Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

2 out of 4

Starring: Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman, David Keith, Joaquin de Almeida, Gabriel Macht, Olek Krupa

Director: John Moore

Time: 103 mins

It's funny how the mood of a nation (and film studios) can change in a couple of months. Immediately following the September 11 terrorist attacks, movie studios and TV networks scrambled to rearrange their schedules so as not to seem callous or insensitive to a population stunned and hurt by the terrible events. Consequently, the release dates of films like Collateral Damage (where a terrorist attack kills innocent bystanders) and TV series such as Fox's 24 (featuring a bomb exploding on board a passenger airplane in the very first episode) were postponed. Anything with a high body count or some semblance of conflict was deemed off-limits.

Now, not even three months later, as the USA are engaged in war in Afghanistan, the studios decide we must be up for some military flicks that will set the population's patriotic juices flowing. Behind Enemy Lines is the first of these military flicks, to be followed in the next few months by the likes of Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers.

Reportedly based on the true story of Captain Scott O'Grady, a US pilot who was shot down over Bosnia, Behind Enemy Lines stars Owen Wilson as Lieutenant Chris Burnett, a hot-shot navigator of an F/A-18 Superhornet jet who's stationed on an aircraft carrier somewhere near the eastern European hotspot. On a routine reconnaissance mission, Burnett's plane is shot down by surface-to-air missiles, and it's up to his own resourceful self, plus the best efforts of his superior officer, Admiral Leslie Reigart (Gene Hackman), to get him to safety and out of the war zone.

Behind Enemy Lines has quite an exciting premise, and this is shown in the intense dodge-and-weave manouevres Burnett's plane takes while trying to avoid the missiles tracking him. Once downed, however, the action becomes fairly routine. A small army plus a sniper are after him, but the action scenes on the ground don't reach the same heartpounding level as the earlier aerial chase. Some of the blame can be shouldered on first-time director John Moore. He has plenty of action scenes to work with, but his shaky camera effects (a la Saving Private Ryan) and flashy pans (with satellite fly-arounds reminiscent of those in Enemy Of The State) seem more like a gimmick than adding to the tension. Poor editing also hampers some of the continuity, as in a scene where Wilson's Burnett is sliding uncontrollably down the wall of what looks like a dam or water reservoir and moments later he is seen running up a hill.

It's also hard to tell when the movie is set. If the time period is during the height of the Bosnian crisis a few years ago, then a funny reference to last year's Cast Away seems out-of-place or way ahead of its time. And during the climax, the enemy's tanks all of a sudden seem to be petrified of the Americans' firepower. The Americans have some state-of-the-art helicopters, but the enemies have armoured tanks. Why didn't they use them?

I must admit the Behind Enemy Lines trailer showing Owen Wilson as an action hero left me with some reservations. After all, Wilson is the laconic, surfer dude-like character from comedies like Shanghai Noon and Zoolander. What is he doing in an action movie? As it turns out, he is actually quite good. Behind Enemy Lines is not really about Rambo-style action setpieces, and Wilson's everyman character is perfectly suited for the chase, much like Harrison Ford was in 1993's The Fugitive. Wilson is good enough to handle both the comedy (he gets to utter some one-liners) and the more dramatic scenes, which left me pleasantly surprised.

Gene Hackman is not as masterful here as he has been in previous films, like The Firm or Mississippi Burning. But an actor of Hackman's stature rarely gives a poor performance, and he proves it again with his portrayal of the politically hamstrung admiral. Joaquin de Almeida, the Portuguese actor who was so memorable in the Tom Clancy epic, Clear And Present Danger, is sparsely used, notably only as a deterrent to Hackman's rescue attempts. The enemies (we're not really sure if they're Bosnians, Croatians, or just a bunch of renegades) are suitably ruthless and icy, though not much is shown about them, unlike the backstory included in The Peacemaker, another film that involved aspects of the Yugoslavian conflict.

Behind Enemy Lines should have been a better picture. The potential was there for an exciting film, but aside from a tense aerial sequence, the rest is fairly lacklustre. Owen Wilson proves to be an effective and interesting lead, but the film doesn't have much else to recommend it. Bring on Black Hawk Down.

(c) Joe Wong (2 December 2001)