Behind Enemy Lines Reviews

In the final stages of a NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia in December 1995, US Navy naval flight officer Lieutenant Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and pilot Lieutenant Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht), who are stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea, are assigned a reconnaissance mission over Bosnia. During the reconnaissance mission, they spot suspicious activity in the demilitarized zone, in which armed factions are not allowed to engage in military activity; NATO aircraft are also prohibited from entering the area. Burnett persuades Stackhouse to fly their F/A-18 Hornet off-course to get a close look at the target and photograph it. However, both men are unaware that they photographed mass graves, and Serbs in the area spot the jet. The local Bosnian Serb Army commander, General Miroslav Lokar (Olek Krupa), is conducting a secret genocidal campaign against the local Muslim population. Not wanting the mass graves to be discovered, Lokar orders the jet to be shot down.

Despite trying to outmaneuver the missiles shot at them, their aircraft is hit and both men are forced to eject. A short while after touching ground, a Serb patrol under Lokar's command finds Stackhouse and interrogates him. Stackhouse is then executed by Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov), a tracker and one of Lokar's right-hand men. Burnett, who was observing the Serbs' interrogation of his comrade from a hill, screams in horror, unintentionally alerting the Serbs to his location. Wanting Burnett dead as well, Lokar orders both Sasha and his second-in-command, Colonel Bazda (Marko Igonda), to find him.

Burnett contacts his commanding officer, Admiral Leslie Reigart (Gene Hackman), on high ground to inform him of what happened and is ordered to move to a certain location in order to be extracted. However, Admiral Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida) warns Reigart that the shooting down of Burnett's jet and any attempt to rescue the navigator in the no-fly zone could hamper or even cause the peace process to collapse. Therefore, as Burnett moves to the designated extraction point, Reigart tells him that he must move to a safer location miles away outside of the demilitarized zone in order to be rescued.

Immediately after being informed, Burnett sees a Serb patrol led by Bazda that is looking for him. Burnett runs off as the Serbs continue their search for the downed navigator. As Burnett keeps running, he falls into the very mass graves that he and Stackhouse had photographed and hides under a dead body. As the Serb patrol arrives at the graves, they inspect the area to find Burnett and then withdraw with no success. When the Serbs leave, Burnett continues to run. Reigart, who was watching the moment via thermal satellite imagery, decides to report Burnett's situation to the media.

On his way to the new extraction point, Burnett is nearly killed by Serb soldiers in an abandoned factory, but manages to flee the scene after the Serbs are killed by mines. Later on, as Burnett has a near-encounter with Sasha, he encounters Muslim guerrillas aboard a pickup truck who offer him a ride. The guerrillas inform Burnett that they are heading to Hač, which is located within a safe area, but turns out to be a war zone in which Burnett's Serb pursuers are fighting to take control of the town. During the battle, Serb troops believe that they have found Burnett's body, but Burnett has switched uniforms with a dead Serb soldier and escaped Hač with Babic (Kamil Kollarik).

The Serbians parade the corpse wearing Burnett's uniform, but Sasha immediately notices that it is not Burnett. Although convinced, Lokar has the corpse presented on the news and the media reports the Serb claims that Burnett was killed by Bosniak guerrillas, as Lokar fears that a rescue team tasked with rescuing Burnett may be on its way. Their ruse works and the rescue mission is called off just as Burnett gets a view of the helicopter. Burnett, disappointed, then notices an angel statue that he parachuted down nearby as this is where his ejection seat landed. Burnett, whose radio was destroyed in Hač, wants to return to the site in order to prove to his carrier group that he is still alive as well as to obtain the evidence of Lokar's crimes, which is located on a hard drive attached to the seat. Burnett orders Babic to leave, returns to his ejection seat and reactivates the rescue beacon. Even though the carrier group notices his signal, Burnett also alerts the Serbs to his location.

