lhseaglerunner Review of Behind Enemy Lines

Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

`Enemy Lines' has the look, but not the heart of `Top Gun'

[7/10 · 8 December 2001]

A couple nights before I went to see `Behind Enemy Lines,' I saw, by pure chance, mind you, the final hour of `Top Gun.' After watching that 80's classic, I went into `Enemy Lines' with raised expectations. In the fifteen or so years since `Top Gun,' there have certainly been some technical improvements in moviemaking, so `Enemy Lines' must be a new millenium visual treat. And it was. The film starts out with our main character, navigator-bombardier, Lt. Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) preparing to take off on a mission over the former republic of Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, an engine flames out. Burnett, after some seven years in the navy has grown disillusioned and wants out. One thing stands in Burnett's way-his tough, demanding commanding officer, Adm. Riegart (Gene Hackman). As a punishment, he and his pilot are assigned a Christmas-day recon mission. While flying, they take pictures of a mass grave being filled in by the Serbs who had recently signed a peace accord. To cover up their deed, the Serbs shoot down Burnett's plane. Both Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht), the pilot, and Burnett land safely, but the Serbs catch up with Stackhouse and kill him. Now the race begins. The Serbs, naturally, are afraid of NATO retribution, so the set out to kill Burnett before he can be rescued. Meanwhile, Riegart sets a rescue plan into motion. While Riegart plans, the French NATO commander, Adm. Piquet (Joachim de Almeida), is trying to preserve the peace by setting exacting standards for Burnett's rescue. Pursued by Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov), a Serbian master tracker, Burnett must find his way through Serbian army units, mined warehouses, sniper-filled woods, and a truck full of Elvis impersonators to get to his rescue point. I was genuinely entertained by this movie. Although it does not have a world-class script (the plot is more transparent than Casper the Ghost on diet pills), Owen Wilson is able to come across as a fairly normal guy, frustrated by the system that he seems to be trapped in and now questioning his ethical standards. Gene Hackman is also entertaining as the stereotypical tough-as-nails-but-with-a-soft-heart-type of commander. But all is not well. `Behind Enemy Lines' really needed only one thing to be a great film-attention to reality. Am I really supposed to buy Burnett time after time avoiding massive volleys of gunfire directed at him? Come on! The Balkan people have been constantly at war for the past decade. I would assume that most of the soldiers left would be able to accurately fire a gun at a target. And after Burnett runs through a mine field with explosions right and left, is he wounded, if only with a superficial scratch that looks like it might have come from a shaving accident? The answer for those of you playing at home is a resounding NO. Another thing that annoyed me was the over-exaggeration of technology. Now I know that the United States has some pretty good satellites, but can one really be expected to pick up a single man running through hostile terrain? Uh…no. Now that I got that little rant out of the way, let me give a little bit more praise. The jet scenes were absolutely awesome. It looked so real, in fact, that I almost thought that it came from actual footage, but in retrospect, no plane could have stayed with an F-16 so closely for that long. The camera work was a bit unusual; combining both slow- and fast-motion shots of both the chase scenes and the jet scenes. And one other thing, the music was perfect. Don Davis's (`The Matrix) scoring was over-the-top, which was a nice touch to this patriotic movie. One other thing lacked in this movie when compared to `Top Gun.' In `Top Gun,' you actually begin feeling for the characters, urging them on or yelling at them not to do this or that. Of course, that might just be my thoughts…Anyway, `Enemy Lines,' while well-executed, I could not see myself silently urging Burnett on because it just wouldn't fit the film. On a side note, before you go see this movie, be up-to-date on the Balkan situation. Know who's fighting who and where (I would like to thank my World Geo teacher, Mr. Decker, for giving us loads of copies on the Balkans-great research material). Now for the rating itself…89 percent out of 100.