3/8/01: The first day of filming in Kenitra, Morocco on Black Hawk Down, a motion picture based on the acclaimed book by Mark Bowden that explored, in great detail, the Battle of Mogadishu. From the time he read Bowden’s book in galley form, producer Jerry Bruckheimer knew that it was time for a new mission: to bring it to the screen as vividly and authentically as possible. It was executive producer Simon West who first brought the book to Bruckheimer’s attention.

"I read the book before it came out in bookstores, and fell in love with it," states Bruckheimer. "I’ve always liked to tell stories that involve brotherhood amongst men, caring about somebody else’s life more than you care about your own. And that’s what these Rangers, Delta Force soldiers and pilots did. It was more important to get their buddy home alive than it was to save themselves. It’s heroism under fire, and that’s a powerful subject for any film."

Mark Bowden, a journalist of repute for The Philadelphia Inquirer, began working on the story some two-and-a-half years after it was fought, when it had already begun to fade from the news, perceived by the media as a military fiasco and early foreign affairs failure of President Bill Clinton’s administration. Bowden became intrigued by the details of the battle itself and its aftermath. Who were these men who fought on that long day’s journey into night? What were their feelings? After some initial research, the battle was humanized for Bowden when he was invited by Jim Smith—the father of Cpl. Jamie Smith, a Ranger who was tragically killed in the battle—to a dedication ceremony of a building being named in the young man’s honor. There he met about 12 Rangers who had fought in Mogadishu with Jamie, and all agreed to be interviewed. This was the beginning of a path which led Bowden to years of additional research, a multitude of interviews and an actual, perilous journey into Somalia in the summer of 1997. The book that emerged, entitled Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, was published in 1999 to great acclaim for its detail and evenhandedness.

"No matter how critically history records the policy decisions that led up to this fight," wrote Bowden in his conclusion of the book, "nothing can diminish the professionalism and dedication of the Rangers and Special Forces units who fought there that day." It was this approach to the matter that so intrigued Bruckheimer. "Mark Bowden really did an amazing job with his book," notes the producer, "and how he took it inside the lives of these young men and what they went through. With today’s highly competitive mass media, life-altering events happen in 15-second sound bites, so the battle was very quickly forgotten. Hopefully, this movie will honor the lives of the young men who sacrificed so much."

To bring Bowden’s book to the screen, Bruckheimer called upon Ridley Scott, one of film industry’s acknowledged visionaries, a man whose work had altered, influenced and irrevocably changed filmmaking as we know it.

Bruckheimer already had a longtime association with Ridley’s brother Tony Scott, who had directed five of the producer’s megahits: Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State. However, he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to collaborate on a feature with Ridley Scott, whom Bruckheimer deems "one of the greatest directors living today. He’s a world-renowned artist as a filmmaker. Ridley’s movies have lives of their own."

"I had a relationship with Jerry Bruckheimer for years," notes Ridley Scott, "but the last time I worked with him was about 30 years ago when I was directing a tire commercial in San Francisco, and Jerry was the producer for the agency. After we finished, we were driving back to the hotel, and Jerry said ‘You know, this is my last job.’ I asked him what he was going to do, and Jerry responded that he wanted to produce movies.

"And I said, ‘Oh, yeah? Sure!,’" recollects Scott with a laugh. "Through the years, Jerry and I had talked about doing something together. Then he contacted me about a project which he thought might be good for me called Black Hawk Down."

Ridley Scott remembers full well his response to the actual incidents. "I was in London at the time, and I recall watching BBC News and seeing this tragic sight of what was clearly two bodies that were being seriously mauled. And I realized, my God, those are U.S. troops. I’d already spent 20 odd years in and out of the United States, and I pretty well had a handle on how Americans respond to such things. I knew that it would be a giant shock to the system, seeing that being pushed into the forefront of their lives on the television sets at home."

Scott was not surprised when the battle and its aftermath quickly began vanishing from news broadcasts. "Those of us who live in protected societies tend to forget how lucky we are to be born in them," notes the filmmaker. "Witnessing the kind of events that occurred in Mogadishu makes one start to grasp what it’s like to live in third world countries. But protected societies also tend to be somewhat isolationist, and they like to close down and shut out the horrors. I think that when you’re coming from such a successful society—and America is regarded as the most successful and wealthiest society in the world—there’s a cozy comfort zone that one tends to wrap oneself up into.

