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BEHIND
ENEMY LINES
5/10
USA
2001
director
: John Moore
script : David Veloz, Zak Penn
cinematography : Brendan Galvin
editing : Paul Martin Smith
music : Don Davis
lead actors : Owen Wilson, Gene Hackman
with : Vladimir Mashkov, Olek Krupa, Gabriel Macht, Joaquim de Almeida,
David Keith
106 minutes
Cheerfully
knuckleheaded flagwaver, an unlikely vehicle for Wilson who curbs his
usual irreverence as navy pilot Burnett, shot down over hostile territory
in the dog days of the Balkan conflict. Political considerations prevent
his c.o. Admiral Riegert (Hackman) sending out a rescue mission, so our
hero must make his own way to the nearest safe haven. Barring his way:
inhospitable terrain and a Serb militia headed by warlord Lokar (Krupa),
who sends a relentless, nameless ‘tracker’ (Mashkov) in search of his
Yankee prey…
Behind
Enemy Lines starts off strong – the shooting down of the US jet is
a thunderous masterclass in high-adrenaline film editing – but, like Burnett,
soon comes down to earth with a bang. Director Moore gets increasingly
carried away with fancy visual effects – the more he tries to show off,
the more derivative, gimmicky and cliched the results. The script is equally
devoid of fresh ideas, narrowing to the point where Burnett finally squares
off against the cartoon-villainous tracker on a precarious frozen lake.
Surprisingly, the ice doesn’t crack – rare restraint in a movie that
otherwise takes every chance to revel in shameless corn. And while some
of the set-pieces are poundingly effective – Burnett has to sprint through
a deserted, booby-trapped factory yard that turns into a chaotic corridor
of crossfire – they can’t compensate for the film’s distractingly lame-brained
politics.
The
Balkan conflict was, of course, a famously confusing affair in which the
‘good guys’ one moment suddenly became ‘our’ worst enemies the next. But
just because a political situation isn’t starkly black and white, that’s
no excuse for the fuzziness displayed here (in a typical bad-script giveaway,
Veloz and Penn rely heavily on subtitles to tell us who’s who, where’s
where and what’s what). Hackman fumes and rants, hands tied by European
colleagues who, of course, have no idea how to run a war. Though NATO
top-brass Piquet (de Almeida) briefly (but persuasively) exposes the weakness
of Riegert’s America-first mindset, the film pays such views only the
minimum of lip-service: when push come to shove, the Americans opt for
their preferred lone-wolf tactics. There isn’t even time, we’re blithely
told in an aside, to even inform NATO of their actions: “You say
the word, and we’ll saddle up,” barks a Marine. And what is Riegert’s
first instruction from the rescue chopper cockpit? “We’re gonna make a
hard right!”
Meanwhile,
Burnett just-so-happens to meet a bunch of friendly locals who just can’t
get enough of US culture: Coke-swilling, teenage fans of Ice Cube; an
older bloke dressed like an Elvis impersonator, blasting The King out
of his truck’s stereo. The film’s soundtrack also plays its part, moody
instrumentals alternating with a faux-Balkan choir (from the ‘Hollywood
Film Chorale’) and standard militaristic bombast until Burnett reaches
safety, and the reassuringly down-home strains of Ryan Adams’ ‘Rescue
Blues’ blast out over the end titles… These aren’t exactly subtle touches
– and nor is the repeated, in-your-face product placement for Sky News:
exactly what you’d expect from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Studio. It’s these
dodgy ideological touches that makes it impossible to dismiss the movie
as popcorn-oriented nonsense – especially since its release (like that
of Black Hawk Down) was brought forward to cash in on Afghanistan
events. It’s depressingly easy to imagine the US military arranging a
special showing at Kabul’s Bhagram air base: if so, let’s hope somebody
had the guts to smuggle in Three
Kings as well.
17th
January, 2002
(seen
Jan-9-02, UGC Boldon, Sunderland)
by Neil
Young
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