Black Hawk Down

Josh Hartnett Director: Ridley Scott Ridley Scott

Overview

A quickly forgotten chapter in United States military history is relived in this harrowing war drama from director Ridley Scott, based on a series of Philadelphia Inquirer articles and subsequent book by reporter Mark Bowden. On October 3rd, 1993, an elite team of more than 100 Delta Force soldiers and Army Rangers, part of a larger United Nations peacekeeping force, are dropped into civil war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia, in an effort to kidnap two of local crime lord Mohamed Farah Aidid's top lieutenants. Among the team: Staff Sgt. Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight (Tom Sizemore), the resourceful Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson (William Fichtner), and Ranger Spec. Grimes (Ewan McGregor), a desk-bound clerk getting his first taste of live combat. When two of the mission's Black Hawk helicopters are shot down by enemy forces, the Americans -- committed to recovering every man, dead or alive -- stay in the area too long and are quickly surrounded. The ensuing firefight is a merciless 15-hour ordeal and the longest ground battle involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War. In the end, 70 soldiers are injured and 18 are dead, along with hundreds of Somalians. Black Hawk Down was voted one of the top ten films of the year by the National Board of Review prior to its limited Oscar-qualifying release. On the basis of his work in this film, co-star Eric Bana, a relatively unknown Australian actor playing Delta Sgt. First Class "Hoot" Gibson, won the lead in director Ang Lee's version of The Hulk (2003).

Product Details

Release Date:	05/07/2019
UPC:	0043396544505
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	R
Source:	Sony Pictures
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Format:	Blu-ray
Sales rank:	5,709

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Josh Hartnett	Ranger Staff Sgt. Matt Eversmann
Ewan McGregor	Ranger spec. Grimes
Jason Isaacs	Steele
Tom Sizemore	Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight
Eric Bana	Delta Sgt. First Class "Hoot" Gibson
William Fichtner	Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson
Ewen Bremner	Spec. Sgt. Shawn Nelson
Sam Shepard	Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison
Kim Coates	Wex
Hugh Dancy	Ranger Sgt. First Class Kurt Schmid
Ron Eldard	Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant
Ioan Gruffudd	Beales
Tom Guiry	Yurek
Charlie Hofheimer	Smith
Danny Hoch	Pilla
Zeljko Ivanek	Harrell
Glenn Morshower	Matthews
Gabriel Casseus	Ranger Spec. Mike Kurth
Jeremy Piven	Walcott
Brendan Sexton	Kowalewski
Johnny Strong	Shughart
Richard Tyson	Busch
Brian Van Holt	Struecker
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	Gordon
Steven Ford	Cribbs
Ian Virgo	Waddell
Tom Hardy	Twombly
Carmine Giovinazzo	Goodale
Chris Beetem	Joyce
Tac Fitzgerald	Thomas
Matthew Marsden	Sizemore
Orlando Bloom	Blackburn
Kent Linville	Othic
Enrique Murciano	Ruiz
Michael Roof	Maddox
George Harris	Atto
Razaaq Adoti	Mo'alim
Treva Etienne	Firimbi
Ty Burrell	Wilkinson
Boyd Kestner	Goffena
Jason Hildabrant	Jollata
Gregory Sporleder	Galentine
Johann Myers	Somali Father
Dana Woods	Fales
Abdibashir Mohamed Hersi	Somali Spy
Pavel Vokoun	Briley
Kofi Amankwah	Somali Kid
Joshua Quarcoo	Somali Kid
Lee Geohagen	Somali son with gun

