all over the keypad, and not the top line of number keys only.

When the boy runs to drop the telephone down to the militia leader, a bay can be seen in the background.

The coast off Mogadishu is straight and there are no bays.

Secondly, a cliff to the left is visible, as well as in the scenes with the helicopters flying towards the city; there are no seaside-cliffs near Mogadishu.

This is a view of the filming location in Morocco.

After the first Black Hawk has crashed, a lone soldier guarding the wreckage comes under fire by Somalis with RPGs.

In a side-shot of one of the missiles flying past, you can see a wire in the air along its trajectory.

When Nelson, Twombly and Yurek are running down the street towards Eversmann's position, there are cars and buses driving past in the background in the high shot.

In at least one scene depicting the US Base, and shows a C-130 Hercules transport in the background, you can see the country symbol on it (round and red) that shows it to be a Moroccan Air Force Hercules, which is where the movie was filmed.

In the Spanish and German versions, when Garrison and McKnight talk about Spectre gunships, the word "gunship" is translated as "helicopter.

" Just after the task force takes off from the airfield, they pass over a kid with a cell phone who call's the militia leader to warn him.

The militia leader is told, "Ma-alint" which has come to mean "Rangers" in the language of modern Somalia.

But that is really an abbreviation of "Ma-alinti Rangers" which is a National Holiday in Somalia celebrated on the anniversary of the battle, October 3rd.

The phrase did not exist until the year after the battle.

When Yurek runs to join Eversman at the first crash site, there are kicks of dust as bullets hit the ground as he runs for cover.

The sound of bullets has been edited out however.

Afterwards when Nelson runs the same route, there are no kicks of dust at all.

Cartridges and empty casings seen throughout the movie are not blanks.

Cartridges and casings that are seen in some scenes are, in fact, "dummy" rounds.

Dummy cartridges are generally "live" rounds with the gunpowder grains removed and a non-working primer installed.

Blank rounds are characterized by the crimping of the casing where the projectile normally is and are painted on the end to distinguish them from live and dummy rounds.

Blank rounds will "pop" when fired like actual live rounds unlike dummy rounds which don't have any powder at all.

When Wolcott and 'Mike Durant' (qv) are talking about the word "limo" Durant says it's not in the dictionary, but it is in the Official Scrabble Dictionary.

When the two Delta snipers are approaching the second downed Black Hawk, a Somalian man in a white shirt is shown from behind.

Clearly visible is a pack on his back.

A few seconds later he is shot by one of the snipers in that exact spot.

It's a blood pack.

Michael Durant is in the left hand seat of the helicopter.

However, according to Durant, during the actual battle he was flying from the right hand seat.

When Jamie Smith is hit, the bullet apparently severs hit femoral artery, as Eversmann and the medic later attempt to clamp it.

However, the medic says to Eversmann when Smith is first hit, that "If he [Smith] doesn't get to a hospital in a half-hour, he's in trouble.

" With arterial bleeding, the victim is usually dead within 5-6 minutes after suffering the injury.

Durant uses an MP5A5 when defending his helicopter.

Pilots really used MP5K's, which are significantly smaller.

Just after Gordon is killed.

Durant can be seen shooting Somalians with the MP5, with Gordan's M733 Carbine on his lap, which Shughart hasn't given him yet.

This then disappears as the rifle is given to him and doesn't return to his lap until he runs out of ammunition.

When Yurek gets separated from chalk 4 and runs into a school for cover a father and a son are seen firing into the door he just went through, which Yurek subsequently locks, then he walks across the room to the opposite side, opens the door and slips, the same son and father are there and the son unintentionally shoots the father.

However the father and son would have had to go all the way around the building in the time Yurek crosses the room to be there.

Randy Shughart uses semi automatic sniper rifle through whole movie.

In one scene, approximately 30 seconds before Gary Gordon dies, we could see him firing from M16.

Before the mission starts, such as when he is making impressions of Captain Steele, Pilla is referred to as "Specialist" (E-4) and wears the corresponding rank.

However, during the mission when he is manning the turret in a Humvee, Pilla is referred to several times as "Sergeant" (E-5).

Black Hawk Down (2001) Director: Ridley Scott Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer Watching Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers risk their lives to save their own brothers is enough to make the toughest person in the crowd to shed a tear. In Black Hawk Down (2001), U.

What an extraordinary production BHD is, the attention to detail is everything that you would expect from a Ridley Scott film, and is astounding. It's an extensive and interesting cast too, with Sterling work from Eric Bana, William Fitchner and Josh Hartnett although arguably it is Jason Isaacs (Hello Jason) who has the most to work with in terms of his character.

This is one of the most intense and brutal battles/wars films it shows how the battle of Mogadishu happened it first shows Mohammed Farrah Audi's declaring war on un personnal.

'Black Hawk Down' is a terrific cinematic experience. Seasoned Filmmaker Ridley Scott brings a true-human tragedy on celluloid, with a captivating screenplay, top-notch performances and razor-sharp editing.

I think I watched this movie over 20 times (on 5 or 6 diff languages). This is simply one of my favorite movies of all time.

This is my All Time Most Favorite Flick. It reaches the far depths of my imagination on what it was like for our brave soldiers to battle against a drug induced enemy who will stop at nothing to rule their world.

I don't usually write a lot of reviews but this movie shouldn't exist. There's little to care about here.

Ridley Scott's account of the U.S.

Black Hawk Down is a great movie with a very well developed storyline that felt very real and accurate to kind type of things that happen during a war,and because I felt that it was very intense and really put you in to this serious situation,the movie is almost two and a half hours long but it dosen't feel that long,its action packed all the way through.I felt that there was a bit too much action,not that I didn't enjoy it,but we could have gotten to know a bit more about the characters,Josh Hartnett,Ewan McGregor and many others put in very inspired performances and I would have liked to have gotten to know a lot more about their life.