Behind Enemy Lines (film)
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| Behind Enemy Lines | |
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| Directed by | John Moore |
| Produced by | John Davis |
| Written by | Jim Thomas John Thomas (story) David Velos Zak Penn (screenplay) |
| Starring | Owen Wilson Gene Hackman Vladimir Mashkov Joaquim de Almeida David Keith Olek Krupa |
| Music by | Ryan Adams Don Davis |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | November 30, 2001 |
| Running time | 106 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $40,000,000 |
| Followed by | Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil |
| IMDb profile | |
Behind Enemy Lines is a 2001 thriller war film directed by John Moore and starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson.
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[edit] Plot
The film's extremely fictional plot is centered on the false story of uncovering a massacre in the Bosnian War of 1992-1995 by an American naval aviator.
Admiral Leslie Riegart's (Gene Hackman) carrier battle group is in the final stages of a NATO peacekeeping deployment when the F/A-18F Super Hornet of Chris Burnett, the aircraft's Weapons System Officer (Owen Wilson) and his pilot Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht), launched from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is shot down by a SA-13 SAM controlled by renegade Serbian forces led by General Miroslav Lokar (Olek Krupa) and his second in command Colonel Viktor Bazda. Lokar is committing a secret genocidal campaign against the Bosniak people in a no-fly zone that the NATO plane violates and photographs; wanting to avoid being discovered, Lokar has the plane shot down and executes Stackhouse while Burnett escapes to the countryside.
From then on Burnett is on the run, narrowly escaping from the Serb militia time after time. All the while he maintains contact with his Admiral, to lead him to a safe point for a rescue attempt. The resulting attempt to rescue the downed aviator is complicated by political considerations which are forced on Riegart by his NATO commanding officer Admiral Juan Miguel Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida), including using his own team for the extraction rather than the team that Riegart put together. Burnett is chased by Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov), a Serbian sniper and right hand man to Lokar. He escapes death after he slides off a dam while being shot at by Sasha. In another scene, he falls into a mass grave and hides under dead bodies. He makes his way to Hac, a small town in Bosnia on the back of a pickup with a group of fighters. The entire town is at an all out war. When Serbian forces attack the mall he and the fighters are hiding in, he manages to flee by disguising himself in a Serb militant outfit after dressing up a dead Serb militant in his pilot suit. He loses his radio in the attack. Bazda and Sasha pursue Burnett in the forest as Burnett attempts to make it to the safe zone where he will be rescued by helicopter. In the pursuit, Bazda steps on a mine and his ally Sasha leaves him to die. The situation intensifies when Serbs claim that the downed aviator was shot dead by Bosnian guerrillas, after they find their dead soldier in the pilot suit. The rescue attempt is called off as Burnett sees the helicopter fly away.
Finally, he manages to contact the carrier via a locater in his ejection seat. Upon learning that Burnett is alive, Riegart decides to immediately set out to rescue Burnett, full knowing that he would lose his command for going in without authorization. Sasha tracks Burnett and waits for him to move when he hears the noise of a helicopter and he moves in for the kill. But Burnett emerges from the snow shooting and later stabbing him with a flare. Serbian M-84 tanks, BMP-1 armour vehicles and infantry surround Burnett. Then U.S Marines UH-1 Iroquois helicopters, with Riegart in the lead chopper, appear and fire on the Serbs. Near the helicopter Burnett turns back for the photographs of the massacre. Under a hail of bullets he retrieves the disk and is rescued. After the rescue he hands over the disc containing the photographic evidence to Riegart. This leads to Lokar's arrest. The film ends as Riegart is facing reassignment for superseding the chain of command, deciding instead to retire from the Navy.
[edit] Historical inspiration
The movie bears some resemblance to the experiences of former USAF Captain Scott O'Grady, who was shot down on June 2, 1995, over Bosnia. He managed to survive for six days before being rescued. He reportedly filed suit against the producers of this film for defamation of character and making a film about his ordeal without his permission.[citation needed] The characters and events the film portrays are, however, almost entirely fictional. O'Grady never entered populated areas, interacted with civilians, or was pursued by Serb forces.[1]
[edit] Production
The film, released by News Corporation division 20th Century Fox, features fictional news reports from Sky News, a sister company to Fox.
None of the actors playing Serbians were actually Serbians; the producers said that they hired Croats to instruct the actors in the Serbian language since they could not find any Serbs willing to work on the film, due to anti-Serb controversy illustrated through out the film.[citation needed] Vladimir Mashkov, the actor who played the Serbian sniper, is Russian.
The movie was filmed in Slovakia, not Bosnia. During the shooting of the lakeside scene near the end, the countryside was unexpectedly devoid of snow. To recreate a snowy lake, the film's crew cleared part of a mountain of trees, used molten wax to create the appearance of a lake, and used paper snow to imitate real snow.
The 2000 film Cast Away (another 20th Century Fox film) is referenced near the beginning of the movie. Owen Wilson's character, Chris Burnett, loses a football out to sea, and subsequently yells "Wilson!" However, the film is set five years prior to the release of Cast Away.
A Dolly zoom is used at one point in the film to represent the feeling of vertigo.
Scripting and costuming place Stackhouse and Burnett in the squadron VFA-163 Ark Angels. The real VFA-163 squadron was decommissioned well before the Super Hornet was put into service. The Super Hornet, which did not enter service until 1999, was decorated with VFA-163's 1995 markings on the spine but was in fact on loan from VFA-122.
All of the footage for the Super Hornet's launch off the carrier were those of standard Hornets, even for the "going to after-burners" footage.
The USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) was the aircraft carrier featured in this movie. Exterior naval footage was filmed on-board the carrier. Interiors were filmed on the Carl Vinson and on the USS Constellation (CV-64), as well as on-set.[2]
[edit] Sequels
The film is followed by two direct to DVD sequels; Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil, and Behind Enemy Lines III: Columbia.
