Finding East Africa in North Africa

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 location. 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 ( "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 commiss ion 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 Cinema...) 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."

Casting An International Net

As Scott, Bruckheimer and Lusty began organizing the giant production effort, thefilmmakers 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, ?eljko 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.

Orientation... Learning the Ropes

Harry Humphries is, by all accounts except his own modest self-regard, one of the most remarkable figures in the world of film and television. A former Navy S.E.A.L. who was highly decorated for action in the Vietnam War, Humphries has more recently applied himself to matters of security and tactical training through his own company, GSGI (Global Studies Group, Inc.)-and, usually for Jerry Bruckheimer-serving as a key military or technical adviser on such films as The Rock, Con Air, Armageddon, Enemy of the State and Pearl Harbor. Once again, Bruckheimer called upon Humphries and his expertise, not only as an on-set adviser but also to prepare the huge cast for their respective roles as United States Rangers, Delta Force operators and helicopter pilots.

Bruckheimer, Scott and executive producers Mike Stenson, Chad Oman and Branko Lustig began laying the groundwork for what would become a remarkable association with the United States Department of Defense, which would provide extraordinary cooperation with the filmmakers while, at the same time, allowing them to tell the story of Black Hawk Down authentically. Certainly, Bruckheimer had already established a strong relationship with the U.S. military and D.O.D. from Top Gun to Pearl Harbor and many other projects in between, but Black Hawk Down is based on a mission, which is still highly sensitive, even controversial.

However, as Bruckheimer notes, "Mark Bowden's book is on their reading list... it was something the military embraced, wanting their officers and men to read it. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Sheldon, is an admirer of the book, so when we went to Washington to meet with [former] Secretary of Defense William Cohen, they were very enthusiastic about the project."

The first, and very tangible sign of such cooperation, was in the D.O.D.'s invitation to allow the actors of Black Hawk Down to participate in orientation and training at the actual military bases of the branches they were portraying: Fort Benning, Georgia for the Rangers; Fort Bragg, North Carolina for Special Forces (including the Delta Force, so secretive that the Army still doesn't officially acknowledge their existence); and Fort Campbell, Kentucky for the 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) pilots.

"We felt that it was really important for the actors to actually become part of the military, even for a short time, if they were going to portray soldiers," Jerry Bruckheimer asserts. "And so, as we did with Pearl Harbor, we sent them for training... not a Hollywood boot camp, but practical orientation. There's nothing like reality. You can't fake it. We wanted the actors to have respect for the military and understand the physical challenges that they go through. If you talk to any soldier who has been through a battle or a war, they'll tell you that the only thing that saved their lives was either the man next to them, or their training."

"Sending actors to 'boot camp' is almost a conventional thing to do now," says Ridley Scott, "but when you think about it, it makes all the sense in the world, because if any actor has any notions of being better than the next guy, that goes right out the window. And if they weren't fit already, they're a hell of a lot fitter than they will ever be in their lives. And if they were fit already, then they're even fitter than they could possibly be!"

Adds Harry Humphries, "I'm a big believer in making sure that before we start filming a movie such as this one, for which Jerry and Ridley were going for utter authenticity, that actors are taught the necessary weaponry and physical skills up front so that we don't have to coach them so intensely on the set during production. It serves no purpose, to my mind, to simply put them through a harassing 'boot camp' session up front so that they can simply say, 'Man, I've been through hell.' My response would be, 'Well, that's very impressive, but what skills have you learned?' So my concept is not to harass, but to train the actors in actual skills.

"In this particular situation," Humphries continues, "because of the intense support we received from the Department of Defense, I had three separate training commands. Twenty-one of our actors portraying Rangers went through a modified Ranger indoctrination program, or a RIPIT as they call it, with the 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning. The Regiment put up the best instructors they had in house, and it was without question one of the finest training sessions I've ever seen any group of actors go through. At Fort Bragg, three actors portraying the commandos went through another training program with the 7th Special Forces. Our two Black Hawk pilots went to Fort Campbell and worked with the 160th SOAR helicopter-training program. This was unparalleled to any D.O.D. training program that has ever been put forth-a wonderful, cooperative effort."

At Fort Benning, Ranger instructors felt a strong personal stake in Black Hawk Down. Many of them had fought there; many knew men who had died there. Ranger Training Detachment commandant First Sgt. James Hardy's goal was to ensure that the 21 actors had a good understanding of the Ranger mentality and way of life, and how events played out in Mogadishu over those two days.

Ranger instructors taught classes from general military knowledge (how to wear the uniform properly, customs and courtesies) to advanced marksmanship skills. The actors learned the Ranger Creed and Ranger history, hand-to-hand combat techniques, how to tie knots and use radios. Hugh Dancy, who would portray Ranger medic Kurt "Doc" Schmid, worked with Ranger medics in combat scenarios. On the fourth day of training, the actors fired M16-A2 rifles and squad automatic weapons. While at Fort Benning, the actors got their "high-and-tight" Ranger haircuts, wore desert-camouflaged uniforms and nametags with their Ranger characters' names on them.

Remarked Ranger instructor Sgt. First Class Martin Barreras, "I want them to remember the sense of teamwork that is inherent to a Ranger organization and the amount of attention to detail that's required from every individual that is part of that team."

Josh Hartnett, who had already been through a training program for Pearl Harbor, faced a different set of goals for his portrayal of Sgt. Matt Eversmann, who had faced down the enemy in Mogadishu just eight years before. "We were taught how to move and think like a Ranger," notes the young actor. "They teach you slogans like 'Slow is smooth and smooth is fast,' which means that if you're bouncing around, you can't really see what's happening around you."

"The Ranger Orientation Program was great," says Ewan McGregor. "It was quite heavily laden with how we had to portray the Rangers. We did a lot of marching around, and lots of classroom stuff. In the end, we had to work our way down the street of a mock village and avoid being shot.

"I got shot, of course," laughs McGregor. "But the psychological aspect of the orientation program was fascinating. We met a few of the soldiers who are actual characters in the film, and it was extraordinary to see how they thought and what they remembered. Our weapons training was invaluable. Being able to shoot live rounds is not something you do every day, and to these soldiers a gun is so second nature they're hardly aware they're even there, whereas for an actor it's like 'Oooh, it's a gun!' I don't particularly like guns, but I have to admit that I quite enjoyed firing them, and of course, it was necessary for the work ahead."

Adds Tom Sizemore, "What really got me at training camp was the Ranger Creed. I don't think most of us can understand that kind of mutual devotion. It's like having 200 best friends, and every single one of them would die for you. I'd be lying if I said that I knew what it means, because I really don't. I can get close to it; I can go to Fort Benning and watch them together, but I don't really know if I would have it in me to die for somebody else, or risk my life to retrieve the bodies of soldiers who have already died. That's a different type of person... that's a Ranger."

"We thought that it was an unwritten rule among the Rangers that you don't ever leave a man behind," says Jason Isaacs, "but when we got to Fort Benning for training, we learned that it's a written rule! The Ranger creed is recited every morning, en masse, wherever they are. And they mean every word of it, because in a conversation with the Rangers who were in Mogadishu, every single one of them said that their first instinct, after learning about the crashed Black Hawks, was to get out there to the site and bring back every single one of their brothers. It's a bit of a culture shock for us actors to understand their philosophy. The Rangers were fighting for the guy on their left, and the guy on their right."

Brian Van Holt confirms this assessment. "From the amount of time I spent with the Rangers, they're the tightest fraternity I've ever experienced. And it's something that I really can't articulate or explain, because you have to be a Ranger to really understand. But from the vantage point of an outsider looking in, what I got from them was that they were just a solid group of guys trained to finish the mission, but just as importantly, take care of their fellow Ranger. They take care of their own, and they're willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. It's incredible, and it made me want to work even harder to portray these guys correctly and as accurately as possible."

For Michael Roof, an urban comedian of definite non-military bent known to his friends and fans as "Chicken," Ranger orientation was culture shock to the nth degree. "Oh God, weapons training, running five miles, jumping on monkey bars, fall 20 feet, blow up doors... I threw up, like, three times. Look at my hair! My hair was down to here, and they chopped it all off!

"But more seriously," Roof adds, "every one of the actors came away with a lot of respect for the Rangers, and we just hope we can portray them with integrity and respect."

At Fort Bragg's Special Forces orientation, Eric Bana, William Fichtner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau received detailed instruction on the proper handling and operation of weapons used by the soldiers in Somalia, as well as "breaching training" (entering locked or obstructed doorways or windows using explosives, and learning how to enter and clear a building of possible threats).

On their final day, Bana, Fichtner and Coster-Waldau trained at Fort Bragg's Urban Terrain site, a cinderblock mock village where Special Forces soldiers demonstrated movement through a city that poses threats at every turn... which Mogadishu certainly did on that fateful day and night in 1993. The actors-now starting to resemble Special Ops soldiers-fought their way against an opposing force using simulations through the mock city to a fictional helicopter crash site.

Eric Bana, who had packed on the poundage to portray "Chopper" Read, began shedding it as soon as he learned he had the role of "Hoot." In fact, Bana lost 35 pounds in three months, which involved weight training and what he called "a very strict, extremely boring insanity diet," which he would stick with throughout the entire four-month shoot. Recalls the actor, "I got as fit as I've ever been before going to Special Forces training, 'cause I knew that it could be severely embarrassing if I showed up in bad condition.

"Let's face it," Bana continues, "embarrassment is the key thing here! So luckily, orientation was almost exactly the opposite of what I expected. I was predicting some kind of horrendous physical torture, but it was very hands-on, extremely interesting and very specific. We got to learn some incredible things, some of which I can't even reveal."

Meeting actual Delta operators "helped in ways I couldn't have imagined," Bana says, "and not only in terms of learning tactics and weaponry. Since there were only three of us-me, William Fichtner and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau-we spent a lot of time with our eight instructors. We'd go out to dinner with them, hang out and really get to know them. They were very worldly, extremely well-read, incredibly intelligent and had an amazing sense of humor. It gave me the confidence to go with things for my character that I had been thinking about, but wasn't quite sure were relevant. And it also allowed for an on-screen rapport between Bill, Nikolaj and myself that was completely non-manufactured."

Willam Fichtner amusedly describes the difference between training with Delta and the bigger group of actors training with the Rangers. "Let me give you an example... the first day the actors were at Fort Benning with the Rangers, they were in a classroom. The first day we were at Fort Bragg, our instructors were saying 'See that door there? Let's blow it up.' It was a phenomenal experience. The three of us were sponges for the information. I would have paid money to go through that course."

Also to receive an extraordinary education was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, cast as Congressional Medal of Honor winner Gary Gordon. "To be honest, before being cast, I didn't even know what the Medal of Honor was," admits the actor. "I mean, I'm Danish, and have always lived in Denmark. But when I went to Fort Bragg for training, I visited a Special Forces museum on the base, and Gary Gordon's name is on the wall. I soon came to realize how much of a hero he was, and I'm truly honored to portray him."

Along with his fellow actors, Coster-Waldau was surprised by the character and personalities of the Special Forces soldiers he met and befriended. "I had an image of these people that just didn't fit the bill," he acknowledges. "I was expecting some hardass Rambo kind of guys, and these were just laid back, friendly people. I never would have picked them out as soldiers if they were out of uniform."

Further west, at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, Ron Eldard and Jeremy Piven were learning some of the ropes of what it takes to be the best of the best with the men of the 160th SOAR, the legendary "Nightstalkers" (so called because of their expertise at night flying). The actors met with several veterans of Somalia, "flew" missions in the unit's flight simulator under the same conditions faced by Wolcott and Durant during the mission, and received an in-depth briefing by the recently retired Mike Durant himself.

Along with many of the Black Hawk Down actors who had the opportunity of encountering or speaking by telephone with their real-life counterparts, Eldard met Mike Durant, who retired just a few weeks before the orientation began. "He was taken hostage for more than a week and had very bad injuries from the crash, but he stunningly survived it all," says Eldard admiringly. "For all that he went through, he's such a great guy.

"And that's what they're all like," Eldard continues. They're so heroic, but so normal at the same time. I was surprised by how moved I was meeting them. At one point, I remember saying 'This could be a convention of schoolteachers in the Midwest.' The pilots are not chest-out, macho guys. They are all very calm, relaxed, very professional."

Adds Jeremy Piven, who portrays Chief Warrant Officer Cliff Wolcott, "Flying Black Hawks is incredibly intense. All of one's motor skills are needed at every moment, the controls are so responsive and delicate. We trained in simulators and studied the actual Black Hawks on the ground, and these machines are incredible, the highest level out there. They can maneuver into anything. They can fly at night. They're jet black; they're ominous. You have to be at the top of your game to fly them. The guys of the 160th have such a sense of loyalty and camaraderie towards each other.

"Every pilot who came up to me during training just said, 'Just do Cliff Wolcott proud, because he was the real deal. All we ask is that you all try to keep it real.'"

Keeping It Real... The Filming of Black Hawk Down

Following their training, the large contingent of international performers descended upon Rabat, Morocco, along with a tremendous group of behind-the-scenes artists, craftsmen and technicians from around the world organized by Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott and Branko Lustig.

The crew of Black Hawk Down represented a truly awesome international coalition. The largest contingent was actually from home turf in Morocco, with expert workers hailing from every corner of the country, from Tangiers in the north to Ouarzazate in the south, as well as Marrakesh, Casablanca, Fez, cities and tiny country villages, and many from the local Rabat/Sale area. The second largest group was from Great Britain, including most of the special effects, props, wardrobe, set decorating and armoury departments. The better part of Arthur Max's art department hailed from Italy, artisans who had previously worked with him on the massive sets of Gladiator. Approximately 50 Americans, sprinkled through the production and other departments, traveled from New York, Los Angeles and points in between. Branko Lustig, originally a native of Croatia, brought in some 50 of his former countrymen (and women) to work in various departments (again, many of whom were veterans of Gladiator), and the better part of the stunt players under coordinator Phil Neilson were from the Czech Republic, many of whom had also seen action in the bloodied ancient arenas of Gladiator.

Other countries represented on the Black Hawk Down crew were Canada, France, the West Indies, Germany, Ireland, Malta, Poland, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Russia, Slovakia, Austria, New Zealand, Senegal and even Thailand. All told, there were nearly a thousand crew members on the most demanding days, in addition to the huge cast and extras.

Further internationalizing the production was the dedicated group of extras assembled by William F. Dowd to portray the Somalis. "Since there are few, if any, Somalis living in Morocco," Dowd explains, "we had to organize people from some 30 other countries in Africa who are working or studying in and around Rabat. When I first came to North Africa, I got word that there was a group of people from Nigeria who went to mass at the Rabat Protestant Fellowship Church. So I went there, met the pastor, and spoke to the people about the movie and asked them to get the word out to the African community in Rabat that we were hiring people to play Somalis.

