The Flipcritic

All of a sudden, war pictures are all the rage now in Hollywood, and it's not just because of the recent September 11 attacks. In the last year alone, we have seen ENEMY AT THE GATES, PEARL HARBOR, and THIRTEEN DAYS (why PEARL HARBOR has done the best among all of them in revenue, I'll never know). HBO's BAND OF BROTHERS widely considered as probably the best mini-series ever made (and probably the best World War II picture ever). Many critics believe that this year's BLACK HAWK DOWN will be an Oscar contender for best film because of its unflinching look at the 1993 conflict in Somalia. We can tribute this trend mainly to Steven Spielberg's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN which pushed the limits of showing how gory a war can be, and unwittingly made entertaining a subject that is, in reality, far from it.

Don't get me wrong though. I'm not against war movies as entertainment. If they're done tactfully without trivializing their subject matter, they can be quite engrossing and may serve as insights into human nature (PATTON), studies into military strategies (BLACK HAWK DOWN), morale boosters (CASABLANCA), anti-war sentiment (PLATOON), dire reminders of past mistakes (SCHINDLER'S LIST), or simply as good action-adventure films (THE GUNS OF NAVARONE).

With this in mind, calling BEHIND ENEMY LINES a war movie about the Serbian-Bosnian-Croat conflict is like calling RAMBO a war movie about Vietnam. It feels like a collage of MTV Music Videos put together with a plot resembling chases between Wiley E. Coyote and the Roadrunner (and just as serious). If you thought SPY GAME was kinetic, this one is frenetic. I don't consider it to be insulting to Bosnians, Serbians, or Croats, because from the very beginning, the film doesn't take itself seriously, and neither should we. It's too bad that more effort was not put into making a more believable story for this project. The production values are remarkable, the special effects top notch, and even the cinematography was impressive. But like the hero's F/18 jet, everything blows up, crashes and burns into smoldering slag by the end.

The film is set in the mid-1990s and involves a F/18 Hornet navigator Lt. Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson of SHANGHAI NOON), who is assigned to fly over near a southern Balkan region near Bosnia for a reconnaissance mission with his fellow pilot Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht). They stray from their designated flight route and eject from their fighter jet after getting shot down by Serbs who appear to be disguising mass graves, which the jet may have picked up. As Burnett tries to find higher ground to radio for help, he witnesses Stackhouse's execution at the hands of the Serbs. Thus he is left all alone fleeing for his life across Bosnia and radioing for contact with his commander Adm. Reigart (Gene Hackman of UNFORGIVEN) who is just itching to pick him up. Trouble is, Reigart cannot get to rescue his man Burnett due to the politicking of his superior Adm. Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida of CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER).

I must say that after finishing the movie, I was laughing in disbelief. The movie doesn't have loopholes, it has chasms of logic. I know that Americans nowadays must be rushing towards patriotic displays in films, but even they would be appalled at the stupidity of some of this movie's scenes. It starts in exhilarating fashion in jet sequences as the pilot tries to evade heat-seeking missiles (these are some of the best air-to-air chases since TOP GUN). But this is its lone high point, after which we become witnesses to Burnett's very unlikely escapes.

I was willing to believe that he could escape initial attacks on him. How he could hide beneath bodies not to be found. How he could be lucky to survive tank shelling, sniper fire, and dozens of exploding mines (the last one being extremely hard to swallow). But when I arrived at the climax, where he was running sooooo conspicuously across an icy surface to escape tanks and a platoon of soldiers with automatic weapons... then forgetting an important item hence running back toward gunfire and successfully obtaining that item... then running away (again) leaping from a ledge, grasping the hand of a man dangling from a helicopter (in mid-air I might add)... well... you get the picture. He even stops to shake his head slowly from side-to-side to let his rescuers know what he was thinking before running back. This guy sure is something. I can imagine Bugs Bunny covering his eyes in disbelief.

Some of you may think that if Sylvester Stallone could successfully play such a character, why not Owen Wilson? Simple, Rambo is supposed to be an unstoppable human killing machine with a vendetta, Burnett is just trying to save his skin. We want to see Rambo kill the bad guys because he is trained to do so. We want to see his skill, his prowess in doing something we would never be able to do. What's Burnett capable of doing? Reading maps? Making cocky remarks on a two-way radio to his superiors? Seeming like a surfer-type-dude lost in a war zone? Being a surfer-type-dude in the old west in SHANGHAI NOON is one thing. That film was a comedy. This one becomes a comedy when it's trying to be an action film (or maybe I think it is). At least that's what it advertises itself to be. Where the hell did this Lt. Burnett go to become a Naval Officer? At the BAYWATCH School for pilots? Mr. Wilson is not the problem, his character is.

Gene Hackman is one of the America's greatest actors, capable of displaying gentility to bursts of rage. But in here you can see he doesn't care to act. He must've done this for the extra cash. There's not one ounce of authenticity in his character. He's method acting here, but with the movie's script, who could blame him? His is a thankless task. Could you imagine an Admiral giving up command of his aircraft carrier and career to leave in a helicopter to rescue one man, when others are more capable of doing so? Why not ask President Clinton to lead the Navy Seals for an extraction? I'm just so glad they didn't have him flying a jet to rescue Burnett otherwise I would've thrown up. And how could his superior Adm. Piquet be so obstructive? No NATO Naval Commander could possibly so insensitive and so racist towards Americans.

And the Serbian soldiers? Either they're the most inept and incompetent soldiers on the face of the Earth, or they must've had the biggest military cache of blanks planted in their weaponry. They only had to kill one man... ONE MAN!!! Not since G.I. Joe's "Cobra" have I seen such a hapless military force.

Other than the unbelievable story, there's a lot of pointless flashy film gimmicks reminiscent of other boy-toy movies like SPY GAME and GONE IN SIXTY SECONDS. In one scene, Burnett and his companion are running through the forest and then yells "Stop!" We then get a 360 degree shot around the pair, and when it ends, he whispers "Let's go!" What the hell was the director thinking? It's such a pretentious moment, and there's a lot more where that came from.

You think that these military folk would know better than to shout out loud when trying to be undetected or not to mention personal names on secret frequencies. But BEHIND ENEMY LINES shouldn't be considered a serious military film. It's one huge unintentional joke with a lot of panache and very little reasoning. Like SPY GAME and PEARL HARBOR, it trivializes the context of its story for much more shallow pleasure. I wish it would've done so with more care, more purpose, or with a different subject, but it never has any intention to. At least it made me laugh.

Posted by FLIPCRITIC at January 20, 2002 12:00 AM