| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3

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| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3 | The History Cooperative

Movie Review

Black Hawk Down. Dir. by Ridley Scott. Prod. by Jerry Bruckheimer and Ridley Scott. SONY Pictures, 2001. 144 mins.

During the 2000 U.S. presidential election campaign, then Republican candidate George W. Bush harshly criticized the pursuit of "nation-building" as a foreign policy objective. Bush undoubtedly hoped that American voters would remember not only the disastrous results of U.S. "nation-building" efforts in Vietnam but more recently those in Somalia, where Americans watched on television an angry mob drag the body of a dead U.S. soldier through the streets of Mogadishu. Bush's father had sent U.S. troops to that African nation in December 1992 to assist the United Nations in providing relief assistance to the Somali people. Six months later, the Clinton administration ordered redeployed U.S. forces to capture a warlord named Mohamed Farrah Aidid. On October 3, 1993, Task Force Ranger launched a mission to capture two of Aidid's top advisers that ignited a battle with Aidid's militia and escalated into an incredible bloodbath after a Somali shot down the first of two Black Hawk helicopters. The Rangers, who refused to leave any comrade behind, fought for survival in the streets of the city until just after dawn the following day. Eighteen Americans died and over 70 were wounded. At least 500 Somalis were killed and over 1,000 wounded, most of them civilians. . . .

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