Black Hawk Down

"Jerry Bruckheimer has caved in to Pentagon demands more often than any other producer in Hollywood - on such films as The Right Stuff, Armageddon, Black Hawk Down, Top Gun, and Pearl Harbor."

- David Robb, Operation Hollywood

"Among distinguished screening guests for a special military screening of Black Hawk Down were Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, recently retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry Shelton, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, actress Linda Carter and former Marine officer and political analyst Oliver North."

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'Black Hawk Down' reflects Army values
By Joe Burlas, Army News Service
January 16, 2002

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 16, 2002) -- The values of valor and self-sacrifice demonstrated by actors playing Delta Force troopers and Army rangers in "Black Hawk Down" are the same values being shown by soldiers around the world today, Secretary of the Army Thomas E. White said. White made those remarks at a special screening of the movie for military uniformed and civilian leaders in downtown Washington, D.C., Jan. 15.

"Black Hawk Down," based upon a book with the same name by Mark Bowden, dramatizes a military operation that went wrong in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993 and resulted in the deaths of 18 U.S. servicemen and more than 500 Somalis. It opens in theaters Jan. 18.

"Who would have believed a year after the script was approved for production that this country would be at war," White said. "The movie has a tagline, 'Leave no man behind,' which is extremely important today. That tagline could easily be used by the Army because it reflects the values of valor and self-sacrifice that we have been seeing in our soldiers these past four months as we combat terrorists and terrorism. In fact, those values have been an integral part of the Army during the entire 226 years of its existence."

Producer and director Ridley Scott told screening attendees that he and co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer decided to make the movie to set the record straight. He said there was an apparent public misperception that the military messed up in Somalia, when in fact it was heroic in a very unstable part of the world. "We thought those soldiers should be remembered for their courage," he said.

Actor William Fichtner, who played Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Sanderson in the film, said he has always appreciated what the military does for the country, but after working on the film, that appreciation has significantly increased. "Before reading the script, all I knew about what happened in Somalia was from CNN sound bites -- that we had gone in there to help feed the starving people there and then something went wrong so we left," Fichtner said. "In preparing for my role, I made a number of real friends in the Army down in Fort Bragg (N.C), not just acquaintances but friends. I am proud of what my new friends do on a daily basis in defending this country."

Following the film, Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Ray Lackey, the Army Reserve command sergeant major, said he hoped employers and others who may not understand what mobilizing reservists are about go see the movie. "There is no doubt in my mind that they will come away with a better appreciation of the sacrifices our soldiers make on daily basis," he said.

For Staff Sgt. Mark Erwin, public affairs NCO for 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Myer, Va., the movie was the most intense he had ever seen. "I don't know how it could get more closer to real than was shown," Erwin said. "I never related more emotionally with what was happening on the screen than I did with this movie. It showed soldiers doing their job and taking care of one another, despite the odds against them."

Sgt. Maj. of the Army Jack Tilley said the gruesome combat scenes depicted in the movie were so realistic that it brought back vivid memories of the carnage he witnessed when his armor platoon was overrun in Vietnam.

First Sgt. Bruce Moore, a ranger now and during the Somalia operation, was one of several Somalia veterans who were brought to Washington to view the special screening. He rated the film as being 90- to 95-percent accurate with what he witnessed as a staff sergeant during the 1993 operation.

"What I particularly liked was the way the movie portrayed how young most soldiers are who fight our country's battles," Moore said. "Most of the soldiers I served with then, and those in my company today, are 18 or 19 years old. As shown in the movie, they are not out trying to be heroes, but end up doing some pretty heroic stuff."

Lt. Col. Walt Pjetraj, an Army Special Forces officer assigned to the Joint Staff Operations section at the Pentagon, however, believed the movie only scratched the surface of what the soldiers endured in Somalia.

"You have to remember that we just sat through a little more than two hours of a depiction of what happened, when those soldiers were in a very hairy situation for more than 18 hours," Pjetraj said. "We watched it in Class A's (uniforms), while they were in it hot and sweaty in (Battle Dress Uniforms) -- locked and loaded. After the movie was over, here we are relaxing with adult beverages; when it was over for them, they buried their dead."

Among other distinguished screening guests were Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, recently retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry Shelton, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, actress Linda Carter and former Marine officer and political analyst Oliver North.