"The feeling back then," continues Scott, "was whether it was worth it to send Americans to fight in a part of the world that 90 percent of the people couldn’t even identify on the map. But I think that the events of this past year proved that you have to, because if you don’t—if you let things slip past you, even though for the moment they apparently have nothing to do with you—they will come back around the other side and bite you."

After Ridley Scott read Mark Bowden’s book, he was immediately taken with the idea of filming it. He had already re-created ancient warfare in Gladiator, and with Black Hawk Down saw the opportunity to tell a timeless and timely story of men in combat. Although there have been war films by the thousands, very few have set out to portray, in detail, just one battle rather than sweeping conflicts. For Black Hawk Down, Scott sought to create an unflinching, uncompromising portrait of war, with all of its attendant horrors, heartbreak and, at times, undeniable heroism.

As in the book, Scott was determined to create a story of combat which eliminated any information except that which was occurring during the battle. It was not in his interest to create "backstories" for each of the soldiers, or for the audience to learn their histories before or after the battle. Anything revealed of their personal world emerged in their actions during the mission.

A great challenge facing Bruckheimer and Scott was how to translate the complexities of Bowden’s book into a viable feature film. "The event itself took about 16 hours from the start of the mission until it ended, and of course we can’t spend 16 hours in a theatre," notes Bruckheimer.

"The book is like a giant jigsaw puzzle of cause and effect," adds Scott. "As the pieces start to come together, it forms into the very anatomy of a war which takes place in 16 hours. I thought it was a fairly formidable task to put it in screenplay form."

Helping Bruckheimer and Scott to fashion the book into a workable screenplay was young writer Ken Nolan, who through 10 years of scribing in Hollywood had sold some scripts, but never seen his work come to fruition on screen. When Nolan read Bowden’s book, "It was an amazing read," states the writer. "What struck me about Black Hawk Down was that it was a war book that put the reader right in the soldiers’ boots."

"Condensing these events into two-and-a-half hours was difficult," Bruckheimer comments. "We knew that a certain amount of creative license would have to be taken, telescoping events and compositing some of the real people involved in the battle. You have to make choices while staying true to the subject, and hopefully we’ve made the right ones."

"The thing is, all these guys were heroes," adds executive producer Mike Stenson. "The reason they ended up in a 16-hour firefight was that they went to rescue their fallen comrades instead of going back to base and waiting for reinforcements. We wanted to make sure we paid tribute to the group while focusing on certain characters for dramatic purposes."

(In the film, the characters of Sgt. First Class "Hoot" Gibson, Spec. Grimes, Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson and Master Sgt. Chris "Wex" Wexler are fictionalized composites of real soldiers; however, the rest of those depicted bear the actual names of their real-life counterparts).

"The book follows the fortunes of almost 100 soldiers," notes Bruckheimer, "and of course, that would have been impossible on film. I think what’s remarkable about the screenplay is that we still get to know 40 characters, and live the battle through their experiences."

"Audiences have to care about these men," adds Ken Nolan. "At the end of the day, I’m hoping that people will really make an emotional investment in these people and incidents."

The filmmakers decided that "The story will be seen through a number of eyes in a large ensemble," adds Bruckheimer, "but to a great extent through a young Ranger sergeant, Matt Eversmann, who takes over the command of Chalk Four after its leader, Beales, has an epileptic seizure the night before the mission.

"Eversmann’s counterpart," explains Bruckheimer, "is a toughened Delta Force operator, known as ‘Hoot,’ who is the ultimate soldier, one of the most elite units of the U.S. Army. ‘Hoot’ has ‘been there and done that,’ and acts as a kind of mysterious older brother figure to Eversmann, who is inexperienced in actual combat."

As the screenplay came together, so did the rest of the primary production team. Coming into the Black Hawk Down fold in crucial positions were longtime collaborators of Ridley Scott’s—most of whom had worked on Gladiator or Hannibal, or both. Many of Jerry Bruckheimer’s associates also enlisted—most prominently Key Military/Technical Advisor Harry Humphries, who had worked with the producer on several projects from The Rock to Enemy of the State and Pearl Harbor. Humphries has also collaborated with Ridley Scott; he was an invaluable resource on the director’s G.I. Jane.

"Jerry’s the ideal person and friend for me to work with," notes Humphries, "because he’s always looking for accuracy—as much as film will allow—and he’s not going to compromise. He will always vote in favor of accuracy with respect to military or law enforcement activities, as opposed to the Hollywood view of how it should look."

