Black Hawk Down

original title:
Black Hawk Down
country / year of production:
original length:
143 min. , color
premiere:
18 Dezember 2001
based on:
Mark Bowden. Black Hawk Down - A Story of Modern War. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999.
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plot synopsis:
On october, the 3rd 1993 almost 100 Army Rangers were brought into the centre of the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu by helicopters under command of Capt. Mike Steele. Their mission was to arrest two lieutenants of a somalian warlord. The mission failed and ended in a huge gunfight in which the rangers immediatly were surrounded by hundreds of somalian gunners. Two american Black Hawk helicopters were shot off and an urgent rescue operation began. The plot is concentrating on the ranger troops arround the Sergeants Eversmann and Yurek, who try to shoot all the obstacles on their way, on Warren Officer Durant, the only survivor of the helicopter crash, and on the leader of the rescue operation, Lt. Colonel Mc Knight, whose troops became disorientated in the streets of the city.
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See also
http://www.blackhawkdown.com, a website of "The Philadelphia Inquirer", for whom Mark Bowden is writing some articles and the official movie website http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/blackhawkdown.

After releasing an "ordinary" DVD, Columbia TriStar released a special edition on three DVDs in June 2003, containing a 150 minute documentary, even longer than the movie itself. In addition, the DVD presents interviews with soldiers who participated in this mission and another two documentaries on the event in Mogadishu, one produced by the History Channel, the other for the PBS "Frontline".

The filmmakers paid the U.S. Army $ 3 million for the use of one hundred soldiers and eight helicopters.
availability:
VHS, DVD, CD