"The word got out all right," continues Dowd. "We not only attracted people from Nigeria, but also from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Angola, Djibouti, Senegal and Congo, just to name a few."

Dowd also enlisted Moroccans and many Berbers from the southern deserts of sub-Saharan African descent. The Africans would create their own rich babel of languages, including Creole, Wolof, Dutch, Italian, French, English and several tribal dialects. And with the aid of stunt coordinator Phil Neilson, 50 Africans were chosen as the core Somali militiamen, which would require intense physical and weapons training that converted them into what everyone considered to be extraordinary stunt players.

Three British actors-Razaaq Adoti, Treva Etienne and George Harris-were cast by Ridley Scott as major Somali characters. Adoti plays the fierce militiaman Mo'alim, Etienne is Black Hawk pilot Mike Durant's captor Firimbi, and polished, educated businessman Osman Atto is played by Harris. All were determined to bring a sense of humanity and balance to an "enemy" which had a firm belief in the righteousness of their cause.

Notes Adoti, "As an actor, if you're going to play someone who's responsible for despicable acts-even if it's alien and incomprehensible to yourself-you still have to find the truth and the reasons behind them so that you can play the character believably. On a moral scale, Mo'alim is doing a lot of wrong. He's killing his own people. At the same time, I try to understand that Somalia had been occupied by many nations, and this created a mistrust or even hatred of foreign armies in their midst. So Mo'alim sees the U.N. forces as just another occupying entity, as opposed to seeing that they were there to help his country. As far as he's concerned, he's a Somali patriot doing the right thing for his people."

For his role of Mo'alim, Adoti had to learn several words of Somali and much about the culture. "But to be honest," the actor says, "as a Muslim with Nigerian parents, I already had an understanding of Koranic Arabic, which is the basis of the Somali language. I also had an opportunity to learn a different African language for Amistad, which also helped prepare me for this."

Production Design to the "Max"

Before actors and crew could begin filming, the physical backdrop needed to be created, and Ridley Scott turned for the third time (after G.I. Jane and Gladiator) to production designer Arthur Max. "At the beginning of the process," Max explains, "Ridley and I do a pinup of imagery on the walls, as much reference material as we can find. We whittle that down to things that resonate with us, trying to find inspiration from certain images. Then we scout together on the ground and try and fit those images into the context of a situation as much as we can."

"For Black Hawk Down," continues Arthur Max, "we worked a great deal with very large-scale models, as well as aerial photographs mapping sections of the city that we were interested in. We then developed the actual set designs and began to build them four months before shooting was scheduled to begin."

In effect, an entire neighborhood had to be "made over" in a transformation from Morocco to Mogadishu. The specific section of Sale selected as the primary backdrop for filming was a teeming, decidedly downscale, pungent working class district called Sidi Moussa, comprised of two- or three-story, mostly illegally constructed dwellings, and populated to a large degree by rural Moroccans seeking a better life in the big city. What Ridley Scott required for his cinematic vision of Black Hawk Down was an African urban area large enough to be photographed from the ground and air-primarily without the benefit of visual effects-and resemble the grungy Somali capital of Mogadishu as closely as possible.

"We combed through Sale for a month, photographing both from the air and ground level," comments Arthur Max, "weaving our way through the street grids, before finding Sidi Moussa. There were so many areas of interest there that we had to decide where not to shoot. In Sidi Moussa, there's a rich array of walled cities from Crusader times, old medinas, half-completed new towns, coastal roads, cemeteries, areas of abandonment, and some very fine architecture, with beautiful markets and mosques. In effect, it was a tremendous back lot set for us, and we wanted to take advantage of everything."

There was major construction of sets in several parts of Sidi Moussa, with crews of at least 150 in each location working simultaneously. Several sets were built from scratch, others were added on to existing buildings and others were basically utilized as found.

Perhaps the greatest alteration occurred on Sidi Moussa's Avenue Nasser, the main "strip" of the district, lined with tenement apartments and an array of humble, ground-level shops. Here, Max and his crew designed Mogadishu's Hawlwadig Road, and constructed in its entirety-on a soccer field-the "Target Building" from which the Rangers and Delta Force soldiers must extricate the Aidid lieutenants. Because the actual Target Building in Mogadishu was a nondescript cinderblock structure revealing little of its location, Max decided to take some creative license.

"We decided to go from scratch," he explains, "because we had so many action sequences to film here-with helicopters, soldiers fast-roping into the streets surrounding the building, people rushing onto rooftops-that it would have been difficult to choreograph so much activity onto an existing structure. So we built a new football stadium for the community further down the road, and then custom designed the Target Building from photographs of Mogadishu in the Italian colonial period in what is an Arabic/Colonial style. It's meant to be an abandoned administrative building, because the government in Somalia had disappeared at the time of the story. And since it needed to be filmed from the air, we tried to blend into the existing grid as best we could."

Several blocks of Avenue Nasser were transformed into a recreation of downtown Mogadishu so convincing that participants in the film and visitors to the set who had been in Somalia during the actual events were thunderstruck by the similarity. Facades of residential buildings on the avenue were completely refaced, eliminating recognizable Moroccan design motifs and pockmarking them with bullet and shell holes (which were almost always painted in, except for false facades which could be easily removed after filming). Street after street of tumbledown buildings were strewn with copious amounts of rubbish, burnt-out vehicles, roadblocks and other detritus of war, the setting truly redolent of a city on the brink of apocalyptic madness. In all, some 35 square blocks of "downtown Sidi Moussa" were transformed into the war-torn backdrop of Mogadishu.

Also constructed near the Target Building was an intentionally faded and even pathetic remnant of Somalia's sad colonial past, an "Arco de Triunfo Dopolare" built by the Italians during their misadventure in East Africa. "This was based on a real piece of architecture put up in Mogadishu in the 1930s," notes Max, "which we replicated to give more of a sense of the colonial history of the country. We tried to recreate the ambiance of Mogadishu with its very layered history of generations of occupancy by various powers: the Ottoman Turks, Italians and British were there, and finally a Soviet-backed puppet government which was eventually overthrown by Aidid in unison with other clans, which then began to bicker and fight."

The first Black Hawk crash site, and several buildings surrounding it in which much of the action of the film takes place-dubbed the "Alamo" complex-was designed and constructed over an unfinished housing development in the Hay Arrahma district of Sale, about two miles from Avenue Nasser. "We've used the half-built apartments as a skeleton and added our set pieces onto it," Max conveys, "ancient arches, restaurants, shopfronts, beauty salons, cafes, a movie theatre and Communist-inspired fountain as its centerpiece. And since there were four entrances into this area that we were able to control, this set was truly like a back lot. We were given a great deal of cooperation by the Moroccan government and city fathers of Sale to use these areas for our film."

Layered onto these sets were meticulously recreated shop signs, Somali graffiti in both their language and broken English, and naively painted propaganda murals, achieved with the assistance of Somali expatriates who served as technical advisers. Palm trees and other foliage native to Somalia were transplanted by greensmen to the somewhat barren landscapes of Sidi Moussa for further authenticity.

Yet another section of Sale, one even less developed than the area around Avenue Nasser, was utilized for the second Black Hawk crash site. "We constructed a ruined medrassa, or Islamic religious school, next to an existing mosque in a very impoverished area of the city," says Max. "We wanted to make this set a bit more rustic and traditional in terms of style.

"Rabat and Sale are rich with history," continues Max, "and we tried to take advantage of its historical architecture as much as possible." One example of this was the use of a courtyard off the famed Rue de Consuls shopping street of the 17th century Rabat medina, its old walled city, to re-create Mogadishu's notorious Bakara Market, where weapons and hand grenades were for sale along with fruits and vegetables. For the days of shooting, the thriving corner of the medina was converted into an atmospherically teeming but terrifying marketplace of death.

To re-create the U.S. military base in Mogadishu, Jerry Bruckheimer and Branko Lustig made arrangements with the Moroccan government to allow production to utilize a working Royal Moroccan Air Force field some 20 miles north of Rabat in the coastal town of Kenitra, creating sets inside of hangars, and building other structures. Even for this utilitarian set, Scott and Max's visual creativity resulted in a fascinatingly designed makeshift barracks for the Rangers and Delta Force soldiers, with set decorator Elli Griff and her team extraordinarily detailing each man's diminutive personal space with myriad personal effects absolutely true to their character and the early 1990s setting. A firing range was also constructed on the beach at nearby Mehdiya, a popular recreation area for local Moroccans.

The only set not built in a "practical" location was the JOC, or Joint Operations Center, the headquarters from which Maj. General Garrison commands the mission, with banks of television monitors allowing him to track the fate of his men. However, even the JOC was located in the "Zone Industrielle" of Sale, constructed inside of an abandoned warehouse just a few blocks from the Black Hawk Down production building. And yet another huge, half-developed chunk of Sidi Moussa was utilized for the climactic "Mogadishu Mile," in which the desperate, exhausted Rangers run through withering enemy fire to the safety of a U.N.-held sports stadium in the north of the city.

Explains Arthur Max, "Our goal was to try and capture as much as possible of Mogadishu in terms of place, sense of history and life as it was at the time of our story. Doing that, we used a crew of some 400 mixed nationalities. We had Americans, English, Moroccans, Croatians, Italians, Spaniards, Russians, Czechs, Slovaks and French, and the flavor of this international group, I hope, is reflected in the hybrid style that was Somalia, having been occupied and re-occupied over its history by so many invasions and outside influences.

"One of the biggest differences between what we did in Morocco for Black Hawk Down and what we did on Gladiator," Max informs, "is that here, we had to build and work within an existing, thriving city. It's really a location movie, whereas Gladiator had sets constructed in a protected environment, set apart from large populations. Here, our back lot is in the midst of a population in residence. It was an interesting challenge to deal with day to day, to say the least."

Costumes: From American Military to Somali Militia

The expansive wardrobe needs of Black Hawk Down required two costume designers: Sammy Howarth-Sheldon to wardrobe Somali militiamen and civilians, and David Murphy to uniform the various armies depicted in the film.

Howarth-Sheldon faced the same problems encountered by Arthur Max in researching her departmental task, which was the impossibility of traveling to Somalia to get a first-hand look at how the people there are arrayed. "But there's a lot of original news footage from the event," Howarth-Sheldon explains, "and a few books. I also did a lot of research on the internet." What she discovered was that clothing worn by Somalis then and now are a melange of hand-me-down western clothes-much of it provided by the United Nations or other relief efforts-and the colorful traditional ma-awi wraparound skirts worn by the men, with longer garments and shawls or headscarves for the women.

Howarth-Sheldon went about combing thrift shops in England for garments dating from the 1970s to early '90s, as well as purchasing old fabrics, both in Britain and the medinas of Morocco, to "build" other costumes.

Since there was no standard uniform for the Somali militia, "We've art directed that a bit more so you can identify the difference between them and other members of the Somali public," says Howarth-Sheldon. I tried to make the militiamen a little camouflaged, and we've broken their clothing down severely so that they look really dirty and worn." Several of the men, militia and otherwise, are dressed in combinations of western clothing and the ma-awi. "The fabric they use for the ma-awi is Madras cotton," explains Howarth-Sheldon, "so we obtained as much of the material as we could to make the garments." All told, Howarth-Sheldon and her department bought or fabricated nearly 3,000 outfits. She then spent nearly all day on set doing "field work," adjusting headscarves for the women, or ma-awis for the men, fixing what was broken and dirtying up what wasn't.

Meanwhile, it fell to David Murphy to arrange for some 600 uniforms representing not only different branches of the United States military-Rangers, Delta Force and 160th SOAR pilots-but also the various armies under the United Nations banner, including Pakistani, Italian and Malaysian... as well as accurate badges and ensignias to insure absolute authenticity. Military adviser Harry Humphries helped to ensure that these uniforms and ensignias were always worn properly by the cast and extras, and the military "webbing" (helmets, flak jackets, equipment belts, etc.) were specifically attended to by a mini-department comprised of one young woman from the Czech Republic and another from its neighbor (and former confederate), Slovakia.

Epic Story, Epic Filming

To be on the set of Black Hawk Down in Sale during filming was to be witness to a daily spectacle that sometimes defied description. Thousands of actors and extras arrayed in respective uniform or Somali native costume, myriad weaponry, fearsome explosions and fires, hovering helicopters either photographing the action or being photographed from both ground and air, all in the midst of a population either fascinated or puzzled by the incredible activities of the cast and crew. Tremendous base camps were set up for both first and second units, with a huge array of campers, trailers, trucks and other production vehicles, and numerous tents for catering, extras holding and costuming. When not being utilized on set, dozens of military vehicles-Humvees, tanks, trucks, and Somali "technicals" (dilapidated pickup trucks with jerry-mounted .50 caliber machine guns), most of them purchased by the production and then either severely damaged and destroyed during filming-were also housed at the base camps, which often had to be packed up and moved depending upon which part of the city the production was based on any given day.

While there's no question that inhabitants of Sidi Moussa and other districts of Sale were occasionally inconvenienced or unnerved by filming, the production also provided an extraordinary number of jobs or financial compensation for its inhabitants, a welcome relief considering the district's 85 percent unemployment rate. More often than not, the good citizens of Sale-particularly those in Sidi Moussa-displayed remarkable cooperation and friendliness toward its cinematic visitors, often inviting crew members inside their homes for several glasses of the ubiquitous Moroccan mint tea and sweets.

"When we first got to Sidi Moussa," recalls Ridley Scott, "some of us said, 'Wow, it's pretty rough here.' But when you got used to going there every day, it was actually rather nice. We'd have practically the entire town there every day, just watching. It was quite a feat of politics to get us there in the first place and keep everyone happy, but everything fell into place pretty quickly. We made sure to employ a lot of people from Sidi Moussa, which I think was appreciated."

To properly film the expansive action setpieces, Ridley Scott and director of photography Slawomir Idziak would normally shoot with multiple camera setups, six to eight being the average, with many more for the bigger sequences. Unlike many action films, in which scenes are shot in 30 to 45 second segments, Scott preferred filming long, complex combat sequences from beginning to end, with cameras capturing specific moments as per their placement. This technique added to the spontaneity and authenticity of the battle scenes, and for spectators was rather like watching a real war. Helping to control matters was first assistant director/associate producer Terry Needham, acknowledged as one of the best, most experienced and most unyielding of anyone in his profession. A colorful veteran of several films with Ridley Scott and the late Stanley Kubrick-including the latter's Vietnam War film Full Metal Jacket, which filmed for over a year-Needham and his production crew somehow managed to hold the diverse elements together.

