Rewatched and still enjoyed this movie recently. But I think it's fair to say that it's the primary touchpoint for the general public's knowledge of the Battle of Mogadishu, and it's lacking some crucial context.
For those who don't know, Bloody Monday was a US helicopter raid 3 months before the Black Hawk down incident. The target was a gathering of Somali community figures with the intention of killing or capturing Aidid and his lieutenants. But Aidid wasn't present, and the meeting was filled with more moderate community leaders/elders. 50+ Somalis were killed in a matter of minutes, including nearby civilians and children who had nothing to do with the gathering. This event basically fractured the UN peacekeeping coalition and ruined the US's reputation with the general population of Mogadishu.
In the context of the movie, when we see an angry mob storming the downed Black Hawks, without this context we're meant to think it's the result of some vague and implicitly barbaric anti-US sentiment.
And to be clear, I'm not trying to say "actually Aidid's militia were the good guys ☝️🤓". But it would be a better movie and more accurate to the real history with this background added.
Are there any other examples in popular movies based on real events that have this sort of big lie by omission?
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