Behind Enemy Lines (film)
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- For the 2006 direct-to-video sequel see Behind Enemy Lines II (film)
| 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 |
| Budget | $40,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Behind Enemy Lines is a 2001 film starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson.
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[edit] Plot summary
The film is centered around a massacre in the Bosnian war of 1992-1995. Admiral Leslie Reigart's (Hackman) carrier battle group is in the final stages of a NATO peace keeping deployment when the F/A-18F Super Hornet of Chris Burnett (Wilson) and his pilot Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) is shot down by a SA-13 SAM controlled by renegade Serbian forces led by General Miroslav Lokar (Olek Krupa). Lokar is committing a secret genocidal campaign against the Bosnian 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 kills Stackhouse while Burnett escapes and makes radio contact with his superiors.
The resulting attempts to rescue the downed aviator are complicated by political considerations which are enforced on Reigart by his NATO commanding officer Admiral Juan Miguel Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida).
In Bosnia, the lone U.S. navigator attempts to evade Serbian troops and a mercenary Serb sniper (Vladimir Mashkov). After dodging Serb special forces, mine fields, and tanks, he manages to contact the carrier. After retrieving photographic evidence of the massacres, he is rescued in a dramatic helicopter rescue mission.
[edit] Context & Trivia
The movie is loosely inspired by 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.
Although it must be said that the experiences of the character in the film would seem to be based more on those of the British pilot, Lieutenant Nick Richardson, a Sea Harrier FRS Mk.1 pilot of the British Royal Navy, who was shot down over Bosnia in 1994. Some scenes also bear a striking similarity to those from the fictional book, Point of Impact by ex-RAF pilot John Nichol who was a prisoner of war during the 1991 Gulf War. Most notable of these is the execution by Serbs of an injured second crewman in a two seat fighter jet in Bosnia, an act which is observed by the main character.
The film, released by News Corporation company 20th Century Fox, features fictional news reports from Sky News, another News Corp asset.
None of the actors playing Serbians were actually Serbians; the producers said that they hired Croats to instruct the actors in the Serbo-Croatian language since they could not find any Serbs willing to work on the film.[citation needed] (However, the actor who played the Serbian sniper, Vladimir Mashkov, 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 consequently yells "Wilson!"
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 used in the footage was decorated in VFA-163 markings on the spine, but was in fact on loan from VFA-122.
Most of the footage for the Super Hornet's launch off the carrier were those of standard Hornets. A F-14 Tomcat provided the "going-to-afterburners" footage.
[edit] Criticisms
The movie has been accused of being overly Americanised, biased, and patriotic, to the point of altering basic elements of the Bosnian conflict to better reflect upon the American government. In particular, whilst the opening sequences gives the impression of the film being largely based on a true story it is not until the all of the credits have rolled at the end of the film that the typical disclaimer appears regarding "...fictional, any similarity to...entirely coincidental" etc.
Due to the main character's near-invulnerability against impossible odds, many of the sequences in this film can be considered examples of the stormtrooper effect.
[edit] See also
- 2001 in film
- Bosnian war
- Behind Enemy Lines: Axis of Evil - The direct-to-video sequel.
