Behind Enemy Lines (film)

Infobox_Film
name = Behind Enemy Lines


writer = Jim Thomas
John Thomas (story)
David Velos
Zak Penn (screenplay)
starring = Owen Wilson
Gene Hackman
Vladimir Mashkov
Joaquim de Almeida
David Keith
Olek Krupa
director = John Moore
producer = John Davis
distributor = 20th Century Fox
released = November 30 2001
runtime = 106 min.
language = English
budget = $40,000,000
music = Ryan Adams
Don Davis
awards =
preceded_by = | followed_by = ""
imdb_id = 0159273

"Behind Enemy Lines" is a 2001 thriller war film directed by John Moore and starring Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson.

Plot

The film's fictional plot is centered on the story of uncovering a 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 navigator Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and pilot Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) decide to take their F/A-18F Super Hornet (launched from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson) off course to check out a suspicious target. Their plane 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. Burnett and Stackhouse eject from their plane and land in Serb-held territory. The two come across each other, and Stackhouse was injured from the ejection. Burnett takes off to contact Reigart for help. At the same time, A large Serb patrol finds Stackhouse and Burnett observes as the Serbs interrogated Stackhouse. After a little while, Lokar, who was at the scene, has Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov), a Serbian sniper and right hand man to Lokar, execute Stackhouse. Immediately after Stackhouse was killed, Burnett accidentally gave his position away and the Serbs open fire on Burnett, who barely 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. 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 Hač, a small town in Bosnia on the back of a pickup with a group of local fighters. The entire town is an all out war zone. 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 with his team 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. Burnett says "This is why they killed Stackhouse." This leads to Lokar's arrest and subsequent extradition to the ICTY. The film ends as Riegart is facing reassignment for superseding the chain of command, deciding instead to retire from the Navy.

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.Fact|3 June 2008|date=June 2008 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. [ [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,338983,00.html Downed airman sues over 'Behind Enemy Lines' | Behind Enemy Lines | In the News | News | Entertainment Weekly ] ]

In this respect, the film more closely resembles the experiences of Royal Navy pilot, Lt Nick Richardson, shot down over Gorazde on 16th April 1994, whose story is told in the book No Escape Zone.

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 bad Serbian language because they could not find any Serbs willing to work on the film, due to anti-Serb sentiment carried through out the film. Vladimir Mashkov, the actor who played the Serbian sniper, is Russian.Fact|date=September 2008

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.Fact|date=September 2008

A Dolly zoom is used at one point in the film to represent the feeling of vertigo.Fact|date=September 2008

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. [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pnav/is_200111/ai_1257388691 "Behind Enemy Lines" Showcases NAS North Island | US Navy Press Releases | Find Articles at BNET ] ]

Trivia

The character Sasha's uniform was used in the game Call of Duty 4. Zakhaev's son wore a similar jumpsuit, and had very similar facial features. And, as in the movie, he was the main antagonist's right hand man.

equels

The film was followed by two direct to DVD sequels; , and which was co-produced by WWE Films.

References

External links

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