"It looked like chaos," notes Branko Lustig, "but it was organized chaos. Everybody knew what he or she was doing. It was an enormous crew with everybody speaking different languages, but somehow, when Ridley called 'Action!,' everything functioned."

Although many in the Black Hawk Down cast had been involved in big-scale moviemaking before, few of them were prepared for the sheer scope of what Ridley Scott set out to accomplish. "We did a shot at the 'Alamo' that took half a day to set up and maybe about three minutes to shoot," recalls Josh Hartnett, "in which I run across one building, grab a strobe on the ground, flick it up on top of another building where Somali militiamen are positioned-who are shooting at me the whole way-and then two American Little Bird helicopters fly over the building and strafe the Somalis. The way Ridley sets up and films the shot, it's continuous action from the beginning to the end of the scene, and it totally affects you. It's kind of frightening, and kind of exciting, but with all of the squibs and explosions going off, it's going to be a hell of a lot more realistic than running away from something fake.

"You never really know what it's going to be like," Hartnett continues. "You have guys on the building shooting blanks at you, so you hear the noise and gunshots, you hear the RPGs and see the explosions right next to you. It's easy for an actor to suspend his disbelief and feel like he's actually being shot at."

Adds Ewan McGregor, "There's really no acting required. It feels like the real deal. The special effects guys are amazing. I've done films where the special effects are all done afterwards on computer, and that's fine, but here, when you're running down these streets with squibs going off everywhere, it really feels like you're in the line of fire."

"It's literally overwhelming the first time you're exposed to that," affirms Eric Bana. "I remember the first take I did where there were .50 caliber machine guns being fired. It was just an aural assault. You know, Ridley has at least 100 Somali militiamen shooting at you at the same time, so it was an overload of the senses at first... and then you kind of get used to it, which is even more scary."

William Fichtner notes that "I've never been around a set this big. There's no room for a panic button. Know your job-that's what Ridley expects-and they all do it, like clockwork. It was exceptional."

Ridley Scott noted that the cast "really got into it more than any other film I've been involved with. If they weren't shooting, they would usually come to the set and watch the procedure anyway. It became so fascinating that the actors formed this nucleus, a real team, which was pretty impressive. And it becomes totally real in the film. Because at the end of the day, we were trying to find the philosophy of what made those soldiers tick. Some of them enlisted to sort themselves out, but above all things, they wanted to test themselves, looking for a challenge. For others, it was a family thing, having fathers or grandfathers or brothers who'd been soldiers. There's a historical connection as well. They're a very interesting group of men, very seriously devoted to flag and country."

The weapons department was supervised by Simon Atherton, one of the foremost armourers in motion pictures. For Black Hawk Down, Atherton and his mostly English crew had to assemble a mighty arsenal of weapons actually used in the battle, including Soviet-made AK-47 assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and "technical"-mounted recoilless rifles used by the Somalis, and for the Americans, M-16 automatic rifles, Browning .50 caliber machine guns (with their earthshaking and earsplitting reports), LAWs (Light Antitank Weapon), M-60 machine guns, SAWs (Squad Automatic Weapon) and lethal miniguns mounted on the Black Hawks and Little Birds, electric-powered machine guns capable of firing up to 4,000 rounds per minute. These were all retrofitted by Atherton and his team to shoot blank cartridges, and were often duplicated in amazingly realistic non-firing rubber replicas for non-firing extras.

Stunt coordinator Phil Neilson was responsible for helping to re-create a world of ancient warfare, on battlefields and in the arena, for Gladiator. Now he was called upon to utilize his own background in the American military to create complex stunts and combat action. "I brought in a lot of former military personnel who came with the knowledge already built in," explains Neilson. Because we were working on huge action setpieces, with hundreds or even thousands of extras, I had to delegate responsibilities because it was impossible for me to keep my eyes on everything. So we had stunt players as the Americans, and others as the Somalis, with virtually nonstop fighting and explosions, not to mention extensive use of helicopters, which present their own challenges.

"Number one in our minds," continues Neilson, "was the safety of cast, crew, extras and the people living in the areas where we were filming" (in fact, by the end of filming, there wasn't a single major injury among cast, extras or crew). It was also important for Neilson to follow Ridley Scott's dictum to keep the action within the bounds of reality. "I'm not crazy about over-the-top Hollywood hokum," states Neilson. "I like realism, and it was important to keep Black Hawk Down gritty and authentic."

Also a crucial factor in helping to create that battlefield mayhem was special effects supervisor and prosthetics supervisor Neil Corbould, an Academy AwardO winner for his work on Saving Private Ryan, and his large crew of technicians and specialists. "The biggest part of Black Hawk Down was the sheer quantity of it," Corbould states. "I've done war movies before where a section of the movie is combat, but there are quieter moments in between. But in this movie, it's nonstop bullet hits, explosions and helicopters crashes. We brought 25- and 40-foot trailers from the U.K. full of air cannons, mortar parts, bullet squibs with striker boxes and radar control units. Then we brought even more vehicles containing the prosthetic materials that were required.

"We typically have five to seven cameras set up on nearly each take," explains Corbould, "and every camera has to have bullet hits and maybe one or two explosions in front of it. We also have to have smoke atmosphere, flame effects, prosthetic bodies, and blood dressing on the actors. Almost every shot in the battle scenes lasts for quite a long time, which requires full effects, so we had some 40 guys on the floor working flat-out.

"Timing is very critical," adds Corbould, "and obviously safety is paramount to us. We rehearse as much as we can until we're happy with it, because in the busiest shot we let off probably 1200 bullet hits in one take."

Corbould and his crew would also construct several full or nearly full-sized mockups of the Black Hawks, including the remains of the crashed Super Six One and Super Six Four. "We started off with 50 sheets of three-quarter plywood designed from a computer-generated model of a Black Hawk that we acquired. We then cast the body out, and built the interior from photographs that I took in Florida. It's exactly to scale... every detail is in there."

Most remarkable, perhaps, was the helicopter gimbal mounted on a high crane that Corbould designed and built for sequences with the key actors inside the Black Hawks as they fly or hover over Mogadishu (although shooting also would occur with the cast during actual Black Hawk flights). Ridley Scott, for the sake of authenticity, wanted no old-fashioned optical "blue screen" visual effects shots.

"Basically, we adapted a 160-ton crane with a motion base and rigged a Black Hawk mockup on it to give the impression of real movement," explains Corbould. "We were able to give the helicopter 360-degree movement, with left and right and backwards and forwards pitch. Also, we can swing the crane around so it looks like we're actually traveling around the city." For the scene in which Super Six One crashes into the square of the "Alamo" complex, Corbould devised an even more complex mechanical setup. "Using the same 160-ton crane, we strung two wires 150 meters down to a point in the ground. Then, we built a lightweight Black Hawk that we suspended from the cables. Basically, it travels down the wires, crashes through a fountain in the center of the square and then, when we release the cables, the helicopter hits the ground and gives us the impact of the crash."

Because of the radio-controlled explosions and squib hits, cell phones-endemic on movie sets-were strictly banned from the filming area under penalty of dismissal, due to the danger factor of having them accidentally set off the effects so carefully arranged by Corbould and his team.

Corbould and his team also merged prosthetics effects-usually a separate department-into their unit so that all could be coordinated from within. Full body casts had to be made of several actors so that the appropriate wounds of war could be created and applied, with their efforts backed up by the expansive makeup department under the highly-experienced Fabrizio Sforza (with The Last Emperor, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Hannibal only a few of his credits), mostly comprised of his fellow Italians.

The Advisers

Also helping to "keep it real" were Military Adviser Harry Humphries and two key members of his staff, both of whom were deeply involved in the actual battle and had only recently retired from the military. Col. Thomas Matthews, air commander of the mission who circled above the battle in the "C-2 Bird," the Command and Control Black Hawk, was unit commander of the "Nightstalkers," the helicopter organization that supports the Special Operations ground forces worldwide. Special Forces Col. Lee Van Arsdale was the officer in charge of the Joint Operations Center who helped lead the rescue convoy into Mogadishu to rescue the trapped Rangers and Delta Force troops.

"Harry Humphries plays such an important role on set," notes Jerry Bruckheimer, "working with the actors and extras day to day to make sure everything looks accurate. It was also invaluable having Tom and Lee with us, because they went through it and could answer any question that Ridley might have. They helped our effort tremendously."

"It was great having Harry, Lee and Tom on set nearly every day," concurs Ridley Scott, "and they were absolutely upfront if there was something they thought was less than authentic or realistic."

"Going to Morocco was not exactly what I had planned to do with my retirement," admits Matthews, "but for the memory of the soldiers who were killed in that combat operation and their families, I came to the conclusion that I would go off on this project, put my second career on hold, and do the best job I could to technically advise on the movie."

Lee Van Arsdale, who had also recently retired from the military and was involved in a new career, not only concurred with Matthews' personal commitment to the men they had served with in Mogadishu, but also saw an opportunity to finally set the record straight after nearly 10 years of misunderstanding. "A fact that I think has been lost on a lot of people-but certainly not those of us who participated in it-was that from a military and tactical perspective, we had a successful mission. We had a job to get two of Aidid's top lieutenants and any of their bodyguards who may have been around that day, and that's exactly what we did.

"Now obviously, it didn't go according to plan," continues Van Arsdale. "We had a contingency for a helicopter going down, but we certainly didn't plan on losing 18 of our comrades. But I would not confuse the tragic loss of life-and that's what it was-with a failed objective. I was shocked when I read the media accounts calling it a 'debacle' or 'failure.' By that logic, the invasion of Normandy on D-Day was a 'debacle' because we lost so many American lives, but the obvious is true. We have evolved into a certain mindset that no lives can be lost on the battlefield, and from a certain perspective, that's good. I lost some very good friends out there that day in Somalia, and don't want to lose any more.

"But when you commit military forces to engage in armed combat, there's always the risk that you're going to have some killed in action, and when it does occur, that doesn't mean it was a failed mission. Some damn good soldiers went in and did something that I'm not sure any other military force on the planet could do against those odds. The Battle of Mogadishu has been relegated to the dustbin of history by most people, and the reason I'm here is to help get the tale told accurately and realistically."

The actors were certainly appreciative of having Harry Humphries and his team on set every day. "These guys were just super," enthused Tom Sizemore. "If you had a question about any little detail, very specifically, they would patiently explain everything. They want us to tell the story well, because those guys fought valiantly and were never really given their just due."

Also with a great personal stake in telling the story was Black Hawk Down utility stunt player John Collett, who as a Ranger Specialist was in one of the four chalks that fast-roped down to the target building in "the Mog," and then proceeded to fight throughout the rest of the day and night alongside his buddies. Throughout production, Collett relived his experiences on a daily basis, which was not always easy. "There's a lot of misunderstanding of what happened in Mogadishu," says Collett. "I joined the military to serve my country, and I don't need a pat on the back for it. But for people to realize that here are real human beings behind this machine that provides freedom for our country is important. We want to help out in the world, and sometimes things go wrong, but at least we're trying to do the right thing.

"I believe we went to Mogadishu for the right reasons," affirms Collett. "I believe that certain things went wrong that day. I met a couple of Somalis working as extras on this film who were actually in Mogadishu on October 3, 1993. We sat down and talked, had a few beers together, and they actually showed me some photographs of one of the Black Hawks after it had been shot down. Now, that was an experience! Eight years later, to be sitting across the table in the bar of the Rabat Hilton with people who were on the ground. Whether or not they were shooting at me at the time, I'll never know. Will they tell me? No. Were they? Probably. But they were good people, and believed in what they were doing as well."

The "Insertion"... History Repeats Itself

Of all the Herculean tasks facing Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott, Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, Branko Lustig and the other commanders of Black Hawk Down, none were so great as the extraordinarily sensitive negotiations between the production, the Moroccan government and the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense to allow approximately 100 U.S. Rangers, four Black Hawks, four Little Birds and their pilots from the 160th SOAR-and all of the backup military personnel accompanying them-to fly across the Atlantic and help the production properly recreate the first several minutes and other key moments of the mission with utmost verisimilitude.

This was no small matter. Even before recent events, the notion of bringing armed forces and materiel of the United States to a sovereign North African kingdom with a Muslim population-however friendly relations might be between the countries-

was far-reaching, to say the least.

"However enthusiastic the government was about our project," informs Jerry Bruckheimer, "there were still bureaucracies to deal with, and there were many voices to be heard on the matter. There were a lot of issues that had to be worked out between the State Department and the Moroccan government, and it took a lot longer than we expected.

"There were so many issues, such as security," Bruckheimer continues. "Who would protect the helicopters and the men? Where were they going to be quartered? How many days of filming would they be required to participate in? All of these details had to be minutely worked out in advance, and even though we have a great relationship with the government, this was a much bigger operation than anything we had attempted before, even on Top Gun and Pearl Harbor. We were talking about actual troop deployment."

Admits Ridley Scott, "There was a lot of negotiation and a lot of anxiety."

For several days after filming commenced, there were rumors of imminent "delivery" of the men and equipment, only to be dashed at the last minute. Notes Branko Lustig, "How do you make a movie called Black Hawk Down without Black Hawks? You cannot independently buy these helicopters for filmmaking purposes. They are the property of the United States Armed Forces. We had a last-minute plan that if we couldn't get the Black Hawks, we would use Huey helicopters, and then digitally alter them afterwards to look like Black Hawks... but that was really the worst-case scenario."

"Ultimately we decided the only way to make the movie correctly was with the real Black Hawks, the real pilots and the real Rangers," says Mike Stenson. "We basically camped out at the U.S. Embassy and conducted a three-way negotiation between the U.S. State Department, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry, and the Department of Defense. The U.S. Congress even kicked in crucial support. We pushed back the helicopter work until we finally got the deployment on its way about five weeks into photography, about 48 hours before we would have had to switch to Hueys."

The tremendously complex "insertion" scene, in which the mission commences at the Target Building in downtown Mogadishu, was postponed again and again. But finally, word came that all necessary paperwork received the signatures of top U.S. and Moroccan authorities (including King Mohammed VI), and two C-5 transport planes landed at an airport near Rabat, delivering their cargo: more than 100 soldiers from the 3rd Batallion, Bravo Company of the 75th Ranger Regiment-the same company that actually fought in Mogadishu-four Black Hawks and four Little Birds, ready for duty, along with their pilots from the 160th SOAR. Each Black Hawk had its own name emblazoned just below the rotor blades: Nightstalker, Black Scorpion and-by some incredible coincidence-Armageddon and Gladiator, the latter two also the titles of, respectively, Jerry Bruckheimer's and Ridley Scott's cinematic triumphs.

