The new three-part series Surviving Black Hawk Down, produced by Scott’s own production company Ridley Scott Associates and directed by Jack MacInnes, revisits the Battle of Mogadishu through a documentary lens and invites both American and Somali survivors to recall and describe the events in their own words.
Surviving Black Hawk Down goes some way to try to redress that imbalance, featuring interviews with Mogadishu residents who found themselves trapped in the war zone and local militiamen as well as the Army Rangers and Delta Force soldiers they fought against.
The battle, which saw two Black Hawk helicopters crash out of the sky, took place on October 3 and 4 1993 but its origins can be traced back to the start of the Somali civil war.
Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning 2001 war film about the shooting down of two US military helicopters was inspired by the real-life Battle of Mogadishu.
Ken Nolan’s screenplay streamlined Mark Bowden’s 1999 book Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War down to feature film length, and was accused of whitewashing the real story.
