In 2001, director Ridley Scott adapted Mark Bowden’s book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War into the gritty war film Black Hawk Down, which won critical acclaim and two Academy Awards for its portrayal of events stemming from the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia. To craft his searing portrait of the realities of modern warfare, Scott used testimonials from US troops who lived through the battle and worked them into a feature film storyline. The final product: A relentless onslaught of gunfire, tension, and blood-soaked chaos that never lets up.
Next week, Netflix will release a 3-part docuseries that reveals the myriad human stories behind the movie. Surviving Black Hawk Down, produced by Ridley Scott Associates, turns its camera on the actual soldiers as well as the Somali people who were there — the ones who survived the battle and who are now telling audiences directly what happened, in their own words.
Directed by Jack MacInnes, the docuseries premieres on Feb. 10 and draws on re-enactments, first-person interviews, and footage captured on the ground in Somalia before, during, and after the battle. The interviewees include members of the Army Rangers and Delta Force, as well as militiamen who fought US forces, local women who found themselves trapped in a war zone, and even a party photographer who abruptly became a war documentarian and brought his camera to the front lines of the battle.
The battle stemmed from political unrest that began in Somalia in the 1980s, leading to a violent civil war. “In 1992,” Netflix explains, “food shortages and severe drought combined to create a devastating famine that resulted in the arrival of United Nations peacekeepers.
“When coalition forces began to target warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, however, relations between the occupying US forces in Mogadishu and the local Somalis soured. On Oct. 3, 1993, when an American task force was sent out to capture two of Aidid’s lieutenants, his militia retaliated, managing to take down two Black Hawk helicopters that had been assisting from above.” Soldiers were dispatched to rescue each downed chopper, turning what was supposed to have been a military strike into a rescue operation.
