Behind Enemy Lines

On June 2nd 1995, during Operation Deny Flight, NATO-led enforcement of UN no-fly zone over war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, US Air Force F-16 fighter plane was shot down by Bosnian Serb forces. Its pilot Scott O’Grady safely ejected from the plane and had to hide for a week from pursuing Bosnian Serbs before being rescued by US Marines. The event created a lot attention in US media, much more than any other episode of Bosnian War, even those there were more spectacular and bloody. Columnists of Feral Tribune, Croatian satirical weekly, commented that it was all but certain that O’Grady’s story would be turned in high budget Hollywood action spectacle glorifying US military. That prediction came true six years later with Behind Enemy Lines, 2001 film directed by John Moore, and “loosely inspired” by those events.

The word “loosely” should be taken very seriously, because the plot takes place in an alternate universe in which Bosnian War ended with Cincinnati Peace Treaty (instead of Dayton Peace Treaty) and in which US military presence in Bosnia is reduced to planes patrolling the skies and making sure that all previously warring respect the treaty. This means that US Navy Lieutenant Chris Burnett (played by Owen Wilson), flight officer of F/A-18F Super Hornet at USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, probably won’t see any real military action, so he contemplates leaving the service. During one of the routine missions, he and his pilot Jeremy Stackhouse (played by Gabriel Macht) notice Bosnian Serb soldiers trying to hide a mass grave and decide to fly over the area longer than planned in order to get better photographic evidence. This decision proves fatal, because Bosnia Serbs launch missile that would hit their plane and force Burnett and Stackhouse to eject and land on enemy territory. Miroslav Lokar (played by Olek Krupa), Bosnian Serb general whose forces, despite the truce, are besieging nearby Bosnian Muslim enclave of Hac, is determined to silence the troublesome witnesses and sends small army, which also include elite sniper Sasha Ivanic (played by Vladimir Mashkov) to take them out. Stackhouse dies, but Burnett manages to hide and contact his superiors. But the rescue gets complicated because Admiral Riegart (played by Gene Hackman), his immediate superior, is subordinated to French Admiral Piquet (played by Joaquim de Almeida) who thinks that any provocation of Bosnian Serbs would endanger lives of French UN peacekeepers on the ground.

Some Croatian film critics, especially those of right-wing nationalist persuasion, were giving a lot of praise to Behind Enemy Lines, because, in their opinion, unlike most Western films about wars in former Yugoslavia, it was showing Serbs as clear villains committing genocide. That, however, might be the only detail of this film that might correspond to actual history. Scriptwriters David Veloz and Zak Penn strayed from facts in such manner that even Scott O’Grady was unhappy and launched lawsuit against producers, later settled out of court. Filmed in Slovak mountains that pass for Bosnia, and with Russian, Polish and Slovak actors that hardly try to convincingly speak Bosnian/Croat/Serb language, Behind Enemy Lines uses bloody and complicated reality of Bosnian War only as an exotic background for routine action story and the shameless glorification of the American military power. Given that the main purpose of the film was to boost recruitment rates of American armed forces, the protagonist is played by young and good-looking Owen Wilson. There isn’t any doubt, even among the least experienced viewers, that Lieutenant Burnett would come out of whole ordeal not only as survivor and winner, but also as an heroic saviour of helpless Bosnian Muslims under attack. And while entire Bosnian Serb Army with its artillery, armour and thousands of troops can’t even graze American superhero, that individual is apparently able to decide the outcome of the entire war with one gun. Of course, film also suggests that the Americans could easily make the world better place by spreading peace and democracy through military power if not for some stupid rules like international law, UN Charter or quasi-allies who in this particular instances happen to be French. John Moore with his music video style of direction and plenty of pyrotechnics could have made all this look like typical brainless action film, but the script deals with too many serious issues. And, to make things worse, Behind Enemy Lines was brought to cinema shortly after 9/11, with patriotic hysteria guaranteeing that the US audience would reward its gung-ho militaristic message at the box office despite critics not being that enthusiastic. Behind the Lines later received three direct-to-video pseudo-sequels (or “spiritual successors”) with similar themes.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

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