BEHIND ENEMY LINES
Directed by John Moore, with Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman
Now playing at CineMark 12 in Hadley.
As a war movie aficionado, I went into this movie not expecting much. I was not disappointed.
Behind Enemy Lines tells the story of a Navy navigator Lt. Burnett (Wilson) who, growing tired of the seemingly useless job of patrolling near Bosnia, wants to leave the Navy. This ungrateful attitude irks aircraft carrier’s Battle Group Commander, played by Gene Hackman. So, as sort of punishment, the admiral assigns Burnett and his pilot, Lt. Stackhouse, to the holiday mission – a routine reconnaissance flight near the demilitarized zone, where no one is supposed to be.
Of course, there are no “routine” missions in a movie, and it’s unsurprising when the two pick up what seems to be illegal activity in the DMZ. They stray off mission, and the next thing you know, there are birds in the air – sorry, Surface to Air Missiles chasing them.
This is an amazing sequence, quite possibly the best movie plane scene in a long time. Stackhouse’s handling of the F-18 Super Hornet is breathtaking as he tries to dodge two missiles. Of course, if he did get away it wouldn’t be much of a movie, so the Hornet gets cut in two, and Stackhouse and Burnett eject.
Watching Stackhouse struggling to reach down and pull his eject cord is very nice touch here. The cockpit is gone and the G forces are very strong, almost keeping him from getting out in time.
Stackhouse breaks his leg parachuting in and can’t move. Burnett goes on ahead, to try and radio for help. Of course, as Burnett is walking away, Serbian rebels roll up on Stackhouse and kill him. Burnett screams. Idiot. Every gun in the world opens up on him, and he has to run. Now he’s behind enemy lines and being hunted.
That’s the basis of the film. The rest is just details.
John Moore’s first film is decent, but nothing spectacular. If Moore would keep the camera steady for five minutes it may have been more enjoyable.
The best thing – the absolute best thing – about the whole movie is the sound. The sound effects in this film are quite real and convincing. Whoever did the sound did their homework. The Serbian rebels were armed with a variety of guns, have 40mm Anti Aircraft guns, Russian-made tanks, etc. Each has heir own distinct sound, and they come across in the soundtrack. There are a lot of weapons in this film, and their distinctive sounds come across clearly in the soundtrack. As do the sounds of a carrier at war – the steam catapults, the distinctive noise of a Huey UH-1N helicopter, and the whole ambience really does give one a sense of being there.
The action, as I said earlier, is non-stop, which is good, since they don’t have to worry about all that plot and character development getting in the way. The movie is short on plot, short on characters, short on believability too, but its got lots of whiz-bang explosions and some hair-raising, suspenseful scenes.
Behind Enemy Lines can best be described as Top Gun shot down, but with less potential to become a classic.