Selected by Bruckheimer and Scott as director of photography was Slawomir Idziak of Poland, who had impressed both director and producer for his remarkably sensitive work and even experimental work on several of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski’s films (including the great Dekalog series, The Double Life of Veronique and Blue), who had also demonstrated an ability to handle such bigger-budgeted action films as Proof of Life. Bruckheimer and Scott were impressed by Kieslowski’s visual dexterity and experimental use of color washes to underscore atmosphere and psychology.

As he had on Schindler’s List, Gladiator and Hannibal, executive producer Branko Lustig—with some 50 years of moviemaking experience around the world behind him—would handle the tremendous day-to-day responsibilities of keeping the production on track. "I am only here to help the filmmakers make the movie," notes Lustig, "and I knew as soon as I read the script that the production would be very difficult because of all the smaller stories being told within the larger framework of the film. Here we have nonstop action, often with incidents happening parallel to each other. And although Ridley is a master at controlling the set, I knew that shooting would be enormously complex."

Fifty years ago, if a filmmaker wanted to shoot a film against an exotic backdrop, it was usually built on a backlot in Hollywood. Nowadays, Hollywood goes out into the world, and films Paris in Paris, Tokyo in Tokyo or Kathmandu in Kathmandu.

However, the notion of actually filming Black Hawk Down in Somalia could never be more than a fantasy, for the onetime vacation destination for wealthy Italians is, unfortunately, as anarchic and dangerous now as it was in 1993. "When I first read the book," recalls Branko Lustig, "I told Ridley that I would go to Mogadishu to scout, but soon discovered that no one issues visas for Somalia. The only way to get to Mogadishu is to travel to Ethiopia and then try and hire a boat to take you there. It’s not exactly practical."

"Mogadishu is a no-go zone," adds production designer Arthur Max. "It’s dangerous and overrun by armed militias. So knowing that it would be impossible to film there, we decided to scout locations in the Mediterranean area, including Israel, Jordan, Egypt, as well as Southern Spain and all of North Africa. We finally settled on the area of Rabat and its neighboring city of Sale, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, as they were the closest to all of the research materials that we had seen—photographs and films—to the architecture and terrain of Mogadishu."

"We had to do this film relatively quickly," says Ridley Scott, "because we started in March and were going to release in December of the same year. It’s really about decisions, and how fast you make them. While I was mixing Hannibal, I asked Branko and Arthur to scout locations. We looked at the photographs they came back with and went straight in to Morocco. That’s how you get a kick start."

Branko Lustig had already done other films which filmed partially in Morocco, as recently as Gladiator, which had filmed in the southern desert city of Ouarzazate (or the "Desert Hollywood," as it’s come to be known). Thus, he had wide knowledge of the Moroccan film industry and its personnel. Over the years, Lustig had gotten to know and befriend the noted Moroccan film director Souheil Ben Barka, who had since become head of the Moroccan film commission known as the CCM (Centre Cinematographique Marocaine). "I had some guarantees from Mr. Ben Barka and the Governor of Sale that we could film there, and after Jerry and Ridley approved the locations I returned to Morocco with a letter for His Majesty King Mohammed VI, sending him a script that had been translated into French.

"The King and his ministers reacted positively," continues Lustig, "feeling that it was about an historical event and was in no way slanted against Muslims. They not only agreed to allow us to film there, but also put a great deal of Moroccan military materiel, from tanks to Humvees and helicopters, at our disposal."

It was to be a propitious choice. Rabat, the capital of the Kingdom of Morocco, is a progressive French and Arabic-speaking North African city with a good infrastructure, which could provide the necessary hotel accommodations, restaurants and attractions to provide for a huge cast and crew looking towards more than four months of location filming. The ancient city of Sale, across the Bou Regreg River from Rabat, featured remarkable similarities to Mogadishu. Both are cities at the edge of a great ocean (albeit on opposite sides of the African continent, with Sale on the Atlantic and Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean), but unlike Somalia, Morocco could afford the filmmakers the cooperation of King Mohammed VI, the authorities at the CCM (Centre Cinematographique Marocaine) and their expert, highly experienced film workers.

"Morocco has had a lot of companies from around the world come in to film," notes Jerry Bruckheimer, "and has a considerable national moviemaking community of their own. So you have a lot of Moroccan crew who are technically excellent at what they do, and their industry has blossomed. So when you go there with a production, there are camera people, production people, lighting and prop people, all of them readily available and anxious to work.

"Morocco is also such a beautiful and culturally rich country," Bruckheimer adds, "so there’s a lot for the cast and crew to do on off days. They could travel to Marrakesh, Fez, Casablanca or Tangier, or even to Southern Spain, which is just a few hours away from Rabat. Even in the city, one can go to the ancient medina, or get to know the Moroccan people, who are wonderful."

