Editing Black Hawk Down (film) (section)

==Historicity==
In a radio interview, [[Brendan Sexton III|Brendan Sexton]], who portrayed Ranger Richard "Alphabet" Kowalewski, said that the version that made it onto theater screens significantly differed from the one recounted in the original script. According to him, many scenes asking hard questions of the US regarding the violent realities of war and the true purpose of their mission in Somalia were cut.<ref>{{cite web |date=February 19, 2002 |title=As 'Black Hawk Down' Director Ridley Scott Is Nominated for An Oscar, An Actor in the Film Speaks Out Against Its Pro-War Message |url=http://www.democracynow.org/2002/2/19/as_black_hawk_down_director_ridley |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601070746/https://www.democracynow.org/2002/2/19/as_black_hawk_down_director_ridley |archive-date=June 1, 2022 |access-date=February 21, 2011 |website=DemocracyNow.org}}</ref>

The film begins with the quote "Only the dead have seen the end of war.", which is [[False attribution|misattributed]] to [[Plato]]. This line first appeared in the works of [[George Santayana]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://plato-dialogues.org/faq/faq008.htm|title=Plato FAQ: Did plato write :"Only the dead have seen the end of war"?|last=SUZANNE|first=Bernard F.|website=plato-dialogues.org|access-date=April 29, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Who-Really-Said-That-/141559|title=Who Really Said That?|date=September 16, 2013|work=The Chronicle of Higher Education|access-date=April 29, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/only-the-dead-have-seen-the-end-of-war-who-said-that/|title="Only the dead have seen the end of war." Who said that?|date=February 25, 2011|work=Millard Fillmore's Bathtub|access-date=April 29, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref>

===Depiction of Somalis===
Soon after ''Black Hawk Down''{{'}}s release, the Somali Justice Advocacy Center (SJAC) in California denounced what they felt was its brutal and dehumanizing depiction of Somalis and called for its boycott.<ref name="Black Hawk Rising" /> The SJAC in Minnesota called for a boycott of the film for its portrayal of Somalis as "savage beasts shooting each other."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=McNeil |first=Donald G. Jr. |date=January 22, 2002 |title=Mogadishu Journal; For the Somalis, a Manhunt Movie to Muse Over |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/22/world/mogadishu-journal-for-the-somalis-a-manhunt-movie-to-muse-over.html |access-date=January 24, 2021 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> No Somali actors were used in the movie.<ref name="SFTBBH">{{cite web |date=January 24, 2002 |title=Somalis flock to bootleg 'Black Hawk' |url=http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2002/jan/24/somalis_flock_to |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110122090058/http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2002/jan/24/somalis_flock_to |archive-date=22 January 2011 |access-date=February 21, 2011 |publisher=[[The Associated Press]]}}</ref> Somalis attending a screening of a pirated copy of the film at a theater in Mogadishu said the film ignored the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of civilian adults and children caused by the Americans.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 25, 2002 |title=Somalis Watch Black Hawk Down {{!}} On the Media |url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/131792-somalis-watch-black-hawk-down |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125105128/https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/131792-somalis-watch-black-hawk-down |archive-date=November 25, 2020 |access-date=January 24, 2021 |website=WNYC Studios |language=en}}</ref>

In an interview with the [[BBC]], the faction leader [[Osman Ali Atto]] said that many aspects of the film are factually incorrect. Taking exception to the ostentatious depiction of his character, Ali Atto claimed he looks nothing like the actor who portrayed him, nor that he smoked cigars or wore earrings.<ref name="WTDFSF">{{cite news |date=January 29, 2002 |title=Warlord thumbs down for Somalia film |newspaper=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1789170.stm |url-status=live |access-date=February 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220507102039/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1789170.stm |archive-date=May 7, 2022}}</ref> These details were later confirmed by SEAL Team Six sniper [[Howard E. Wasdin]] in his 2012 memoirs. Wasdin also indicated that while the character in the movie ridiculed his captors, in reality, Atto seemed concerned that Wasdin and his men had been sent to kill rather than apprehend him.<ref name="Wasdin">{{cite book |last=Wasdin |first=Howard |title=SEAL Team Six – Memoirs of a US Navy Sniper |year=2011 |pages=225–226}}</ref> Atto additionally stated that he had not been consulted about the project, nor was he approached for permission to use his likeness, and that the film sequence re-enacting his arrest contained several inaccuracies:<ref name="WTDFSF" />

{{blockquote|First of all when I was caught on 21 September, I was only travelling with one [[Fiat 124]], not three vehicles as it shows in the film[...] And when the helicopter attacked, people were hurt, people were killed[...] The car we were travelling in, (and) I have got proof, it was hit at least 50 times. And my colleague Ahmed Ali was injured on both legs[...] I think it was not right, the way they portrayed both the individual and the action. It was not right.<ref name="WTDFSF" />|sign=|source=}}

Wasdin also remarked that while olive green military rigger's tape was used to mark the roof of the car in question in the movie, his team in actuality managed to track down Atto's whereabouts using a much more sophisticated technique involving the implantation of a homing device. This was hidden in a cane presented to Atto as a gift from a contact who routinely met with him, which eventually led the team directly to the faction leader.<ref name="Wasdin"/>

