Behind Enemy Lines Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)November 29th, 2001
Planet Sick-Boy: http://www.sick-boy.com
"We Put the SIN in Cinema"
© Copyright 2001 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved.
The potential for Behind Enemy Lines doesn't seem at all promising. You've got a first-time director working from a script penned by Razzie winners for Wild Wild West and Last Action Hero featuring an overly patriotic story plus a release date shifted forward to either take advantage of American sentiment or distance itself from Ridley Scott's military movie Black Hawk Down (January), while still beating Croatian Oscar contender No Man's Land to theatres by a week.
The comparisons are appropriate because Down is set in 1993 Somalia, Land in 1993 Bosnia, and, although it never makes this clear, I think we're supposed to assume Lines takes place around the same time in Bosnia (it's loosely based on the 1995 story of Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady). Lines' similarities to Land include making NATO peacekeepers into bumbling buffoons and manipulating the tale through the use of opportunistic television news reporters.
In Lines, Owen Wilson (Zoolander) plays Lt. Chris Burnett, a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Superhornet navigator whose frustration over being a beat cop working a neighborhood that nobody cares about boils over into a cynicism that threatens to stall his once-promising career. Though the U.S.S. Carl Vinson's mission in the Adriatic is winding down, Burnett gives his commanding officer, Admiral Leslie Reigert (Gene Hackman, Heist), his two-week notice because he's tired of trying to figure out who they're fighting and who they're protecting, since it seems to change every day.
As punishment, Reigert sends Burnett and his partner, Lt. Michael Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht, American Outlaws), on a Christmas reconnaissance mission while the other soldiers gorge themselves on turkey and mincemeat pie. Thanks to some bad intelligence, they find nothing, but the jet's radar picks up activity in what is supposed to be a demilitarized zone. Burnett and Stackhouse check it out, even though it's in an area over which they're not supposed to fly, and, as they photograph troop movement, find themselves being chased by two surface-to-air missiles.
Long story short, the plane is hit, the pilots eject and land in unfriendly territory. Stackhouse is executed by the Bosnians, while Burnett manages to escape and radio back to the Carl Vinson for help. Trouble is, Admiral Reigert is forced to sit on his hands when NATO advises him a rescue attempt could jeopardize the fragile peace process in the area. Also, his name is Leslie, so, like, how tough can he be? Meanwhile, Burnett is being hunted by a deadly Bosnian sniper (Vladimir Mashkov, 15 Minutes) because the jet recorded damaging photos of a mass grave in the area.
Lines' action scenes are surprisingly effective, especially the scene where Burnett's plane is taken down by the Bosnian missiles. Irish director John Moore, who has an extensive background in tech-heavy commercials and has worked with Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan, throws a lot of visuals at the screen, and most of it sticks in an audience-pleasing fashion. I never thought for a second Lines would evoke memories of Saving Private Ryan, but some of Moore's choppy, handheld camera work (not to mention the story) looks like it came from Spielberg's editing room floor. Moore shoots the Bosnian scenes with what has become the standard whitewashed look Hollywood gives to any Eastern European country involved in war atrocities.
There are parts of the film that are very schmaltzy and unbelievable. The big finale is particularly hard to swallow (unless you believe Bosnian soldiers have the firearm accuracy of Mr. Magoo), as is a scene where Burnett meets up with a rag-tag bunch of rebels whose ranks include an Elvis impersonator, a kid with an Ice Cube t-shirt, and a girl with a bottle of Coca-Cola. When Burnett and Stackhouse crash, they don't seem at all frightened, even though they're marooned in a country controlled by the people who shot them down.
The highlight here is Wilson, who, as he did in Shanghai Noon, either retools his lines into uncanny comic gems (remember, he's an award-winning screenwriter) or pumps enough life into the typical monosyllabic action dialogue to make it enjoyable. He and Hackman will be re-teamed next month in The Royal Tenenbaums, which Wilson co-wrote.
1:44 - PG-13 for war violence and some language
More on 'Behind Enemy Lines'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
