What The Black Hawk Down Movie Doesn't Show, Revealed In Ridley Scott's New Documentary 24 Years Later
Netflix’s new three-part documentary miniseries Surviving Black Hawk Down is a welcome addition to the record of a harrowing event in the recent history of Somalia. In October 1993, a group of US military special operatives waged a battle with militia groups in the country’s capital Mogadishu, with thousands of civilians getting caught in the crossfire. Two American Black Hawk helicopters were famously shot down during the battle, lending their name to Ridley Scott’s 2001 movie Black Hawk Down.
Scott was also involved in the production of this documentary, which serves as a historical companion piece to his earlier dramatization of the Battle of Mogadishu. More than simply complementing the war movie, however, Surviving Black Hawk Down sets the record straight about certain aspects of the original film that its critics regard as one-sided. For instance, the documentary gives the perspectives of various Somalians who witnessed or were part of the battle and the events leading up to it. Moreover, it presents the factual first-hand accounts of American soldiers who were actually there.
How The Somalian People Were Treated By US Soldiers Prior To The Battle of Mogadishu
The City's Population Was Becoming Increasingly Unhappy With Its Treatment
Detractors of Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down say its biggest problem is that the director simply shows the event from an American point of view. Somalians, on the other hand, are portrayed in the film both as a passive people without their own agency and a homogeneous population of antagonistic militants. This new documentary provides a far more in-depth and nuanced view of Somalians, primarily by allowing them to speak for themselves on camera.
In doing so, Surviving Black Hawk Down reveals how the treatment of local civilians by US soldiers in the months leading up to the Battle of Mogadishu played its part in how events unfolded. Nuur Hassan, who’d been a driver for an NGO during the Somali Civil War, recalls how he and his brother were beaten, arrested, and accused of belonging to a militia by American Marines. He then witnessed US forces indiscriminately shooting people in the street during an attack on a compound in Mogadishu. He explains that these experiences persuaded him to take a hostile stance towards the United States.
Even US soldiers themselves, like Army Ranger Brad Thomas, admit feeling like the situation on the ground was about to “explode”.
The movie also shows civilians being bombarded by bullets during the same attack, community elders lying dead in the street, and separate footage of an American soldier kicking an unarmed Somali child to the ground and stamping on them. It includes a local Somali journalist’s assessment of the situation at the time as a voiceover, in which they tell an American news channel, “Going on the offensive like this is going to totally alienate large groups of Somalis." Even US soldiers themselves, like Army Ranger Brad Thomas, admit feeling like the situation on the ground was about to “explode.”
US Forces Made Repeated Attempts to Capture Mohamed Farah Aidid Before Black Hawk Down
October 2 Wasn't Their First Attempt At A Raid
Another element of the historical record that Black Hawk Down neglected to mention is that US forces had already attempted to capture or kill militia general Mohamed Farah Aidid repeatedly prior to the events of the movie. The July 12 attack by US Marines on a Mogadishu compound was actually targeting the house of Aidid’s chief of security. Then, on September 7, Delta Force operatives and Army Rangers carried out a night raid on an apartment complex where they believed Aidid to be hiding. Footage of this raid is shown via nightvision cameras in Surviving Black Hawk Down.
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Conversely, Scott dramatization simply states that “Washington was growing impatient” about the mission to find Aidid not yielding any results, suggesting that their impatience precipitated the October 2 that led to the downing of two Black Hawks. In fact, the October 2 attack was just one of several attempts to get to Aidid that American forces had attempted over several months.
How The Events Of Black Hawk Down Impacted The Civilian Population Of Mogadishu
There Were Appalling Casualties Among Somali Civilians
Black Hawk Down portrays the American troops in Somalia between 1992 and 1993 living and dying through the Battle of Mogadishu. But in this sense, too, the movie doesn’t show the impact of the battle on civilians living in the city. In Surviving Black Hawk Down, however, locals who were there during the event share their experiences with us in harrowing detail.
Local teacher Halima Weheliye describes the moment her school was hit by a blaze of gunfire, while camera operator Ahmed “Five” narrates footage of young children escaping from that very school. Brad Thomas agrees that a lot of the fighting took place “around women and kids”, who turned increasingly hostile to the American forces spraying bullets around their city. According to Nuur Hassan, "The Americans were killing everyone in sight."
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The most upsetting story of all is that of Binti Adan, who says she saw an old woman being shot in the head from a helicopter at close range, while she was sitting stationary on the street. Adan then ran home where she witnessed her husband and children being killed by bullet fire.
Scott’s original movie did suggest in its postscript that over 1000 Somalis died during the attack, but it never showed who or how. The documentary puts faces and names alongside this number, allowing viewers to see the human cost of what happened to the Somali population, as well as to the US military.
The Effects Of The Trauma Suffered By American Veterans Who Survived Black Hawk Down
Many Of Them Continue To Live With The Trauma Today
Still, Surviving Black Hawk Down does address the toll events took on the US side of the conflict as well, arguably in more powerful terms than Black Hawk Down does. The dramatization depicts a crack team of military operatives blindsided by circumstance, whereas the documentary explains that many of the Army Rangers were straight out of high school and had never been on the frontline before the battle. They weren’t in any way prepared for what they were about to go through.
“It's not normal, it's not healthy, and it lasts with you forever." - Delta Force veteran Tom Satterly in Surviving Black Hawk Down
Thomas describes the horror of hearing confirmation that the comrade in arms shot before his eyes was actually his best friend. Carmen Gordon remembers the moment that US Army personnel informed her that her husband Gary had been killed in Mogadishu. Meanwhile, Michael Durant, the pilot of one of the two Black Hawks that were shot down, recounts the 11-day ordeal he faced as a hostage captured by Aidid’s militia – a story that only features briefly and superficially in Ridley Scott’s movie.
At the end of the documentary, Delta Force operative Tom Satterly describes the feeling he’s been left with as a veteran of the Battle of Mogadishu, stating, “It's not normal, it's not healthy, and it lasts with you forever." Army Ranger Randy Ramaglia concurs, adding, “Some things in life are just never settled.”
In this way, Surviving Black Hawk Downaptly summarizes what everyone affected by the Battle of Mogadishu in some form is now coping with, “after the fact”, as Satterly puts it. War movies typically end heroically, whether their outcome is tragic or triumphant. But war documentaries end with their cast trying to pick up the pieces of what’s left behind.
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