From: Thomas Barclay <Thomas.Barclay@s...>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 00:35:12 -0500
Subject: [OT] Blackhawk Down
My review. Having read the original articles (long before it was a book), seen the movie on opening night (knowing what the story was in detail ahead of time), and having also just watched a 2 hour documentary on things. 1) John A makes a fairly accurate assessment of many of the failings of the mission. His assessment of superhero games is blinkered, but that's our John.... <*grin*> 2) Someone pointed out the tension between the Delta and Rangers. This comes out very clearly in the original accounting. The Rangers were coming to pieces from the casualties and long time under fire. The Delta guys were in no mood to screw around. I particularly recall a story of one Delta guy riding around (I think) with a busted leg and shooting away anyway out of the Humvee. Anyway, this aspect is totally done away with in the movie.... no friction to be seen (a few eyes rolled aside maybe, but no actual friction). The Rangers are shown (to my mind) as far more gripped and together even when things started going bad than the impression the original story gave me. 3) The streets and alleys in the movie seemed much wider than the streets in the actual city (saw them on the documentary). And so was the crash site (#2 I think). The real city of Mogadishu looked far worse. 4) The movie glossed over (except in brief mention) the problems the UN troops presented... mind you I think they had some justification, not having been clued in by the US forces ahead of time.... but they still were obstructionist in terms of getting the relief column with armour together and headed into the city. 5) The fire in the movie, though it looks intense. was far less than that in reality I suspect. Or at least its effects. The book details Humvees driving 10 mph with three tires blown off and on fire. Hummers in the movie didn't take quite that much punishment. And I never saw the barricade crashing that was mentioned in the book. 6) I don't recall the bit with the IR beacon/flare and the run across the open to place it.... but it might have happened. 7) The actual Rangers weren't quite as photogenic or rah rah. The ones in the documentary came off as real people, warts and all, trying to deal with a real bad situation they'd gotten into. For all that, I did like the movie and in many substantive ways, it told the story as it happened. A little more clean and nice than the actual one (despite the gore here and there, and I still don't think the gore here matched that first 20 mins of SPR) both in terms of the condition of people and vehicles and in terms of the relationship between the Rangers and Delta and the morale effects of the situation on the young Rangers. Tom Sizemore played a kind of impressive character, as did the lead Delta guy (name forgotten) - though I did find their portrayal of his ability to blend with the populace at the beginning funny - one white guy with fancy shades in the midst of a crowd of non-whites.... stick out? naw!:) Also, I have to give my utmost respect for the two Delta snipers who fastroped into crash site #2. They knew what they were getting themselves into, and they deserved their medals. The movie does capture the feeling of the chaos of street fighting against a disorganized foe, where non-combatants randomly appear in the middle of a fight and some of the people you are fighting are kids of 12. It captures the effects of not taking the high ground. It captures how fast a simple and elegant plan can go to hell and how bad that can be if you don't have backup strategies in place. The book, if it is anything like the original web stories (which Los put me onto as they came out or shortly after), is probably well worth the price as a keeper for your shelf.