flaws with Black Hawk Down

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 2002)

I am a huge Ridley Scott fan and wanted to see this movie when it would come out. I loved this movie in terms of how it was made[music, look of film etc]. I highly recommend the music CD as I experienced flashback to the movie.
However, after reading the book and watching the "True Story of Black Hawk Down"[which faithfully rehashes the book for people too lazy to read it], and reading the comments about the flaws by Mr. Superslick I am a bit dis-illusioned by the movie.
First of all, Delta Operator Paul H in the book, BHW, was extremely disappointed by the level of training and experience of the RANGERS. In the movie, the rangers were seen to be in control of their emotions, but in the book, they "completely freaked out" that the Somalis would fire back and actually hit them. This was the real tragedy of the BHD incident where Rangers, who are suppose to be the elite[step above the rest from normal US army types] were completely freaked out in the situation. It was the D-boys that were the real heroes in the sense that they held it together.

Second, the discipline among the ranger units completely broke down under the pressure of the shooting. In the book, the rangers did not obey orders to go out at nighttime to reinforce the Black hawk. Considering the elite special forces could not handle this situation, imagine a bunch of dumn ass ROTC graduates put in this situation. Normal Army types would have completely p*ssed in their pants.

Third, Eversmann in the book completely LOST IT[ie emotionally] and was no way in control as portayed in the movie by Josh Hartnett. No ranger in this event displayed this level of professionalism. Only the D-boys were that cool under pressure. This angle was not played up in the movie as it would have weakened the heroic nature of Special Forces.
Fourth, this fact that the Somalis were p***ed off with Rangers and the BlackHawks as stated by Author Mark Bowden was that the blackhawk fighters were always disrupting the traffic and blowing away the houses in Mogadishu. In addition, the flyboys were always flying UNDER the rooftops that also p*ssed off the Somalis.
In a New York TImes article about BHD, Ridley and Jerry stated they wanted the movie to be more about what it was like to be in a firefight and not the Story about a particular Special Forces operator in Mog. So the incessant complaints about plot is annoying.