As Scott, Bruckheimer and Lustig began organizing the giant production effort, the filmmakers also began to search for the appropriate actors to inhabit the more than 40 principal roles in Nolan’s screenplay. Despite the fact that the film focuses on American soldiers, Scott felt in no way inhibited by the separation of cultures or continents, for in the end he cast not only a large group of Americans, but also selected several talented actors from the British continent (English, Scottish and Welsh) and even one from Denmark.

"I just look for good actors," Scott states, "wherever they happen to be from. It was tricky to cast this ensemble, because there are some 40 speaking roles. All of them are important, and it’s always sensitive when you’re talking to an actor who’s accustomed to a bigger role, and they’re saying ‘Well, I’ve only got four scenes.’ I say, ‘Yeah, but they’re four really good scenes.’ So it was a hard process of casting and persuading them what a good project it was going to be, and that all the effort would be worth it."

In fact, most actors in Black Hawk Down were more than willing to cast their egos aside for the opportunity of working with Ridley Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer on a project of such significance.

Of key importance, of course, was casting the key roles of Eversmann and ‘Hoot,’ and Bruckheimer and Scott were in full agreement as to who they wanted as the lead—

Josh Hartnett, one of America’s most talented young actors who had just starred for the producer with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale in Pearl Harbor. States Bruckheimer, "I think Josh is unique in that while the camera certainly loves him, and he has undeniably ‘heartthrob’ appeal, he’s a young actor of genuine commitment and depth who completely immerses himself in his work. As handsome as Josh is, there’s also a remarkable vulnerability and humanity about him, which was perfect for the role of Matt Eversmann."

Hartnett, having been through one tremendous war recreation for Pearl Harbor, saw elements in Black Hawk Down which were substantially different than the World War II epic. "What really sets this movie apart is that it tells a story about something important that most of us don’t know all that much about," comments Hartnett. "It’s one of those stories that when people watch it, they’ll say ‘My God, I can’t believe this actually happened.’ And hopefully, it will get people interested in all the other things that are currently happening around the world."

Eric Bana came to Bruckheimer and Scott’s attention from his native Australia, where he had carved out a big reputation, first as a stand-up comic and star of his own television series, and then for his astonishing starring role as complex sociopath Mark "Chopper" Read in the feature film Chopper. Virtually unknown in the U.S., he immediately impressed both Bruckheimer and Scott during initial meetings. Bana was enthusiastic about the project and the enigmatic character of Delta Sgt. First Class "Hoot" Gibson.

"I grew up watching war films, notes Bana, "but Black Hawk Down is different in the sense that it’s about modern urban warfare, which hasn’t really been captured on film. I was a little bit angry with myself for not knowing more about the Battle of Mogadishu, but then realized that most people don’t, which is a great reason to make this movie. As tragic as aspects of the event are, the heroism of those soldiers is unbelievable.

"I knew as soon as I read the book and the script that the film couldn’t fail," Bana continues, "and I think that’s really rare. And when I considered that Ridley Scott was the director and Jerry Bruckheimer was producer, it immediately became the greatest project I ever heard about. The decision-making process becomes really easy at that point. I’m proud to be a part of it."

Another fine talent from across the ocean to make the leap was Ewan McGregor, the young Scot whose remarkable escalating range of roles from Trainspotting to portraying Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and his musical wooing of Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge had made him one of the most sought-after talents in film.

As with Hartnett and Bana, all it took to whet McGregor’s appetite to become involved in Black Hawk Down were the subject matter, director and producer. But he initially heard the project’s clarion call from a great distance. "I was about to leave on a trip to the Honduras rain forest," recalls McGregor, "when I received a paper envelope in the mail containing the book Black Hawk Down. There was no note—just the book. I took it on my trip, read the entire book on the flight over, and thought it was an incredible, moving true story. As soon as I reached Honduras I called my agent and said, ‘Look, I think you better make sure that I’m not going to miss out on this, because this is something I want to do.’

"So I was in the jungle," continues McGregor, "and we could only switch on our satellite phone for 20 minutes every morning because we couldn’t recharge it. And after spending two weeks of walking through the jungle, which was really hard work, my agent told me that if I got the part, I should be prepared to go to military training camp as soon as I returned! I said, ‘I feel like I’m doing boot camp right now in the jungle!’ But I called Ridley as soon as I got home and told him I wanted to be part of the movie."