===Uncredited UN troops===
Retired [[Malaysian Army]] Brigadier-General Abdul Latif Ahmad, who at the time commanded [[MALBATT|Malaysian forces in Mogadishu]], told the [[AFP news agency]] that Malaysian moviegoers would be under the erroneous impression that the real battle was fought by the Americans alone, with Malaysian troops (including [[Corporal|Cpl]] [[Mat Aznan Awang]], recipient of the [[Grand Knight of Valour]], Malaysia's highest award, killed when his was one of four [[Condor (APC)|Malaysian APCs]] destroyed during the battle)<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated or generic "Staff"--> |title=Tunku Annuar Heads Ruler's Birthday Honours List |work=[[New Straits Times]] |department=Home News |date=23 January 1994 |page=F8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjtOAAAAIBAJ&dq=Mat+Aznan+Awang&pg=PA5&article_id=6882,962421 |access-date=2 March 2025 |url-access=limited |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> relegated to serving as "mere bus drivers to ferry them out".<ref>{{cite news |date=January 21, 2002 |title=Jingoism jibe over Black Hawk Down |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1773466.stm |url-status=live |access-date=January 1, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220507102039/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1773466.stm |archive-date=May 7, 2022}}</ref>

[[Pervez Musharraf|General Pervez Musharraf]], who later became President of [[Pakistan]] after a coup, similarly accused the filmmakers of not crediting the work done by the Pakistani soldiers. In his autobiography ''[[In the Line of Fire: A Memoir]]'', Musharraf wrote:

{{blockquote|The outstanding performance of the Pakistani troops under adverse conditions is very well known at the [[United Nations|UN]]. Regrettably, the film ''Black Hawk Down'' ignores the role of Malaysia and Pakistan in Somalia. When U.S. troops were trapped in the thickly populated Madina Bazaar area of Mogadishu, it was the Seventh [[Frontier Force Regiment#Operations|Frontier Force Regiment]] of the [[Pakistan Army]] that reached out and extricated them. The bravery of the U.S. troops notwithstanding, we deserved equal, if not more, credit; but the filmmakers depicted the incident as involving only Americans.<ref>{{cite book|author=Musharraf, Pervez |title=In the Line of Fire: A Memoir|url=https://archive.org/details/inlineoffirememo00mush |url-access=registration |publisher=Free Press|date= 2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/inlineoffirememo00mush/page/76 76]|isbn=9780743283441 }}</ref>}}

===Mogadishu Mile===
It is often believed that the soldiers involved in the [[Mogadishu Mile]] had to run all the way to the [[Mogadiscio Stadium]], as shown in the film. However, in that scene the filmmakers took artistic license and dramatized the event, departing from the book. In the film, the Mogadishu Mile ends with about a dozen soldiers entering the Mogadiscio Stadium having run all the way through the city. In the book, it ends with soldiers reaching a rendezvous point on National Street (in the opposite direction from the stadium):

{{blockquote|
"As he [75th Rangers SGT Randy Ramaglia]<ref>{{cite interview |subject-first=Sgt. Randy |subject-last=Ragmaglia |interviewer=<!--not stated or generic "Staff"--> |title=Ambush in Mogadishu |work=[[PBS Frontline]] |publisher=[[WGBH Educational Foundation]] |date= |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ambush/rangers/ramaglia.html |access-date=2025-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Mark |last=Bowden |author-link=Mark Bowden |title=Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War |year=2001 |publisher=[[Signet Books]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-451-20393-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackhawkdownsto2001bowd |chapter=N.S.D.Q. |page=[https://archive.org/details/blackhawkdownsto2001bowd/page/348/mode/2up?q=Running 349] |url-access=limited |via=[[Internet Archive#Text collection|Internet Archive Book Reader]]}}</ref> approached the intersection of Hawlwadig Road and National Street, about five blocks south of the Olympic Hotel, he saw a tank and the line of APCs and Humvees and a mass of men in desert battle dress. He ran until he collapsed, with joy"<ref>{{cite book |first=Mark |last=Bowden |author-link=Mark Bowden |title=Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War |year=2001 |publisher=[[Signet Books]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-451-20393-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackhawkdownsto2001bowd |chapter=N.S.D.Q. |page=[https://archive.org/details/blackhawkdownsto2001bowd/page/350 350] |url-access=limited |via=[[Internet Archive#Text collection|Internet Archive Book Reader]]}}</ref>
}}

{{blockquote|
"These APCs were headed back about 800 meters to a strongpoint where reserve element has stayed behind with the tanks, and the plan was to move the wounded via the vehicles and the healthy by foot back to the strongpoint. That's exactly what happened. That, in all its non-dramatic form, is the so-called "Mogadishu mile"..."<ref>Col. Lee A. Van Arsdale. "Audio Commentary by Task Force Rangers". [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008YLV2 Black Hawk Down 3-Disk Deluxe Edition]</ref>
}}