Technical Credits

Ken Nolan

Steven Zaillian

Ridley Scott	Director,Producer
Hatimi Ahmed	Asst. Director
Blondel Aidoo	Executive Producer
Bob Badami	Musical Direction/Supervision
Pier Luigi Basile	Art Director
Pavel Bezdek	Stunts
Malika Boukergane	Makeup
Ales Bousi	Stunts
Mark Bowden	Consultant/advisor
Jerry Bruckheimer	Producer
Ana Bulajik-Crecek	Makeup
John Collett	Stunts
Eugene Collier	Stunts
Neil Corbould	Special Effects Supervisor
Gergely Csolle	Stunts
Eric Etje	Stunts
Roberta Federico	Set Decoration/Design
Jiri Firt	Stunts
Rachid Gaidi	Asst. Director
Gianni Giovagnoni	Art Director
Gianni Graziano	Makeup
Elli Griff	Set Decoration/Design
Michal Grun	Stunts
Rene Hajek	Stunts
Ron Hersey	Camera Operator
Jan Holicek	Stunts
Sammy Howarth-Sheldon	Costumes/Costume Designer
Peter Hric	Stunts
Ivo Husnjak	Art Director
Slawomir Idziak	Cinematographer
Rob Inch	Stunts
Charles Ingram	Stunts
Roman Jankovic	Stunts
Chuck Jeffreys	Stunts
Klaus Jindrich	Stunts
Martin Kenzie	Camera Operator
Ratislav Kotula	Stunts
Miroslav Lhotka	Stunts
Branko Lustig	Executive Producer
Antonio Maltempo	Makeup
Branislav Martinak	Stunts
Daniele Massaccesi	Camera Operator
Arthur Max	Production Designer
Emma McGuinness	Executive Producer
Lubomir Misak	Stunts
Diane Murphy	Costumes/Costume Designer
Neil Murphy	Costumes/Costume Designer
David Murphy	Costumes/Costume Designer
Terry Needham	Associate Producer,Asst. Director
Kathy Nelson	Musical Direction/Supervision
Ken Nolan	Screenwriter
Louis-Marie Nyee	Stunts
Peter Olgyay	Stunts
Chad Oman	Executive Producer
Keith Pain	Art Director
Tomas Peterac	Stunts
Jan Petrina	Stunts
Austin Priester	Stunts
Jaroslav Psenicka	Stunts
Cliff Robinson	Art Director
Monica Sallustio	Set Decoration/Design
Alessandra Sampaolo	Makeup
Pat Sandston	Associate Producer
Stanislav Satko	Stunts
Pietro Scalia	Editor
Robin Shenfield	Executive Producer
Suzanne Smith	Casting
Jamal Souissi	Production Manager
Mike Stenson	Executive Producer
Bonnie Timmermann	Casting
Jon Title	Sound/Sound Designer
Marek Toth	Stunts
Marco Trentini	Art Director
Martin Uhrovcik	Stunts
Miroslav Valka	Stunts
Simon West	Executive Producer
Steven Zaillian	Screenwriter
Hans Zimmer	Score Composer

Editorial Reviews

A gripping dramatization of the abortive 1993 U.S. military operation in Somalia, Africa, that resulted in the Ambush in Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down earns high marks for its hyperrealistic representation of modern-day conventional warfare. Director Ridley Scott re-creates the fateful October 3rd mission in painstaking detail, capturing the horrifying chaos that ensues during armed conflicts on unfamiliar urban battlegrounds. Portraying the U.S. Army Rangers who fought in the streets of Mogadishu, Scott's talented ensemble cast helps make the events all the more real. Especially strong are Josh Harnett as Staff Sergeant Matt Eversmann and Tom Sizemore as the grizzled veteran Lt. Colonel Danny McKnight. Also superb are Ewan McGregor, Ron Eldard, Jason Isaacs, and Sam Shepard. To his credit, Scott remains politically neutral on America’s role in the Somalian civil war. He doesn’t engage in the moral equivocation so fashionable among some Hollywood directors who’ve depicted failed U.S. military operations; instead, Black Hawk Down focuses on the heroic efforts of American soldiers committed to covering their buddies’ backs and bringing everybody home, dead or alive. Scott’s darting camera and rapid cutting make it occasionally difficult to follow the action, but that’s an intentional choice designed to emphasize the maddening confusion of warfare at close quarters. Sturdily mounted, brilliantly acted, and almost unbearably suspenseful, this powerful film shows the events of a fateful engagement in a new and considerably brighter light. The DVD edition includes a behind-the-scenes featurette, production notes, and an assortment of theatrical trailers.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

A riveting account of a devastating battle that resulted from controversial United Nations involvement in Somalia's civil war in 1993, this war picture from director Ridley Scott displays the filmmaker's reliable eye for startling visuals and effective translation of words into pictures. Whether he's employing map-like aerial views of a re-created Mogadishu in order to help the viewer understand how the action's unfolding or using documentary film techniques to reinforce the story's "you are there" realism, Scott's eclectic style synchronizes perfectly with his subject matter's brutal, mindless violence and moral equivocation. The sole drawback of this strategy is that it minimizes the individual soldiers' personal stories, challenging the audience to remain emotionally invested in a group of characters that struggle to move front and center. It's human beings on both sides, after all, that are being fed to the sausage grinder of battle here, but the suffering and bloodshed are not handled with the same emotional skill as the physical action. This seems to be a conscious choice on the part of the filmmakers, who have created a piece that is far more about the logistics of a chain of tragic events than a heartfelt plea for understanding or even an antiwar statement. In a fictitious drama, such a creative decision would be a fatal one, but projects such as the television miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) demonstrate that identifiable characters and emotional beats are expendable (to a degree) in the service of telling an important fact-based story in as accurate a fashion as possible. Black Hawk Down is not the best war movie ever made, but it is one of 2001's best and one of the most truthful about what war is like in the ultra-political, high-tech here and now.

All Movie Guide - Karl Williams

Driven by scenes of gripping, unflinching battle, touched by the director's talent for communicating through the colors he chooses. Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Films like this are more useful than gung-ho capers like Behind Enemy Lines. They help audiences understand and sympathize with the actual experiences of combat troops, instead of trivializing them into entertainments.

Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert

No war movie I have ever seen so vividly shows battle from differing perspectives. Mike Clark

USA Today

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