Officially, it was a training deployment, and nothing could have been more true, because Rangers and helicopters were to receive quite a workout on behalf of the movie. The Rangers and choppers immediately swung into action, rehearsing the "insertion" on a half-contructed apartment complex not far from Sidi Moussa. SOAR pilots began working closely with Black Hawk Down aerial coordinator and camera pilot Marc Wolff to harmonize their efforts. "The director told me what he needed for his cameras, and I had to come back to him with a military plan," explains Major Brian Bean, the Operations Officer from the 160th SOAR for the task force deployed to Morocco. "We've integrated very closely with the film's aerial coordinators. They attend all our briefs, we fly together, communicate on the same radio frequencies... we're all on the same page. And on the artistic side, a member of our Task Force stood next to Ridley Scott, making sure we understood his vision and executed it to our standards and safety."

"What's unique about the military supporting this film," adds Lt. Col. Kirk Potts, the Task Force commander, "is that you actually had the units which participated in the military operation eight years ago, here doing it again. In fact, we have three or four of the actual veterans of that operation flying the helicopters while we film it."

On Avenue Nasser in Sidi Moussa, in preparation for the filming of the "insertion," Arthur Max's art department began battening down the hatches, carefully combing all residences and shops near the target building-over which eight helicopters would be hovering or landing-to make certain that rooftops, windows and shutters were properly secured. Several residents were temporarily housed elsewhere for safety reasons; others chose to remain in their apartments and calmly watch the unusual action taking place across the street.

On April 16, a multitude of cameras both on the ground and in the air began to roll. From his Aerospatiale "A-Star" helicopter, aerial director of photography John Marzano readied his gyro-stabilized Wescam camera system, with almost 360-degree reference. The faint sounds of helicopters in the distance became a mighty roar as the four Black Hawks and four Little Birds hit their marks above and near the target building. Ropes were thrown out of the hovering Black Hawks, and in the ferocious wind and dust kicked up by the chopper blades, U.S. Rangers brilliantly fast-roped 60 feet from air to ground, while the Little Birds deposited stuntmen portraying Delta troops on rooftops. Meanwhile, with precision timing, the 12-vehicle extraction convoy rumbled to the front of the target building from a nearby street, as hundreds of extras portraying Somalis either ran from the mayhem... or towards it, weapons in hand.

And then, for the benefit of different angles, this sequence of surpassing complexity and painstaking organization and cinematic choreography would be repeated again for the cameras no fewer than eight times over the following two days, and history repeated itself with as much authenticity as humanly possible.

"You have four of these huge, sleek 65-foot-long Black Hawks loaded with U.S. Rangers, and they have to pinpoint where they're going to land and the soldiers rope down in the swirling dust and get to their positions," exclaims Jerry Bruckheimer. "It was an awesome sight to see. This isn't a movie where we're using a lot of computer- generated imagery. It's the real deal, and I've never seen anything quite like it. They did an amazing job."

"I wish I had a big piece of wood to knock on," laughed Lt. Col. Potts after the insertion was filmed. "Everything worked out perfectly. My biggest concern was that we were asked to do two days of full mission profile, but the air crews did a great job and the Rangers were perfect hitting their spots going down. No injuries at all. Some of the things that we weren't accustomed to was when the assistant director said 'Okay, just hold what you've got there for about six minutes while we get the actors on the bottom of the ropes,' but our guys can hold a hover."

"We probably had the best flying team from the U.S. Armed Forces," enthuses Ridley Scott, "and these guys came in and treated filming like a serious exercise. They loved it, and repetition was no problem, but we had to abide by their rules. They had to be in the air and down again by such-and-such time. And they were only allowed to fly a certain number of hours per day, and if we asked for seven more minutes, the answer was quite simply, 'No.' We would argue that it wasn't dark yet, there was still another hour of daylight, but they were already gone. We were constantly working against the clock, losing the light in Sidi Moussa at about 5:00 p.m. because the sun would vanish behind the buildings."

Witnessing the re-creation of the insertion was Black Hawk Down author Mark Bowden, who commented, "You really can do things on film that you can't do in a book, and the visuals in this movie are going to be extraordinary. Just being here on set and watching them re-enact this raid... it's a very powerful image. When I wrote the book, I had to imagine the insertion in great detail, but the film will show people things they've never seen before."

Military and moviemakers began to form something of a mutual admiration society-cast and crew members in absolute awe of the commitment and precision of the Rangers and SOAR pilots, and vice versa. "Our guys have a newfound respect for the cameramen, grips, stunt people and everyone else working on Black Hawk Down," noted Major Bill Butler of the 75th Ranger Regiment. "We didn't realize how much work actually goes into making a movie."

"I think we originally had some apprehension," admitted Major Bean. "We were very concerned with the legacy of our fallen comrades, and wanted to make sure that it was the first thing in everybody's mind. But once we got on the ground, we really enjoyed working with the professionalism of the production company, and they've been great showing us that they totally care about the memory of our men. So the skepticism had eroded, and our guys really enjoyed the experience."

Although the majority of the Rangers departed Morocco after the completion of the insertion scene, several remained behind to continue participating in the film, as did some of the helicopters and their pilots. Stunt coordinator Phil Neilson and his second-in-command, former Navy S.E.A.L. Keith Woulard, began working with real Rangers intermingled with their team of stunt players. "Integrating the actual military and stunt guys worked great," Neilson notes. "Both have a lot of respect for the other one's job. The Rangers are ground hitters... they're not afraid to get in there and get dirty. And the military are teaching the stuntmen lots of things that they didn't know."

As mentioned, several of the men who fought and flew in the actual battle were either deployed to Morocco as part of the 75th Ranger Regiment or 160th SOAR, or, if no longer in the military, traveled to North Africa to get a first-hand look at the re-creation. In addition to John Collett, Spec. Shawn Nelson, who is portrayed in Black Hawk Down by Ewen Bremner, participated in the film and took part in battle scenes of considerable scope, as did Pfc. Carlos Rodriguez, who was wounded in combat and struggled his way back to full recovery. Collett also enjoyed a reunion with Sgt. First Class Sean Watson, his Chalk Three leader.

Perhaps the most moving example of art imitating life was when Chief Warrant Officer Keith Jones of the 160th SOAR, who had been deployed to Morocco with other pilots, was called upon by the production to re-create his own heroic efforts during the battle as the pilot of Little Bird Star 41. Initially, Star 41 delivered Delta assaulters to the target building; but after Cliff Wolcott's Super Six One was shot down, Jones daringly landed at the crash site with co-pilot Karl Maier, and rescued two men from the wreckage under heavy Somali fire.

Jones, a modest, unassuming man who sloughs off any suggestion that he's a hero, did not ask to play himself in Black Hawk Down. He was following orders, as he had eight years before, and it wasn't always easy for him to resolve his memories of the actual event on the day of filming. One of the men Jones rescued, Delta sniper Dan Busch (portrayed in the film by Richard Tyson), died of his wounds soon after rescue.

A visitor late in production was former Staff Sgt. Matt Eversmann, depicted in the film by Josh Hartnett. And although the two men had talked on the phone, they never actually met face-to-face until the day Eversmann walked onto the set of a U.N. refugee camp built on a huge, empty lot in Sale. "When I walked up to the set on the first day," recalls Eversmann, "it was eerie how much it looked like Somalia. I literally had to take a step back, it was that surreal."

The Quiet "General"

Core members of the cast, although often fatigued by the length of the shoot, the long distance from home and loved ones and the daily demands of filming in fire and brimstone, were deeply impressed by the perfectionism and professionalism of their "general," Ridley Scott.

Projecting quiet authority, the calm behind the carefully controlled chaos ("The eye in the middle of the tornado," as Tom Sizemore put it), Scott was attentive to every conceivable detail. With his everpresent cigar and often trenchant wit, Scott was always approachable by the cast and crew, but very much about the work and certainly not the "glamour"-as if any existed in the rough-and-tumble Moroccan locations.

At times, during long setups for the complex action setpieces, Scott worked on what have come to be known as "Ridleygrams," storyboard-like scene concepts in which he utilizes his considerable skills as a pen-and-ink artist. Scott was constantly conceiving and re-conceiving upcoming scenes, knowing exactly what he was looking for by the time they were ready to be shot. These sketches were also useful in allowing the filmmaker to illustrate to cast and crew members what he wanted in terms of the action.

"Ridley's a visual genius," states Josh Hartnett. "He draws these storyboards that are stunning, and when you see the shot afterwards it almost exactly matches what Ridley drew. He's totally immersed in the subject matter, and knows everything there is to know about filmmaking."

Notes Ewan McGregor, "I can't remember working with a director who knew exactly what he wanted and needed. I've never seen Ridley fazed by anything, and he shoots the way he's going to edit, which saves time. He's absolutely precise and dead-on, and I think the movie is going to give you a very clear idea of what it might have been like to have been fighting in Mogadishu that day."

"There isn't a person in the world who would be under so much pressure and look so calm," says Eric Bana. "I don't know what kind of pills Ridley takes, or what kind of yoga he does, but he's the most relaxed person on the set. It's incredible to be around that kind of vision and artistry."

"Ridley has got an extraordinary visual gift," affirms Jason Isaacs. "I remember the first time I came to set, he said, 'I've just done these little drawings in the car to show you what's going to happen in the scene,' and I thought, 'Bloody hell, he just did that in the car?!! Can I have one of those to take home?' Ridley doesn't have the slightest shred of doubt that he knows exactly where to put the camera and what to do with it at any given moment. And he makes it all seem so effortless."

Visual Effects: Enhancing Reality

For Gladiator, VFX supervisor Tim Burke accomplished the Academy AwardO-winning feat of helping to re-create the ancient world on a grand scale, utilizing the technological miracles of CGI (computer-generated imagery). Burke faced similar tasks with Black Hawk Down, albeit on a more subtle scale.

"My job was to work closely with Ridley Scott and Arthur Max, the production designer, to help create various effects they need for the movie," explains Burke. "Originally we were going to be involved primarily with enhancing several crashes, but our roles expanded during filming. For the sports stadium under the control of the United Nations, they filmed on a practical location in Sale, but the real stadium was only partially built. So we had to expand that stadium in the computer, adding grandstands where none existed. I'm glad that we already had a lot of experience in that regard from our work on Gladiator. We have a wide range of embellishments, such as adding rocket propelled grenades, muzzle flashes, tracer fire and dust."

Once again, Burke sought to enhance reality by integrating visual effects with on-set photography, so that the two would be seamless. Just one example of this alchemy occurred for a scene in which a Somali rocket-propelled grenade is fired at a hovering Black Hawk, which causes Private Blackburn to miss the rope and fall 60 feet to the ground. "There was quite a complicated choreography that was needed to tell the story, so we worked very closely with Pietro Scalia, the film editor, and filmed elements of Black Hawks doing specific kinds of flying. We then matted those into other shots to relocate them in the correct environment. Then we added computer-generated rockets being fired at the Black Hawk, so the final shot was be a combination of two elements: live action and computer graphics.

"Again, for the first Black Hawk crash, we had a similar scenario," continues Burke. "Our job was to digitally remove the wires and cables from Neil Corbould's Black Hawk rig, and then add in, with computer graphics, the rotor blades and mechanism driving them. When you see the final film, the rotor blades will smash into the ground, break off and fly past the camera, which will be our digital additions."

Mission Accomplished

Principal photography of Black Hawk Down was completed on June 29 after 92 days of filming, right back where it started: at the Royal Moroccan Air Force Base in Kenitra. Back in Sidi Moussa, the art department was not only restoring the buildings on Avenue Nasser to their pre-Mogadishu look, but actually giving them an attractive facelift. The Target Building was dismantled, and the empty field could once again be used for pickup soccer games. For the inhabitants of Sale, life returned to normal, although many later claimed to miss the excitement and constant activity of production.

It would now be time for Bruckheimer and Scott to attend to the complexities of post-production, with Academy AwardO-winner Pietro Scalia editing a Ridley Scott film for the fourth time (after G.I. Jane, Gladiator and Hannibal), and Hans Zimmer composing the musical score. Zimmer, another OscarO winner, had already scored such Bruckheimer films as Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide, The Rock and Pearl Harbor, as well as Scott's Black Rain, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and Hannibal, thus maintaining long relationships with both filmmakers.

Zimmer had already pioneered merging traditional African music with dramatic film music with one of his earliest scores, A World Apart, and continued with The Power of One, The Lion King and Endurance, which he produced for composer John Powell. Therefore, he was once again the perfect choice for what Scott sought.

"I didn't want to start putting pop tunes over these events," states the director. "Hans' score will be very much influenced by ethnic and Muslim music.

"In Morocco, I was awakened very early every morning by the muezzin's call to prayer," Scott recalls, "which was very beautiful and haunting. So Hans' music will be a mixture of both eastern and western traditions."

After four exhausting and exhilarating months, cast and filmmakers finally had time to reflect upon their experiences breathing life into recent history... and what they hoped audiences would take away from the film after seeing it.

"Most of the soldiers will tell you that the mission in Black Hawk Down was a success. The tragic element lies in the country's reaction in the aftermath," says executive producer Mike Stenson. "These guys are professionals and expect to take casualties occasionally when they're sent on dangerous missions such as this. But they want to make sure that the public and the leadership understands the potential costs and are sending them on a mission worthy of paying that price. In Somalia, they weren't prepared."

"I think this film will show the good and bad of an operation like this," proffers Steven Ford. "Is our military supposed to be peacekeepers, feed people or fight wars? Each one of these is a separate job, and in Mogadishu, the lines got blurred. The world is moving so fast today that what happened in Somalia was a blip on the radar screen for three days on CNN. If you were on vacation, you missed the news that some very special guys lost their lives trying to do something meaningful."

"War is futile," says Eric Bana, "but at times it's also unavoidable. We want to keep doing the right thing by our fellow man, and that unfortunately is going to mean that there are going to be many more battles to be fought. I want audiences to feel like they were there in the target building, there in the rescue convoy, there at the 'Alamo.' I hope they come out of the theatre feeling like they've been through the battle with the soldiers, so that they have a greater understanding of what these men are expected to do in combat."

Adds Johnny Strong, who portrays Delta's Randy Shughart, "What's really important to me is how the families of the men who were there are going to respond to this film. If I could say anything to them, it's that we committed ourselves to portraying these people as they actually were."

"Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die," quotes Orlando Bloom, applying the famous lines of fellow Englishman Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade to the men who fought in Somalia. "They went in to Mogadishu, did what they were trained to do and put their lives on the line. The fact that their government soon after pulled out of Somalia was out of Task Force Ranger's hands. These men were the foot soldiers. And anyone who puts themselves in that position succeeds on every level in my book."

Notes Tom Sizemore, "I think Black Hawk Down will bring home just what these guys had to endure and how heroic they were. Whether or not the mission was successful or botched is ultimately beside the point. We need men like this to keep us free."