Two other principal actors were already well known to Jerry Bruckheimer, for both of them had also performed in his other films, including Pearl Harbor, Enemy of the State and The Rock: Tom Sizemore and William Fichtner, respectively portraying Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight and Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson.

Sizemore is already something of a war movie veteran, having not only fought the Japanese in Pearl Harbor, but the Nazis alongside Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Nonetheless, he was more than anxious to jump back into his combat boots for Black Hawk Down. "I wanted to work with Ridley Scott, because I think he’s one of the finest directors in the world," Sizemore declares. "And Danny McKnight is a kind of American icon, a fighting man who doesn’t flinch. He’s a real leader, and was already 37 years old—exactly my age—when he fought in the battle."

To portray Major General William F. Garrison, a man still standing in the judgment of history for his command of the mission, Bruckheimer and Scott turned to an American icon of a different order—Sam Shepard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who had also become one of the country’s most versatile and respected actors. Shepard himself recalled the actual events: "I can’t say that I knew very much about it, but I remember very clearly my strong, emotional reaction to Mike Durant’s battered face in the photograph released by the Somalis when he was captured, as well as the bodies of the dead Americans being dragged through the streets. These were very disturbing from the American point of view." Shepard was also impressed by Bowden’s detailed, journalistic approach to the battle in his book.

British actor Jason Isaacs, who had fought the Americans as a brutish British officer in the Revolutionary War epic The Patriot, was now to wear a more contemporary U.S. uniform as Ranger Captain Mike Steele. As with the others, Isaacs also found that Bowden’s book packed an emotional wallop, with the screenplay doing it justice. "My first reaction was something entirely selfish," admits Isaacs, "which was that I hoped I could be a part of putting it on film. When Ridley Scott is the director, and he says, ‘I want to make a movie based on this book,’ you take some things on faith!"

To fill out the huge speaking cast, the filmmakers cast their nets in the extraordinary talent pool of the United States, Britain and Europe, many of them leading players in their own right who were anxious to contribute to Bruckheimer and Scott’s ensemble. Summoned from America were Ron Eldard, Brian Van Holt, Jeremy Piven, Charlie Hofheimer, Thomas Guiry, Gregory Sporleder, Carmine Giovinazzo, Gabriel Casseus, Chris Beetem, Tac Fitzgerald, Johnny Strong, Steven Ford, željko Ivanek, Glenn Morshower, Kim Coates (although Canadian by birth), Brendan Sexton III, Danny Hoch, Kent Linville, Enrique Murciano, Michael Roof, Jason Hildebrandt, Ty Burrell, Richard Tyson and Boyd Kestner.

From England came Jason Isaacs as well as Hugh Dancy, Thomas Hardy, Matthew Marsden, Orlando Bloom (fresh from a year of playing Legolas in The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Razaaq Adoti, George Harris and Treva Etienne. From elsewhere in Great Britain, Ewen Bremner (in addition to Ewan McGregor) hail from Scotland, with the Welsh contingent represented by Ian Virgo and Ioan Gruffudd. From Australia came Eric Bana. And from Denmark, there was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, a major star on home turf.

As for the seemingly offbeat notion of casting foreign-born actors in roles of American soldiers, Ewan McGregor notes, "In Britain, we’ve got so many different regional accents in such a small place that I’ve always been called upon to do different accents in all my films. I’ve done a couple of films in America before, and the accent is just something you have to work on. And we’ve been so saturated with American movies and television in Britain anyway, that we’re all familiar with the accents from the time we’re very young."

"We’re also raised on American films and TV in Denmark," affirms Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. "I’ve heard American accents for so long that it’s actually harder for me to do a British accent!" Concurs Jason Isaacs, "If you can’t do accents as a British actor, you’re in big trouble!"

"Playing an American is exactly the same as taking on a role as anything other than exactly who and what you are," adds Matthew Marsden, a young British actor and singer who portrays Spec. Dale Sizemore (no relation to Tom). "Obviously, I cared about getting my accent right, and just as important to me was playing a United States Ranger authentically."

Notes Orlando Bloom, "I decided to speak in my American voice all day long so that I felt the voice was my own. Americans are also very strong and focused in the way they communicate, whereas the Brits kind of offer something and then stop a bit. There’s also a difference in the body language between the two nationalities. I had to learn to just kind of relax, whereas we’re somewhat more formal in Great Britain."

As a support for the non-American actors, dialect coach Sandra Butterworth would be on set nearly every day, making certain that the "r"s weren’t rolled and the "a"s were properly flattened