Protests over Black Hawk Down

Black Hawk Down is tipped for Oscar nominations

Protests are being planned at a London screening of hit war movie Black Hawk Down.

Pressure group Media Workers Against The War (MWAW) has attacked the movie as a "grotesque misrepresentation of a grim truth".

The movie is based on the shooting down of two US helicopters in Somalia in 1993.

Eighteen US soldiers died in the land battle and the story has been a massive hit in cinemas across the Atlantic, taking more than $75m (£53m).

MWAW is angry that the plight of the Somali people was not highlighted in the film.

On its website, the group said: "Thousands of Somalis, two-thirds of them women and children, lost their lives in the course of US and UN "humanitarian" incursions into the country.

Scott did not want to romanticise war

"Even the most prudent of critics have suggested the film is a racist portrayal and makes for uncomfortable viewing."

The movie's director, Ridley Scott, recently told the BBC that the idea of the movie was to take the audience "into a war that they would normally never experience".

He added: "I thought: Just make it as it was, try not to romanticise it, try not to sentimentalise it - and leave the audience with questions at the end, not necessarily answers."

The movie, which stars Ewan McGregor and Josh Hartnett, is tipped for Oscar nominations.

Impression

There have already been complaints from Malaysia, some of whose soldiers were also involved in rescuing US troops in Somalia.

The commander of Malaysian forces there at the time, retired Brigadier-General Abdul Latif Ahmad, was quoted by the AFP news agency saying that the record needs to be set straight.

Otherwise, he said, "Malaysian movie-goers will be under the wrong impression that the real battle was fought by the Americans alone, while we were mere bus drivers to ferry them out."

MWAW is planning to hold their protest in Leicester Square next week.