"At the end of the day, I think that Black Hawk Down is very much from the universal soldier's point of view," proffers Ridley Scott. "The Somali militiamen, though less trained and equipped than the Americans, were nevertheless very efficient. Therefore, what happened in Mogadishu became the meeting of two groups of fervent soldiers. As 'Hoot' says in the movie, 'once that first bullet goes past your head, politics goes right out the window.' Then it becomes about looking after the man next to you and getting the job done.

"But in the end," says the director, "are the obvious questions about whether or not the United States had a right to be in Somalia. And I think that when there's a humanitarian issue on the baseline, the answer is... yes... yes ... and yes. Somebody's got to go in and do it, and it really falls at the feet of the U.S. because of the country's weight, prestige and power.

"In October 1993, we all watched the bodies of the dead American soldiers on television, said 'Oh My God,' and turned the channel to something more cheerful. But the world was already changing eight years ago, and how much it's changed was, unfortunately, illuminated on September 11. And the lesson is that if you don't watch the back door, somebody will come through it..."

Says Jerry Bruckheimer, "These men were sent to Somalia, which was really a hot zone, and under enormous political pressure to bring some results and stop the civil unrest. The guys who fought there gave their lives, or watched their friends die, and I'm sure they were affected by it for the rest of their lives.

"Black Hawk Down will take audiences into a harrowing situation," concludes Bruckheimer. "They will see the complexity of the situation at hand in Somalia at that time. They will see the heroism of the men, the commitment and discipline they had. They will see how brutal war can be-and what the battle taught this country about how to conduct it in the future."

Postscript

September 11, 2001:

In the aftermath of the most damaging act of war ever committed against Americans on their own soil, accounts of Osama Bin Laden relate that in a 1997 interview, the international terrorist took credit for helping to train Somali militia who fought Rangers and Special Forces troops in Mogadishu-with some of Bin Laden's men claiming to have taken part in the battle.

October 19, 2001:

The first boots on the ground in the new war against terrorism belong to soldiers of the 75th Ranger Regiment and other commandos, including the Delta Force, who parachute onto an airstrip about 100 miles southwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan-the same Ranger regiment whose men fought in the Battle of Mogadishu, and assisted in the filming of Black Hawk Down in Morocco.

November 7, 2001:

The United States freezes the assets of 62 organizations and individuals suspected of raising money and providing other critical support for Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. One of them is al-Barakaat, a conglomerate operating cell phone companies and postal services, which has a significant presence in America and 40 other nations, accused of funneling millions of dollars to Bin Laden and his organization.

The base of operations for al-Barakaat is in Mogadishu, Somalia.

The battle that began eight years ago on Hawlwadig Road... until recently just a faint echo of American history... is still being fought.

Appendix: "The Ranger Creed"

Recognizing that I volunteered as a Ranger, fully knowing the hazards of my chosen profession, I will always endeavor to uphold the prestige, honor, and high "esprit de corps" of the Rangers.

Acknowledging the fact that a Ranger is a more elite soldier who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, or air, I accept the fact that as a Ranger my country expects me to move further, faster and fight harder than any other soldier.

Never shall I fail my comrades. I will always keep myself mentally alert, physically strong and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be. One hundred-percent and then some.

Gallantly will I show the world that I am a specially selected and well trained soldier. My courtesy to superior officers, my neatness of dress and care of equipment shall set the example for others to follow.

Energetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass my country.

Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor.

RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!

About the Cast

JOSH HARTNETT (Ranger Staff Sgt. Matt Eversmann) most recently starred with Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale in Jerry Bruckheimer's epic production of Pearl Harbor and in the dark drama O, which is a modern day retelling of "Othello," opposite Julia Stiles and Mekhi Phifer. He will next be seen starring in the comedy 40 Days, 40 Nights which is being released this March.

Born in San Francisco and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hartnett first came to audiences' attention as Michael "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the TV series Cracker. He soon began ascending the ranks of young talent in such films as Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, The Faculty, Here on Earth, Town and Country and Blow Dry, as well as Sofia Coppola's acclaimed independent film The Virgin Suicides.

EWAN McGREGOR (Ranger Spec. Grimes) first became well known to U.S. audiences as the star of Danny Boyle's powerful Scottish drama Trainspotting, and then internationally as Obi Wan Kenobi in George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and the upcoming Star Wars: Episode II. He won a 1997 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for an episode of ER.

Born in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, McGregor trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and gained his first theatrical experience at the Perth Repertory Theatre. He appeared in Bill Forsyth's Being Human before starring in Boyle's first film, Shallow Grave, in 1994. Trainspotting followed two years later, catapulting McGregor into the front ranks of international leading men. He's also starred in Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book, Emma, Brassed Off, The Serpent's Kiss, opposite Cameron Diaz in Boyle's A Life Less Ordinary, Nightwatch (U.S. version), Velvet Goldmine, Rogue Trader, Little Voice, Eye of the Beholder, as James Joyce in Nora (which he also produced) and most recently, opposite Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge.

McGregor's television appearances include Lipstick on Your Collar, Scarlet and Black, Kavanagh QC, Doggin' Around, Cold War - Tales from the Crypt, Polar Bears in the Wild and Trips Money Can't Buy.

TOM SIZEMORE (Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight) has established himself as one of America's most versatile actors working in film today. His starring role in Steven Spielberg's Academy AwardO-nominated drama, Saving Private Ryan, garnered enormous critical praise. He was most recently seen starring in Pearl Harbor directed by Michael Bay and will next be seen starring in the Barry Sonnenfeld film Big Trouble.

Sizemore's numerous feature film credits include Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July and Natural Born Killers, Ron Shelton's Play It to the Bone, Heat, Guilty By Suspicion, Devil in a Blue Dress, Strange Days, Wyatt Earp, and the horror hit The Relic, which garnered him a Best Actor Award at the Madrid Film Festival. Sizemore also gained critical acclaim for his role as John Gotti in the highly successful mini-series, "Witness to the Mob" as well as HBO's "Witness Protection," for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV.

A native of Detroit, Sizemore received his bachelor of Fine Arts from Wayne State University and went on to earn his Masters degree in Theater from Temple University. He began his career on the stage, appearing in numerous regional and Off-Broadway productions, including Horton Foote's "The Land of the Astronauts" at New York's Ensemble Studio Theater, and "1984" at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

ERIC BANA (Delta Sgt. First Class "Hoot" Gibson) was first introduced to American audiences in the title role of Mark "Chopper" Read in the feature film Chopper, which premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and was then released in the U.S. to critical notice after its Australian success.

Shortly after the completion of Black Hawk Down, the Melbourne-born actor returned to Australia to film The Nugget. He will next star in the title role of The Hulk for director Ang Lee and Universal Pictures, based on the Marvel Comics character.

WILLIAM FICHTNER (Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson) recently made a lasting impression on audiences as David "Sully" Sullivan, one of the ill-fated fishermen in The Perfect Storm. His extensive credits include a recurring role as Ryan Sparks on the popular series Grace Under Fire, the movie of the week High Lonesome, and the HBO film The Settlement. His rapidly ascending feature career has included such films as What's the Worst That Could Happen?, Drowning Mona, Passion of Mind, Go, Armageddon, Underneath, Heat, Strange Days, Contact, Albino Alligator, and many others.

Fichtner's extensive off-Broadway theatre credits include Raft of Medusa, The Years, Clothes for a Summer Hotel and Machinal, and he has been seen in The Fiery Furnace. He is a member of the Circle Repertory Theatre.

He will next be seen in Equilibrium and is in production on Agnieszka Holland's Julia Walking Home.

EWEN BREMNER (Ranger Spec. Shawn Nelson) is another Black Hawk Down cast member who is a veteran of the cast of Jerry Bruckheimer's Pearl Harbor. Bremner's other films have included As You Like It, Mike Leigh's Naked, Royal Deceit, Judge Dredd, Trainspotting (in which he performed with fellow cast member Ewan McGregor), Mojo, The Acid House, Julien Donkey-Boy and Guy Ritchie's Snatch.

SAM SHEPARD (Maj. Gen. William F. Garrison) is an actor, screenwriter, director and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright for his 1979 three-act play Buried Child. Shepard's numerous other plays have included Angel City, Curse of the Starving Class, Killer's Head, Action, The Mad Dog Blues, Cowboy Mouth and The Rock Garden.

Shepard's fascinating career saw him as one of the writers of Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point in 1970, and he later won critical acclaim for his original screenplay of Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. As an actor, he made his film debut in Bob Dylan's Renaldo and Clara, impressing critics the same year as the star, alongside Richard Gere, in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven. A number of strong appearances followed, including Resurrection, Raggedy Man, opposite Jessica Lange in Frances and particularly as test pilot Chuck Yeager in Philip Kaufman's The Right Stuff, which brought him an Academy AwardO nomination. He reteamed with Lange in Country and Crimes of the Heart, and played the lead in Robert Altman's adaptation of his play Fool for Love. Subsequent films have included Baby Boom, Steel Magnolias, Defenseless, Thunderheart, Bright Angel, Voyager, The Pelican Brief, Snow Falling on Cedars, Hamlet, All the Pretty Horses, The Pledge and most recently, opposite John Travolta in Swordfish.

Shepard's notable television films and mini-series have included Larry McMurtry's Streets of Laredo, Lily Dale, Purgatory, Dash and Lilly (which brought him both Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his performance as writer Dashiell Hammett), One Kill and Wild Geese. He also directed the features Far North and Silent Tongue, both of which Shepard also wrote.

GABRIEL CASSEUS (Ranger Spec. Mike Kurth) has been seen in several television appearances, including a recurring role as nurse "Derrick Sherman" on Homicide: Life on the Street. Casseus also landed the role of "Jamal," the one time Gangbanger turned philosophical Muslim, in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus.

Gabriel went on to co-star in several big budget studio pictures playing OscarO-winner Denzel Washington's mentally handicapped brother, "Art" in the supernatural thriller Fallen. He also starred opposite Brendan Fraser in Harold Ramis' Bedazzled, taking his place among the few actors to play the almighty one, "God."

Gabriel also is starring in the prison drama, Lockdown, a Palm Picture-produced and John Luesenop, Jr-directed feature.

KIM COATES (Delta Master Sgt. Chris "Wex" Wexler) was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. His feature credits include The Last Boy Scout, Innocent Blood, The Client, Waterworld, Unforgettable, Carpool, Battlefield Earth, Auggie Rose, Full Disclosure and most recently, Pearl Harbor. His numerous TV guest-star appearances have included The Outer Limits, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Higher Ground, Total Recall 2070 and a recurring role on Night Man. He was also seen in the miniseries Mario Puzo's The Last Don II.

HUGH DANCY (Ranger Sgt. First Class Kurt Schmid) was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. He was first cast in the series Trial and Retribution II, followed by BBC's Dangerfield and an appearance in Kavanagh QC. Dancy was then chosen to portray the title role for the new Hallmark/TNT production of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, soon finding major roles in the second series of Granada's popular Cold Feet and then the BBC adaptation of Madame Bovary. Dancy also portrayed D'Artagnan in Young Blades, inspired by The Three Musketeers, followed by the feature The Sleeping Dictionary, filmed on location in Sarawak. On stage, Dancy has starred in Billy and the Crab Lady at the Soho Theatre and To the Green Fields Beyond, directed by Sam Mendes.

RON ELDARD (Chief Warrant Officer Mike Durant) was a regular as paramedic Ray "Shep" Shepard on ER, and has since excelled in a number of roles on stage, screen and television, perhaps most notably as Biff Loman in the recent Broadway production and television movie of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, in which he starred with Brian Dennehy.

Eldard's other films have included Scent of a Woman, The Last Supper, Sleepers, Deep Impact, Mystery, Alaska, and The Runner. He recently completed Still A Kiss, directed by Fisher Stevens. On television, he was a series regular on Arresting Behavior, Bakersfield P.D. and Men Behaving Badly, and was seen in the telefeatures Bastard Out of Carolina and When Trumpets Fade.

Eldard also appeared in Biloxi Blues and On the Waterfront on Broadway and, off-Broadway, Carrying School Children, Tony 'N' Tina's Wedding, Servy 'N' Bernice 4 Ever, A'venu Boys and Bash.

IOAN GRUFFUDD (Ranger Beales), born in Cardiff, Wales, has become familiar to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic in the title role of Captain Horatio Hornblower in United Television's Hornblower, winner of the 1999 Emmy Award for Best Miniseries, with Gruffudd being honored with a 1999 Biarritz International Television Festival Award as Best Actor in a Drama Series. The BBC telefeature Warriors, in which Gruffudd stars as Lt. John Feeley, won the South Bank, Royal Television Society and Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for Best Drama of 1999. He also stars in the Welsh feature Solomon and Gaenor, which received a 2000 Academy AwardO nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Gruffudd's other features have included James Cameron's Titanic (as Fifth Officer Lowe), Wilde, Very Annie Mary, Another Life, Shooters and a co-starring role in Disney's 102 Dalmatians. On television, Gruffudd portrayed Pip in the recent BBC adaptation of Dickens' Great Expectations, as well as the Welsh language Pobol y Cym, William Jones, Double Exposure - A Relative Stranger, Poldark and Love in the 21st Century.

THOMAS GUIRY (Ranger Staff Sgt. Ed Yurek) first became known to U.S. audiences as the 11-year-old star of The Sandlot. Growing up in films, Guiry has also been seen in Lassie, The Last Home Run, All I Wanna Do, Wrestling With Alligators, Ang Lee's Ride With the Devil, U-571, Joel Schumacher's Tigerland and Scotland, PA. He's also starred in the television movies A Place To Be Loved, Four Diamonds and Songs in Ordinary Time, as well as guest-starring on an episode of Law & Order. Guiry is now filming the Lifetime movie Change of Heart opposite Beau Bridges and Blythe Danner.

CHARLIE HOFHEIMER (Ranger Cpl. Jamie Smith) is perhaps best known to audiences as Meryl Streep's son in Wes Craven's Music of the Heart. After making his screen debut in the 1994 feature version of Lassie, he appeared in Boys, was the lead in Father's Day, and appeared in Edge City and Last Ball. On television, he starred in the TV movie Blue Moon and episodes of Now and Again and Law and Order. Hofheimer's theater credits include "On the Waterfront" on Broadway and "Old Money" at the Lincoln Center Theatre.

DANNY HOCH (Ranger Sgt. Dominick Pilla) is an actor, writer and theatre artist from Brooklyn, New York. His acclaimed solo performances include Pot Melting, Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop, all having toured internationally and winning numerous awards and fellowships (2 OBIES, NEA Solo, Sundance Writers, CalArts/Alpert Award in Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe First). His film and television credits (for both acting and writing) include: Darnell Martin's Prison Song, Jonathan Demme's Subway Stories, Terrence Malick's Thin Red Line, Marc Levin's Whiteboys and Lee Davis' 3AM. The HBO Special based on his play Some People received a CableAce nomination in 1996, and his film Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop, based on the play, was just released in October 2001 by Kicked Down.

