Ridley Scott’s 2001 war film Black Hawk Down divided critics when it was first released in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The gritty action movie, which features a star-studded cast including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Eric Bana, depicted true events from 1993’s Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia and became a box office success, as well as winning Oscars for editing and sound.
However, it was also criticized in some quarters for playing fast and loose with the facts. 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. In a 2002 article for The Independent, Repo Man director Alex Cox questioned why the deaths of Somali citizens had been overlooked and pointed out that McGregor’s character had been renamed after the real-life GI was convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl.