Although knowing that doing so could have him relieved of command, Reigart prepares a task force aimed at rescuing Burnett. But meanwhile, General Lokar sends both Bazda and Sasha alone to kill Burnett, with Lokar instructing the latter to shoot the downed navigator in the head. On route to Burnett's location, Bazda steps on a landmine, forcing Sasha to leave the helpless soldier to die. Burnett hears the explosion and is alerted.

Sasha takes a position and sees Burnett hiding behind the ejection seat. After hearing approaching American helicopters coming to rescue Burnett, he walks toward the ejection seat, but after getting there, Sasha realizes that he was tricked. Burnett jumps out of a snowdrift behind Sasha and the two men engage in a hand-to-hand fight until Burnett pulls out a flare and stabs Sasha in the chest with it, killing him. Immediately after Sasha is killed, Lokar arrives with armored personnel carriers and infantry who begin to fire upon Burnett as he runs to the nearby angel statue. UH-1 Huey helicopters of the United States Marine Corps led by Reigart finally arrive and fire on the Serbs. After running back to the ejection chair to retrieve the hard drive containing the photos of the mass graves, Burnett runs back to the helicopter and gets in. The task force successfully withdraws back to the aircraft carrier, where Burnett receives warm applause from the carrier's crew members on the flight deck after getting off the helicopter.

The conclusion of the movie reveals that the evidence of Lokar's war crimes put him on trial. Reigart is relieved from command for his actions and is offered a desk job in Washington, D.C., but chooses to retire with the respect of his sailors for the sacrifice he made to recover the downed pilot. Burnett, who earlier in the film wanted to resign from active duty, decides to remain in the Navy

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson, I thought I might as well check it out. In fact, it was really surprising to see Owen Wilson in an action flick (at the time, he was still trying some different genres but it wouldn’t last for long eventually), I thought it was not bad at all after all. Indeed, instead of his usual comedy, Owen Wilson tried out a good old action movie and even though it was rather tricky to take him seriously, I thought he actually pulled it off quite well, at least, that’s my opinion. On the other hand, Gene Hackman did pretty much the same thing he did in most of his movies, the grumpy leader, but he did it very well as usual (Such a shame the guy has retired, I seriously miss this great thespian). Anyway, a part from that, honestly, it is a rather standard action feature with one of those rather preposterous plot but I thought it was rather well done and fairly entertaining. To conclude, even though it is nothing amazing whatsoever, I think it was still a rather decent action flick and I think it is actually worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

favourite film with Owen Wilson - conviencing throughout. simpl eyet very effective plot 9/10

If you’ve seen BAT-21 (which I do recommend as an alternative), you may have very high hopes for this movie, which is on a similar theme and also staring Gene Hackman. Sadly however all hopes for a decent movie are quickly dashed as the completely fictional and highly predictable tale unfolds.

The story is about an American Navy Pilot who has become disillusioned with the United States Air Force/Navy, is later shot down in Serbian controlled territory, must struggle to survive as he tries to avoid hostile pursuers, get back to the fleet and have a complete change of heart. The movie is so predictable and so full of errors that it is almost laughable, but not quite.

The worst scene for me is when the hero stuck behind enemy lines makes it to the pick-up point and confirms such by radio, however the Admiral isn’t politically enabled to extract the pilot at that time, so all he can do is ask one of his subordinates to "triangulate [the pilots] position" – lol, why?! He’s at the pick-up point were you told him to be! You know this he just confirmed such! Why try to work out where that is or have you already forgotten?! There are many more instances when logic fails, I won't bore you with them all, watch this movie if that's your thing.

It is interesting to note that none of the actors playing Serbians were actually Serbians; the producers could not find any Serbians willing to work on this film. I wonder was this due to the really polarised anti-Serbian message of this movie? Or did they simply spot a bad script from a mile off and not want to be part of it?!

This really is just made for an American audience; you are not required to think, just be proud to be an American and enjoy the explosions. For all viewers that like this type of drivel, you'll be pleased to know that this film was followed by two direct to DVD sequels; Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil, and Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia.

This was your classic "Soldier alone 'Behind enemy lines'" It has a great story line and a good amount of action as well. With political and physical confritation, this movie is a must see for anyone who likes movies of this genre.