Having spent barely a week sleeping in his London home since January, JASON ISAACS (Captain Mike Steele) has travelled from the U.K. to New York to Venice to Georgia to Morocco to Massachusetts and finally Toronto to end up with six films and six enormously varied characters due for release in 2002. He is currently in production on the DreamWorks comedy, The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan, due in the summer of 2002. In this flick, Isaacs portrays a suave international spy. He recently wrapped Dan Ireland's romantic comedy, Passionada in which his charming card shark falls for a local widow and, earlier this year, in Mike Figgis' Hotel, he improvised a role as an Australian actor who drops out of a friend's low?budget film for a Ridley Scott movie-a case of art imitating life. Isaacs will also be appearing as an all?singing and?dancing child murderer in Stephen Norrington's The Last Minute and in command of Nicolas Cage in John Woo's Windtalkers.

He wowed audiences and critics alike with his portrayal of Colonel William Tavington opposite Mel Gibson in The Patriot. His performance earned rave reviews from the likes of David Ansen of NEWSWEEK, calling him "wonderfully malevolent." Owen Gleiberman of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY proclaimed he was "contemptuous perfection" and Kenneth Turan from the LA TIMES dubbed him "a wonderfully convincing villain, perhaps the year's best." The turn also garnered Isaacs a nomination from the London Film Critics' Circle. Most recently, Jason was seen in Sweet November, with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron. In this film, he portrayed 'Chaz,' a cross?dressing copywriter involved in an interesting love triangle. He played a man of the cloth in Neil Jordan's End of the Affair and was also in the box office giant Armageddon as 'Professor Quincy,' "the smartest man on the planet." In addition, he has made three movies with director Paul Anderson: the sci?fi thriller Event Horizon, Soldier, with Kurt Russell and the British cult film Shopping. He appeared with Dennis Quaid in Dragonheart, and made his feature film debut alongside Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson in The Tall Guy.

After graduating from the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London, he starred for two seasons in Capital City, a British TV series based on the world of high finance. He then starred in the miniseries Taggart as identical twins; one good, one evil. In the controversial BBC miniseries Civvies, from Lynda LaPlante (Prime Suspect), Isaacs portrayed a disturbed soldier adjusting to civilian life. And in the CBS miniseries The Last Don 2, he was another priest, this time testing the limits of his vows.

On stage he created the role of Louis in the critically acclaimed Royal National Theatre production of the Pulitzer Prize?winning "Angels in America ? parts 1 & 2' and has performed to packed houses at the Royal Court Theatre, the Almeida Theatre and five times at the Edinburgh festival.

Born in Liverpool, England, Isaacs attended Bristol University, where, while studying law, he directed and/or starred in over twenty theater productions. When not in the States conquering a new character or accent, he returns to make films and perform on stage in his native England.

?ELJKO IVANEK (Delta Lt. Col. Gary Harrell) has been praised for several outstanding performances on stage, screen and television, and previously appeared in Ridley Scott's Hannibal and White Squall. Ivanek's other features have included The Sender, Mass Appeal, School Ties, Courage Under Fire, Julian Po, A Civil Action, Snow Falling on Cedars and Dancer in the Dark.

On television, Ivanek is known for his portrayals of Governor James Devlin on HBO's Oz and State Attorney Ed Danvers in both Law & Order and Homicide: Life on the Street. Ivanek's numerous TV and cable movies and mini-series have included Alice in Wonderland, The Sun Also Rises, All My Sons, Our Sons, Truman, Ellen Foster, From the Earth to the Moon, The Rat Pack, Dash and Lilly and Sally Hemings: An American Scandal.

On Broadway, Ivanek was nominated for Tony Awards for both Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and Two Shakespearean Actors, for which he was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Ivanek won the Drama Desk prize for Cloud 9.

GLENN MORSHOWER (Lt. Col. Tom Matthews) portrays Sheriff Brian Mobley on the Jerry Bruckheimer produced television series C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation. Morshower, a native Texan, who trained at the Dallas Theater Center, has amassed an impressive list of film and television credits. His features have included Air Force One, Under Siege, The Philadelphia Experiment, Tango & Cash, 84 Charlie Mopic, The River Wild, Star Trek: Generations, In the Army Now, Godzilla and Phoenix.

His television movies and miniseries have included Dream West, Vietnam War Story, Roe vs. Wade, War and Remembrance, By Dawn's Early Light, The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson, The Heroes of Desert Storm, In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco, The Jack Bull and Dean Koontz's Sole Survivor. Morshower's series regular roles have included C-16: FBI and Strange World, and King's Pawn, along with recurring roles on JAG, The West Wing and the highly acclaimed Fox series 24 with Kiefer Sutherland.

He's guest-starred in episodes of The Agency, The X-Files, Once and Again, NYPD Blue, Millennium, Matlock, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, Quantum Leap, Babylon 5, Diagnosis Murder, Pensacola: Wings of Gold, The Sentinel, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Harsh Realm and The Dukes of Hazzard, among others.

JEREMY PIVEN (Chief Warrant Officer Cliff Wolcott) has appeared in such features as Serendipity, Rush Hour 2, Lucas, Say Anything, The Grifters, White Palace, The Player, Singles, Bob Roberts, Judgment Night, Miami Rhapsody, Heat, Grosse Pointe Blank, Kiss the Girls, Very Bad Things, The Crew, and The Family Man.

He was a series regular on Carole & Co., HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, Pride and Joy and Ellen, and had a recurring role on Chicago Hope. He starred in Cupid, Partners and It's About This Guy. Piven has guest-starred on such series as Seinfeld. His theatre credits have included Macbeth, Knuckle, Methusalen, Peacekeeper and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

BRENDAN SEXTON III (Ranger Pfc. Richard Kowalewski), one of the top young names in American independent cinema, appeared with Academy AwardO winner Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry. He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance in Welcome to the Dollhouse in 1995, which was followed by such films as Empire Records, ABC Manhattan, Morgan J. Freeman's Hurricane Streets (which won three awards at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival) and Desert Blue and John Waters' Pecker.

Sexton trained at The Cyd Michie Theatre, the New York City Kids on Stage and The Neighborhood Playhouse.

JOHNNY STRONG (Delta Sgt. First Class Randy Shughart) most recently starred in Rob Cohen's summer sleeper blockbuster The Fast and the Furious. Previously, he was seen in The Glimmer Man, Get Carter and several independent films. On TV, he's starred in the ABC pilot Time Well Spent and the NBC telefeatures Murderous Passion and Blue Heaven.

RICHARD TYSON (Delta Staff Sgt. Dan Busch) is a young veteran of screen and television who first came to audience's attention as the bully in Amblin Entertainment's 3 O'Clock High. Tyson's other films have included Kindergarten Cop, The Babe, Kingpin, Two-Moon Junction, There's Something About Mary, Battlefield Earth and Me, Myself and Irene.

On television, Tyson starred in the NBC series Handball. He also portrayed the title role in a $40-million miniseries of Genghis Khan, an international co-production filmed for seven months in Russia, which also featured Charlton Heston.

Tyson, a native of Mobile, Alabama and graduate of the University of Alabama and Cornell University (MFA), is also active on the Los Angeles stage, most notably at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, where he portrayed Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he received a DramaLogue Award for Best Actor. Tyson has also appeared as Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. He performs new works as a founding member of a theatre company in Los Angeles called Bottom's Dream.

BRIAN VAN HOLT (Ranger Staff Sgt. Jeff Struecker) recently completed production on the John Woo action drama Windtalkers, in  which  he  portrays  a  young  World  War II Marine officer. An Illinois native and graduate of UCLA, Van Holt spent  most of his youth immersed in athletics. He began his acting career as a teenager, performing  in several stage productions at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles. The spotlight  seemed  to agree with him and after graduating college with a degree in sociology, he  turned  his  full attention towards building a successful acting career.

Van Holt starred in the CBS comedy series Love  and  Money, and guest starred on HBO's Sex in the City, Late Night With Al Franken, Homicide and Spin City. On the big screen, Van Holt was most recently seen in the sexually charged comedy Whipped,starring alongside Amanda Peet. Holt can next be seen starring opposite John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Connie Nielsen in the John McTiernan-directed Basic.

NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU (Delta Master Sgt. Gary Gordon), one of the young stars of Danish cinema, recently starred in Michael Apted's British feature Enigma. Waldau's Danish feature credits have included Nightwatch (original version), Hemmeligheder, Vildspor, Nattens Engel, Antenneforeningen, Flugten Fra Jante and Pa Fremmed Mark. He was also seen in the British film version of the heralded play, Bent.
STEVEN FORD (Lt. Col. Joe Cribbs) made his acting debut as Andy Richards on the daytime drama The Young and the Restless, a role which he played for six years. He followed with roles in several features, including Young Doctors in Love, When Harry Met Sally, Heat, Eraser, Contact, Starship Troopers, Armageddon and The Rage: Carrie 2.
Ford also appeared in the TV movies The Cowboy and the Ballerina, Shooter, Columbo: Agenda for Murder, Two Came Back, Babylon 5: In the Beginning and hosted the series Secret Service for NBC. His numerous guest appearances have included roles on Happy Days, Murder, She Wrote, Sirens, Pensacola, JAG, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Dark Skies, The Sentinel, Baywatch, Walker, Texas Ranger and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
Born in Washington, D.C., Ford is the third son of former U.S. President Gerald Ford.
IAN VIRGO (Ranger Pvt. John Waddell) was born in the United States, but moved to the United Kingdom when he was a small child. There he trained at the National Youth Music Theatre and the Royal Academy of Music. Virgo recently appeared in the huge-scaled World War II miniseries Band of Brothers from Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks, and The Quiet Policeman, with David Suchet, for the BBC. Virgo's British theatre credits include Godspell at the Chichester Festival Theatre, She Stoops to Conquer for the National Youth Music Theatre and The Go Between at the Pleasance Theatre.
THOMAS HARDY (Ranger Spec. Lance Twombly) is one of the stars of HBO/DreamWorks' epic World War II miniseries, Band of Brothers. He joined Drama Centre London in September 1998, where he has appeaed in productions of Ivanov, Anatol, Filumena, The Matchmaker, Measure for Measure and Tartuffe. He also appears in Paul McGuigan's feature for Renaissance Films, Morality Play.
GREGORY SPORLEDER (Ranger Sgt. Scott Galentine) has a number of major feature films to his credit, including Say Anything, The Grifters, A League of Their Own, True Romance, Fatal Instinct, Renaissance Man, Twister, The Rock, Men With Guns, I Woke Up Early The Day I Died, At Sachem Farm, Clay Pigeons and Being John Malkovich, as well as the cable features Andersonville and Fail Safe.
CARMINE GIOVINAZZO (Ranger Sgt. Mike Goodale) is a Staten Island, New York native who's been seen in Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, The Big Brass Ring, For Love of the Game, The Learning Curve and Terror Tract. He is currently starring in the feature film Big Shot: Confessions of a Campus Bookie for director Ernest Dickerson.
CHRIS BEETEM (Ranger Sgt. James "Casey" Joyce) has been seen as a recurring character on NBC's Deadline, a featured role on Law & Order, a guest star on Law & Order and had the starring role in the CBS telefeature Grace and Glory. Beetem starred in Have It Your Way at the Neighborhood Playhouse and The Proposal at the Bucks County Playhouse. He also had a supporting role in the feature, Through the Eyes of a Fence.
Beetem received his bachelor's degree in theatre arts at Temple University.
TAC FITZGERALD (Ranger Spec. Brad Thomas) was seen in the feature Here on Earth, and television's The Drew Carey Show, Grosse Pointe and This is How the World Ends.
MATTHEW MARSDEN (Ranger Spec. Dale Sizemore) recently starred as Michael Caine's son in John Irvin's feature Shiner, and became a major star in his native England as a cast member of the hugely popular series Coronation Street. Also a recording artist, Marsden was signed to a recording contract by Sony Music.
ORLANDO BLOOM (Ranger Pvt. First Class Todd Blackburn) will be seen as Legolas in all three films of Peter Jackson's cinematic trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic, The Lord of the Rings. He also appeared in the highly regarded film, Wilde.
KENT LINVILLE (Ranger Pfc. Clay Othic) has had quite an auspicious beginning to his film career. Though this is only his second film, it is also his second time working with director Ridley Scott. Kent previously appeared as Geoffrey in Scott's thriller Hannibal. With a background in theatrical training, the Georgia-born actor also has a degree in philosophy from Atlanta's Emory University.
ENRIQUE MURCIANO's (Ruiz) break came when a two-day stint for director Steven Soderbergh on the set of the Academy AwardO-winning film Traffic turned into several weeks work as the role of DEA agent Ricky, placing him in several pivotal scenes with Luis Guzman and Don Cheadle.
On the small screen Enrique has made memorable appearances on Brooke Sheilds' hit show Suddenly Susan and the critically acclaimed series The Pretender.
Other projects include starring opposite Jason Alexander in the indie comedy How To Go Out On A Date in Queens, which is set to premiere at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival
Always interested in acting, Murciano made the definitive decision to come to Hollywood after attending Tulane University and spending one year at Boston Law. Once in LA he trained at Larry Moss Studios and divides his time between Los Angeles and Miami, where he was raised.
MICHAEL ROOF (Ranger Pvt. Maddox) starred in the WB Network sketch comedy series Hype, and is one of the best-known of the new generation of stand-up comedians. Most recently, Roof was chosen by director Rob Cohen to co-star with Vin
Desel and Samuel L. Jackson as a government agent in the action thriller XXX.
GEORGE HARRIS (Osman Atto) is an actor based in Great Britain with numerous feature and television credits. He's been seen in Yanks, Flash Gordon, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ragtime, The Browning Version, Camilla and Madeline, as well as the television movies and miniseries Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Prime Suspect 2, Bermuda Grace, Simisola and Gulliver's Travels. Harris has also made guest appearances on the series The Sweeney, Dempsey & Makepeace, Highlander, Dangerfied and Bodyguards.
RAZAAQ ADOTI (Mo'alim) co-starred as Yamba, one of the slaves on trial for mutiny in Steven Spielberg's Amistad. This London-based actor trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1992-95, and was a member of The National Youth and Music Theatre Company. His feature credits in England have included Gangster Number One and Remember Me. "Raz" has also appeared in numerous British television dramas, among them, Men Only, Dream Team, Attachments, The Bill, The Vanishing Man, Soldier, Soldier, and the BAFTA award winning drama Holding On to name a few.

