Behind Enemy Lines

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When my colleague, John J. Puccio, reviewed the standard disc version of "Behind Enemy Lines," he called it "the kind of war movie I thought went out of style a long, long time ago."

I can see why he thought that. After all, here's Owen Wilson as downed Navy pilot Chris Burnett moaning (before his ordeal), "Everybody thinks they're gonna get the chance to punch some Nazis in the face at Normandy, but those days are over." As fantastic as this film seems, it's apparently based on reality. The commentary by producers John Davis and Wyck Godfrey reveals that the screenplay was inspired by the experiences of real-life pilot Scott O'Grady. The film even ends with the kind of postscripts that fast-forward viewers into each character's future, with a quick statement of what happened to them. But the film itself? I didn't see it as a war movie at all--not even the kind of rescue-mission that we saw in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down." Now that's a war movie--one which embraces all the standard war movie tropes (which I use here because it's a kinder word than "clichés").

I didn't see "Behind Enemy Lines" as a war movie because it has more in common with action films . . . and video games. Action films focus on explosions, blasts, bullets, and hand-to-hand combat--not character, valor, or nationalism. With a cartoon-like plot that pits a good guy against an impossible number of bad guys, it's an unbelievably simple narrative arc. Action films also depend on viewers' ability to suspend belief in the real world as they know it and just kick back and enjoy the show. And "Behind Enemy Lines" is no more "real" in its treatment of the Bosnian conflict than the Bond flicks were able to give us any real insight into the Cold War.

Wilson is engaging as a go-it-alone hero, full of the kind of wise-guy remarks that sound so hip as they come out of his mouth. He's the navigator on an F-18 Super Hornet piloted by a friend named Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht). The banter on this two-person crew reminds us of "Top Gun," and you can pretty much see where that's heading. The most dangerous job in Hollywood is being the hero's best friend. You might as well wear a t-shirt that says "Dead Meat," and that's what happens here--though much more quickly than with Tom Cruise's wingman. Burnett and Stackhouse are ordered to go on a holiday fly-over recon mission, but what should have been routine turns ugly after they go off-course and find themselves over the demilitarized zone. What they photograph guarantees that the Serbs will have to shoot them down: mass graves and illegal troop movements during a cease-fire. And after they're downed, it doesn't take long before it becomes one against hundreds.

In a logical world, with troops bearing down on them you'd expect that the hero would drag his friend, injured leg and all, out of the open field where he landed and into cover. Not here, folks. Like all the cell phone people you see moving around on street corners trying to get a better signal, Burnett takes off for the tallest mountain to try to communicate their position. Meanwhile, the position he leaves his buddy in is precarious. This poor guy lies with a bright-colored parachute in the middle of a field, waiting for the inevitable rush of Serb tanks and foot soldiers that will come. True to an action film, though, it's not even a soldier who executes the flier. It's a Bond-style European villain dressed in an athletic warm-up suit. And so it's the Serbian forces starring Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov) the hit man against Burnett, with the obligatory face-off between them at the end that's come to characterize the action film.

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