On stage, Raz has been seen in Antony and Cleopatra at the Royal National Theatre, Aesop at the Edinburgh Festival and Guys and Dolls at the Young Vic.

TREVA ETIENNE (Firimbi) is a veteran actor whose appearance in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut followed years of distinguished work in television. His numerous guest appearances on British television have included the series Casualty, The Lenny Henry Show, London's Burning and The Paradise Club, as well as the miniseries Holding On and The Last Train.
TY BURRELL (Air Force Tech. Sgt. Tim Wilkinson) was recently seen in Ivan Reitman's Evolution for DreamWorks. On stage, he's been seen in productions of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, You Can't Take It With You, Alice in Wonderland, Man of La Mancha, Cloud Nine, Pericles, Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Lion in Winter, Twelfth Night, King John and Macbeth. Burrell also guest-starred on an episode of Law & Order.
BOYD KESTNER (Chief Warrant Officer Mike Goffena) previously worked for Ridley in both G.I. Jane and more recently, Hannibal. Kestner has also appeared in such features as The Running Man, The General's Daughter, Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story and Snakeskin. He's also been seen in the telefeatures Somebody's Daughter, Amy Fisher: My Story and Ray Alexander: A Taste for Justice, as well as in the series Diagnosis: Murder and Ally McBeal. Kestner will next be seen in Warner Brothers' Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya isterhood.
JASON HILDEBRANDT (Chief Warrant Officer Dan Jollata) has guest-starred in the series Sins of the City and Diagnosis Murder, and the features The Dinner Party, Brokers, Cyertalking and The Pig Farm.

About the Filmmakers

RIDLEY SCOTT (Director/Producer) most recently directed two of the most prominent critical and box office successes of the past year: Gladiator, his epic and dramatic evocation of ancient Rome starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, nominated for 12 Academy AwardsO (including one for Scott as director) and winning five, including Best Picture of the Year and Best Actor (Russell Crowe). Gladiator also won both the Golden Globe and British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards for Best Picture; and Hannibal, based on Thomas Harris' sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, which stars Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore. These films have only further consolidated Scott's position as one of the most influential and versatile filmmakers of our time, earlier confirmed by such motion pictures as Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma and Louise.
Scott was born in South Shields, Northumberland, England. Reared in London, Cumbria, Wales and Germany, he returned to Northeast England to live in Stockton-on-Tees. He studied at the West Hartlepool College of Art where he excelled at graphic design and painting. Scott also studied at the Royal Academy of Art, where his contemporaries included David Hockney. It was there that Scott made his first short film.
Graduating with honors, Scott was awarded a traveling scholarship to the United States for one year. During that time, he was employed by Time Life, Inc. where he worked with award-winning documentarians Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker. Upon his return to the U.K., he joined the BBC as a production designer and, within a year, was promoted to their directing team.
After three years, he left to form his own company, RSA, which soon became one of the most successful commercial production houses in Europe. Over the years, he has directed over two thousand commercials, many of which have won awards at the Venice and Cannes Festivals, as well as being honored by the New York Art Directors' Club. In addition to his film work, Scott remains actively involved with RSA. With offices in London, New York and Los Angeles, RSA represents some of the most acclaimed directors in the advertising industry.
Scott began his feature film directing career with The Duellists, which brought him the Jury Prize at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. His second film was the breakthrough hit Alien, which won an Academy AwardO for Special Effects. This was followed by a picture which has since become considered one of the landmark science fiction films of all time-Blade Runner, starring Harrison Ford. Some of Scott's other directorial credits include Legend, starring Tom Cruise, Someone to Watch Over Me, starring Tom Berenger and Black Rain, starring Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia.
In 1987, Scott formed Percy Main Productions to develop and produce features. Percy Main's first film was the Academy AwardO-winning Thelma and Louise, starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, followed by 1492: Conquest of Paradise, starring Gerard Depardieu as Christopher Columbus, both of which he directed. Scott also produced The Browning Version, directed by Mike Figgis and starring Albert Finney and Greta Scacchi.
In 1995, Scott, along with his brother Tony, formed Scott Free Productions, a film and television production company. Since its inception, Scott Free has produced such feature films as White Squall, starring Jeff Bridges and G.I. Jane, starring Demi Moore, which were both directed by Ridley Scott. He also served as producer on Clay Pigeons, starring Vince Vaughn, and Where the Money Is, starring Paul Newman. Scott Free has also produced The Hunger, a CableAce Award-winning anthology series for Showtime. Scott also produced the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning HBO feature RKO 281, starring Liev Schreiber, James Cromwell and Melanie Griffith.
Ridley Scott is Co-Chairman of Pinewood-Shepperton Holdings Limited that owns Shepperton Studios and Pinewood Studios. Ridley Scott is Co-Chairman of The Mill, one of the largest digital production and post production houses in London.
JERRY BRUCKHEIMER (Producer), one of the most successful producers of all time, is a filmmaker who loves telling a story. His films take us on incredible adventures, and when we leave the theater, we are enriched by the unforgettable characters, excited by the great stories and intrigued by the new experiences.
So we go back, and keep going back, to the films that begin with the lightning bolt. With worldwide revenues of over $12.5 billion in box office, television, video and recording receipts, Bruckheimer has earned the acclaim and respect of his industry and devotion of moviegoers throughout the world.
Bruckheimer has always been a storyteller. He started out with short ones--the 60-second tales he created as an award-winning commercial producer in his native Detroit. One of those mini-films, a parody of Bonnie and Clyde he created for Pontiac, was noted for its brilliance in Time Magazine. It also brought the 23-year-old producer to the attention of world-renowned ad agency BBD&O, which lured him to New York.
Four years on Madison Avenue gave him the experience and the confidence to tackle Hollywood, and not yet 30, he was at the helm of memorable films like Farewell, My Lovely and American Gigolo.
Also among those early projects was 1983's Flashdance. It made Jennifer Beals a box office star and retired the jumping jack forever, turning us all into aerobic dancers. It changed Bruckheimer's life by becoming a sleeper hit (grossing $100 million in the U.S. alone) and pairing him with an old acquaintance, producer Don Simpson, who would be his partner for the next 14 years.
One of the most polific partnerships in recent motion picture history, Bruckheimer and Simpson produced films that were honored with 15 Academy AwardO nominations, two OscarsO for Best Song, four Grammys, three Golden Globes, two People's Choice Awards for Best Picture and the MTV Award for Best Picture of the Decade.
Equally important to Bruckheimer as a creative force was the fact that the films were turning their stars into box office giants. Beverly Hills Cop launched Eddie Murphy's film career and Top Gun made Tom Cruise an international superstar.
Industry acclaim followed the box office success. In both 1985 and 1988, the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO) named Bruckheimer Producer of the Year. And, along with Simpson, he was chosen as 1988's Motion Picture Showman of the Year by the Publicists Guild of America.
By 1995, the team was producing one hit after another. In that year alone, Bruckheimer was responsible for Bad Boys, the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence film that was Columbia Pictures' highest grossing movie of the year; Michelle Pfeiffer's acclaimed Dangerous Minds, and Crimson Tide, the Denzel Washington/Gene Hackman adventure that, with Dangerous Minds, topped Hollywood Pictures' box office slate.
In 1996, Bruckheimer produced The Rock starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. The film broke new ground and continued the established Bruckheimer traditions with a box office gross of nearly $350 million worldwide. It also set the video rental record as the most-ordered film in history. His casting of the film re-established Connery as an action star and created that same image for the intellectual Cage. The Rock, named Favorite Movie of the Year by NATO, was Bruckheimer's last movie with Simpson, who died during production.
Now on his own, Bruckheimer followed in 1997 with Con Air, a film that placed Cage in the stratosphere of international action heroes, and grossed over $230 million. It also earned a Grammy and two more OscarO nominations and brought its producer once more to the attention of the international industry, when in 1999, he was awarded the ShoWest International Box Office Achievement Award for his unmatched foreign grosses.
In 1998 Touchstone Pictures released Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler and Steve Buscemi. The outer space adventure, directed by Michael Bay, proved to be the biggest movie of 1998, with combined revenues of nearly $560 million worldwide. Its soundtrack album reached multi-platinum status and spawned Aerosmith's first #1 single, "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing," which was honored with an Academy AwardO nomination.
Bruckheimer's second hit of 1998 was the psychological thriller Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. Both a critical and box office it, Enemy earned over $225 million worldwide.
The year 2000 began with an acknowledgment of the highest order from his own peers as Bruckheimer received the David O. Selznick Award for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures from the Producers Guild of America.
On the heels of this accolade, Bruckheimer released three films. The first, Gone in 60 Seconds, starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Delroy Lindo and Robert Duvall, was released in June and brought Bruckheimer his biggest non-holiday opening ever. This update of the 1974 cult classic brought went on to blockbuster status, grossing over $230 million worldwide. Later that summer came Coyote Ugly, a romantic comedy from Touchstone Pictures about a young songwriter's wild adventure in Manhattan. Its hit soundtrack album, with songs written by Diane Warren and performed by LeAnn Rimes, is now beginning its second year on the Billboard chart.
In fall 2000, Walt Disney Pictures released Remember the Titans starring Denzel Washington. Inspired by the true story of the integration of a Virginia high school football team, the film touched audiences with its sensitive portrayals and moving story and earned the film the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture, and Washington the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. It also won nominations for People's Choice Awards as Favorite Dramatic Film, Favorite Movie and Best Actor and grossed over $115 million in domestic box office receipts.
Also in the fall of 2000, Bruckheimer brought the power of the lightning bolt to television with "C.S.I.," starring William Peterson and Marg Helgenberger as members of an elite forensic crime scene investigation unit in Las Vegas. Winner of the TV Guide Award for Best New Drama, nominated for a Golden Globe and People's Choice Award for Best Dramatic Series, and capturing four Emmy nominations, including one for Marg Helgenberger as Best actress, "C.S.I." quickly won the loyalty of both the critics and the audience and is solidly ensconced in the number one position in it's timeslot on CBS. Recently picked up for a second season on CBS, "The Amazing Race," a reality show in which eleven couples are sent around the world has developed a loyal following on Wednesday nights.
Over Memorial Day Weekend 2001, Disney opened the eagerly anticipated Pearl Harbor, directed by Michael Bay and starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale and Alec Baldwin. Hailed by World War II veterans and scholars as a worthy re-creation of the shock and horror of the surprise attack that brought the United States into the war, the film is also a love story with a universal appeal that is expected to result in box office receipts approaching $450 million.
Bruckheimer continues to find and develop the films that will be his signature in this millenium.
Down and Under, a raucous comedy set in the Australian Outback, starring Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson, Estella Warren and Christopher Walken, is Bruckheimer's first collaboration with Castle Rock Pictures.
Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock star in Bad Company for Touchstone Pictures in an action/comedy directed by Joel Schumacher set for release in June 2002.
Currently in pre-production is Chasing the Dragon, a biography of the heroic Irish journalist Veronica Guerin, gunned down by Dublin crime lords, with Cate Blanchett in the title role and Joel Schumacher directing.
Beyond these lie the projects in development, including the comedy Affirmative Action, starring Will Smith and Ben Affleck (from an original idea by Affleck) about a white FBI undercover agent and a black Louisiana cop who reluctantly team up to track down missing police flash money and put away a major drug lord; The Veronica Guerin Story, a biography of the heroi Irish journalist gunned down by Dublin crime lords; Rogue Warrior, the story of a Navy SEAL; Witness to the Truth, based on the true account of FBI agent Paul Lindsay; The Tiger Projct, based on the work in India of conservatinist Belinda Wright; and Operation Moses, the real story of a New York stockbroker who risked everything on a covert operation to rescue Ethiopian Jews.
What these and the other projects on Jerry Bruckheimer's slate have in common is what his concepts have always shared: great characters playing out great stories. When the films reach the screen, they will embody what his films have always given us: stories told with visual style and passion, cinematic adventures that engage and hold us until Jerry Bruckheimer himself says it's a wrap.
KEN NOLAN (Screenwriter) was born in Portland, Oregon and received a bachelor's degree in English at the University of Oregon. He moved to Los Angeles in 1990, working as an assistant to various film industry executives and producers while simultaneously teaching himself screenwriting. He sold scripts in both 1994 and 1996 which went unfilmed, with Black Hawk Down representing Nolan's first work to come to the screen.
MARK BOWDEN (Book) is the author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1999 to critical acclaim. Also the author of Bringing the Heat and Doctor Dealer, Bowden has been a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 19 years and has won many national awards for his writing, including the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for Best Foreign Reporting for his original series on the Battle of Mogadishu, which has appeared in 10 newspapers across the nation. Bowden has also written by Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Parade and other magazines.
Bowden's latest book is Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, the story of the manhunt for one of the world's most notorious drug lords, Colombia's Pablo Escobar. The book was published in June 2001 by The Atlantic Monthly Press and received instant critical acclaim.
SIMON WEST (Executive Producer) most recently directed Tomb Raider, a large-scale action feature based on the adventures of digital heroine Lara Croft, who is portrayed in the film by Angelina Jolie. He previously directed The General's Daughter, starring John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe and James Woods. He made his major motion picture debut helming the box office hit Con Air, starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich.
Born in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain, he began his career in 1981 when he joined the BBC in London as an apprentice film editor. He worked on a number of award-winning productions, including the documentary Strangeways Prison and the dramatic series Bleak House (both of which won British Academy of Film and Television Awards) during his four years with the network.
In 1985 West started freelancing as a director. He was awarded a grant from the British Arts Council to write and direct a 30-minute film, Dolly Mixtures. He was subsequently signed to Limelight London to direct music videos and commercials. In 1987 he won Best Video at the Montreux Music Festival for Mel and Kim's "Respectable."
With the success of his burgeoning commercial career, West moved to the United States where he began working out of Limelight's Los Angeles office. A year later he moved to Pilot Pictures where he won two prestigious awards: the Golden Lion from the International Advertising Festival in Cannes for "Italian Feast" and a Clio for "Airplane."
He joined Satellite Films in 1993 where he expanded his successful commercial career to include such clients as Sprite, AT&T, MCI, Ford, Miller Beer and Budweiser. His Pepsi "Innertube" spot was voted the most popular commercial of the 1995 Super Bowl in a USA Today poll. The ad also won the Cannes Golden Lion and the Clio Awards. His highly regarded Budweiser Ants spot won a Bronze in Cannes in 1995. That same year he began directing for Propaganda Films.
West has won numerous awards for his commercial work. Amongst them are the TNE New York Festival's 1993 International TV Advertising Award, the AICP for Direction of Humor, an ADDYS for Best of Show Broadcast, an ANDYS for Humor, CLIOS for Best Direction, Golden Lions from Cannes and the MOMA.
He recently signed on to produce and direct Black Flag, a classic story of pirates and high seas adventure. The project will take place under the banner of his production company, Wychwood Productions, for Warner Brothers.
MIKE STENSON (Executive Producer) is president of Jerry Bruckheimer Films for which he supervises all aspects of film development and production. Before joining the company he was an executive in charge of production at Disney, responsible for many Bruckheimer films including Armageddon, The Rock, Crimson Tide and Dangerous Minds. More recently, Stenson served as producer on Gone in 60 Seconds and executive producer on Pearl Harbor, Coyote Ugly and Remember the Titans.
Born and raised in Boston, Stenson graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in economics and a master of business administration. After his undergraduate stint, he started as a production assistant in New York and worked for two years in independent film and television as an assistant director and production manager before returning to Boston to complete his graduate education.
After completing business school, Stenson moved to Los Angeles where he began his tenure at Walt Disney Studios in Special Projects for two years before moving into the production department at Hollywood Pictures as a creative executive. He was promoted to vice president and subsequently executive vice president during his eight years with the company, overseeing development and production for Hollywood Pictures as well as for Touchstone Pictures. In addition to the many Bruckheimer films, Stenson also developed and nurtured Instinct, Six Days, Seven Nights, and Mr. Holland's Opus.
Throughout his tenure with Disney, many filmmakers attempted to woo Stenson away from the studio, but not until 1998 did he entertain leaving. With his newest position at the helm of Jerry Bruckheimer Productions, Stenson is spearheading Mr. Bruckheimer's plan to expand the company's production schedule of film and television projects.
This past spring, Stenson served as producer on Black Sheep directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock. During the same period, Stenson executive produced the comedy Down and Under.
Stenson is presently in pre-production on the dramatic thriller Chasing The Dragon, the true story of Dublin journalist Veronica Guerin who was assassinated while reporting on Irish organized crime. Joel Schumacher directs with Cate Blanchett starring as Veronica Guerin. Also upcoming is the action thrillerTakedown.
CHAD OMAN (Executive Producer) is the president of production for Jerry
Bruckheimer Films and the President of Technical Black Films where he oversees film production and development.
Oman produced, along with Bruckheimer, the critically acclaimed Remember the Titans starring Denzel Washington and Will Patton for Walt Disney Pictures and Coyote Ugly starring Piper Perabo, Maria Bello and John Goodman for Touchstone Pictures.
His resume also includes credits as executive producer on Jerry Bruckheimer Films' Pearl Harbor, starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale; Gone in 60 Seconds, starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie and Giovanni Ribisi; Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman; Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis and Con Air starring Nicolas Cage.
Oman will executive produce the upcoming dramatic thriller Chasing the Dragon, based on the true story of slain Irish journalist Veronica Guerin starring Cate Blanchett. This marks the second Bruckheimer Films collaboration with director Joel Schumacher. Oman also executive produced Schumacher's upcoming action-comedy Bad Company starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock. Also in post production is the kangaroo comedy Down and Under for Castle Rock Pictures starring Jerry O'Connell and Anthony Anderson on which Oman served as Executive Producer.
In addition to his work on JBF's many motion picture projects, Oman also supervised production on several television projects including the Soldier of Fortune series starring Brad Johnson for Rysher Entertainment, ABC's drama Dangerous Minds starring Annie Potts and the Ron Bass telefilm Swing Vote starring Andy Garcia.
Prior to joining Simpson Bruckheimer in the spring of 1995, Oman was a founding employee of the Motion Picture Corporation of America. After six years, he left the independent production company as senior vice president of production.
Oman acted as the associate producer on Dumb and Dumber, starring Jim Carrey, executive producer on Touchstone Pictures' The War at Home, starring Emilio Estevez, Kathy Bates and Martin Sheen and co-producer on The Desperate Trail with Linda Fiorentino and Sam Elliott and on The Sketch Artist with Drew Barrymore and Sean Young. Oman produced Hands That See with Courteney Cox and Jeff Fahey and Love, Cheat and Steal with John Lithgow and Eric Roberts.
Oman graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in finance. He also attended the University of California at Los Angeles where he studied screenwriting and New York University where he participated in the undergraduate film production program. He was born and raised in Wichita Falls, Texas.
BRANKO LUSTIG (Executive Producer) recently won his second Academy AwardO, a Golden Globe and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Award as a producer on Ridley Scott's Gladiator. He won his first OscarO, a Golden Globe Award an a BAFTA Award for his work as a producer on Schindler's List, directed by Steven Spielberg. He more recently produced Scott's massively successful Hannibal, the sequel to the OscarO-winning The Silence of the Lambs.
Lustig also produced DreamWorks' first film release, The Peacemaker, starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman.
Born in Osijek, Croatia, Lustig survived two years in Nazi concentration camps. Following the war, he began his career as an assistant director at Jadran Films, Croatia's largest film and television studio. He subsequently worked as a production manager on such European location productions as Sophie's Choice and Fiddler on the Roof.
He went on to serve as assistant director on Volker Schlondorff's The Tin Drum, and as assistant director, associate producer and European manager for the miniseries The Winds of War and its Emmy-winning sequel, War and Remembrance. He was also a producer and assistant director on the Emmy-winning telefilm Drugs Wars: The Camarena Story, and the sci-fi thriller Deadlock, and was a producer on the miniseries The Great Escape: The Final Chapter and The Intruders.
SLAWOMIR IDZIAK (Director of Photography) recently photographed Taylor Hackford's action drama Proof of Life, starring Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe, after years of distinguished work in Europe and his native Poland. Idziak photographed some of the late Krzysztof Kieslowski's most remarkable works, including A Short Film About Killing from the Dekalog series, The Double Life of Veronique and Blue. He also served as cinematographer with such directors as: Andrzej Wajda (Conductor), Krzysztof Zanussi (Year of the Quiet Sun), Michael Winterbottom (I Want You), and Deborah Warner (The Last September). Idziak's other U.S. work includes John Sayles' Men With Guns and Andrew Niccol's Gattaca.
Film Festivals in Venice, Berlin, Prague, Chalon and Torun awarded his work for the best cinematography.
ARTHUR MAX (Production Designer) counts Black Hawk Down as his third project with Ridley Scott, having earlier designed G.I. Jane and Gladiator. For the latter film, Max won the Golden Globe, Broadcast Critics Association, Art Directors Guild, National Board of Review (the first ever in that category) and British Academy (BAFTA) Awards, and also received an Academy AwardO nomination.
Max was also the production designer on David Fincher's darkly disturbing thriller Seven, and the director's more recent Panic Room. Prior to becoming a production designer, Max worked as an art director on Nicolas Roeg's Insignificance and Hugh Hudson's Revolution.
A native New Yorker, Max earned a degree in Theatre Design from New York University. He went on to receive his Bachelor's Degree in Architecture from the Polytechnic of Central London, and also holds a Masters in Film Design from the Royal College of Art. He got his start doing concert lighting and stage design for the progressive rock group Pink Floyd.
This year Academy AwardO-winning film editor PIETRO SCALIA, A.C.E. (Film Editor) received his third Academy AwardO nomination and his second American Cinema Editors and the BAFTA awards for his work on Gladiator. Black Hawk Down is his fourth film collaboration with director Ridley Scott. He also edited G.I. Jane and most recently Hannibal.
In 1992 Pietro Scalia won the OscarO, A.C.E. and BAFTA Awards for editing Oliver Stone's JFK. He also received Academy AwardO and A.C.E. nominations for Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting. Scalia also edited Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha and Stealing Beauty, Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, and Willard Carroll's Playing By Heart.
Italian-born Scalia moved from Switzerland to the U.S. to pursue a filmmaking education and received his MFA in Film and Theater Arts from UCLA in 1985. He began his career as an assistant editor for Oliver Stone on Wall Street and Talk Radio. He went on to contribute as an associate editor on Born on the Fourth of July and as an additional editor on The Doors.
German-born HANS ZIMMER (Composer) has long been recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. For Zimmer, success came first in the world of pop music as a member of The Buggles. The group's single, "Video Killed the Radio Star," became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to be aired on MTV.
It was later that Zimmer entered the world of film music through a collaboration with famed composer Stanley Meyers. During these years, Zimmer learned the power of combining the beats of modern synthesized percussion with the melodies of classical music. Zimmer soon began solo work on several successful projects, including the critically acclaimed A World Apart.
His burgeoning reputation led to a turning point in his career when, in 1988, he was asked to score Rain Man for director Barry Levinson. The film went on to win the OscarO for Best Picture of the Year and earned Zimmer his first Academy AwardO nomination for Best Original Score. The next year, Zimmer composed the score for another Best Picture recipient, Driving Miss Daisy, starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman.
Zimmer's greatest triumph came in 1994 with his score for Disney's The Lion King. The soundtrack album has sold over 15 million copies to date and earned him an Academy AwardO for Best Original Score, a Golden Globe, an American Music Award, a Tony Award, and two Grammy Awards.
In total, Zimmer's work has been nominated for seven Academy AwardsO, including his music for Gladiator, As Good As It Gets, Crimson Tide, and The Preacher's Wife. In 1998, he was nominated for two Academy AwardsO; Best Dramatic Score for The Thin Red Line and Best Musical/Comedy Score for The Prince of Egypt.
Zimmer continues to break new ground in the world of film music. A pioneer in the use of digital synthesizers, electronic keyboards, and the latest computer technology, Zimmer is considered the father of integrating the digital music world with that of traditional orchestral arrangements.
In 2000, Zimmer composed the score for four major motion pictures-the very successful Gladiator, for which he received an OscarO nomination as well as the Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Award for his outstanding score, which has sold more than a million units worldwide and spawned a second album "Gladiator: More Music From The Motion Picture," on the Universal Classics/Decca Records label. His other scores include Mission: Impossible 2, The Road to El Dorado and An Everlasting Piece, directed by Barry Levinson for DreamWorks. Zimmer's music was most recently represented in Riding In Cars With Boys and the Michael Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer film Pearl Harbor. His score for the highly anticipated sequel to Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, directed by Ridley Scott which features 28 celli and bases, and an opera written especially for this film is still topping the Billboard's Crossover Chart and the Top Soundtracks Chart. Zimmer is currently working on the DreamWorks animation film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, slated for release next year.
The extensive costume designing tasks for Black Hawk Down are shared by DAVID MURPHY and SAMMY HOWARTH-SHELDON, with the former responsible for the military uniforms, and the latter costuming the Somali characters.
David Murphy was born in London, and first began learning his craft when he went to work for a motion picture "costume house" in 1959. His distinguished career has included work as wardrobe supervisor on such films as The Mummy I & II, Memphis Belle, Jewel of the Nile, and Chariots of Fire. He has served as costume designer on Brylcreem Boys, Hamburger Hill, and Champions.
Sammy Howarth-Sheldon served as assistant costume designer under Janty Yates on Ridley Scott's Gladiator, which won an Academy AwardO in that category. She was also assistant costume designer on Steven Berkoff's Decadence, Jake Scott's Plunkett and Macleane and Shekhar Kapur's recent historical epic Four Feathers. Howarth-Sheldon has been a costume designer in her own right on the British telefilms Zig and Zags Dirty Deeds, New Games Master and Wanted, as well as The Brit Awards ceremony, in additions to dozens of commercials and promos. Howarth-Sheldon also designed the costumes for Cosi Fan Tutti and Rigoletto at the Stowe Opera Season, and Agamemnon's Children and The Lovers at The Gate Theatre.
Military Consultant COLONEL THOMAS MATTHEWS, USA RETIRED was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pa. He graduated from Drexel University and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the US Army in 1972. Colonel Matthews has earned an MBA from Syracuse University and is a graduate of the US Army War College. He attended helicopter flight school in 1973. Colonel Matthews has served in aviation assignments around the world to include the Republic of Korea, Central America, the Persian Gulf and Somalia. He has commanded soldiers at every level up through Brigade level during his 28 years of military service. Colonel Matthews is Airborne and Air Assault qualified and a Master Army Aviator with 4,000 hours of flight time. Highlights include eight years in the 101st Airborne Division and approximately ten years in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Colonel Matthews was the Air Mission Commander with Task Force Ranger in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993. Among his awards are the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and two Air Medals. Matthews and wife Jessie have two children, Meghan and Tom, and reside in Springfield, Va.
Military Consultant COLONEL LEE VAN ARSDALE, USA RETIRED graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1974, and served in the United States Army until his retirement in 1999. Assignments were all in the Light Infantry and Special Forces, with 11 years spent in the First Special Forces Operational Detachment ? Delta (Airborne). While serving with the Delta Force, he rose to the position of Sabre Squadron Commander. In the course of his Army career, Van Arsdale served in three combat zones in command positions, and was decorated for valor with the Silver Star and with the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat. Additionally, he has participated in numerous classified operations, on a global scale, while in a leadership capacity. During his final two years in uniform, he served at the Pentagon as the Counterterrorism/Special Projects Branch Chief in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. In this capacity he participated in or led numerous interagency bodies focused on countering terrorism, and oftentimes served as the senior representative for the Defense Department. In addition to the decorations cited above, his military awards include the Combat Infantryman's Badge, Master Paratrooper wings, Master Military Free Fall Wings, Air Assault Wings, Ranger tab and Special Forces tab. He retired with the rank of Colonel. Van Arsdale was then hired to serve as the Assistant General Manager for National Security Response by Bechtel Nevada, a government?contracting firm that manages the Nevada Test Site and other Department of Energy facilities. In this capacity, he interfaced extensively with officials of numerous U.S. government agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Defense, and numerous members of the Intelligence Community. He was responsible for managing projects totaling over $85 million. Focus areas included portions of the Department of Energy emergency response capability (e.g., Nuclear Emergency Search Team, Nuclear/Radiological Assessment Team, and Aerial Measurements System); database and communications technologies; weapons of mass destruction protective countermeasures, to include first responder training and exercises, and the rapid design and prototyping of technologies in support of the federal effort to combat terrorism.
In February 2001, Van Arsdale took a four?month leave of absence from Bechtel Nevada to work as a technical advisor on Black Hawk Down in Morocco. As an adjunct, he was interviewed for a History Channel production (Hollywood vs. Reality) to be aired concurrently with the motion picture.
In addition to receiving his B.S. in Engineering from West Point, Van Arsdale earned an M.S. from the University of Colorado, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. He is also a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff college and the U.S. Army War College, where he won the prestigious AWC Foundation Excellence in Writing award for his strategy research project entitled "U. S. Special Operations Forces and the Counterproliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction." Professional organizations include the Special Operations Association, the Special Forces Association, and Mensa.
Van Arsdale is currently a private consultant focusing on terrorism and security matters.

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