Behind Enemy Lines (2001 film)

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This article is about the 2001 war film. For the film series it initiated, see Behind Enemy Lines (film series).

Behind Enemy Lines
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Moore
Screenplay by
Story by
Produced byJohn Davis
Starring
CinematographyBrendan Galvin
Edited byPaul Martin Smith
Music by
20th Century Fox
Release date
  • November 30, 2001 (2001-11-30)
Running time
106 minutes
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English
  • Serbian
Budget$40 million[1]
Box office$91.7 million[1]

Behind Enemy Lines is a 2001 American

Mrkonjić Grad incident that occurred during the war.[2]

Released on November 30, 2001, Behind Enemy Lines received generally negative reviews from critics. However, it was a considerable box office success, taking in nearly $92 million worldwide against a $40 million budget.

The film started a franchise of direct-to-video spiritual successors:

Plot

During the

Bosniak
population, and orders the jet be shot down.

Attempting to outmaneuver Lokar's

surface-to-air missiles, Burnett and Stackhouse's jet is hit, forcing them to eject. Lokar and his men find the injured Stackhouse, who is executed by Sasha Ivanic, one of Lokar's right-hand men. Watching nearby, Burnett flees into the wilderness, and Lokar orders his deputy, Colonel Bazda, and Sasha to hunt him down. Burnett radios for help and receives an extraction point from Reigart, who is forced to stand down after Admiral Piquet, the commander of NATO naval forces
in the region, warns him that rescuing Burnett in the demilitarized zone risks derailing the peace process. Burnett reaches the extraction point only to be informed that he must continue to another location, miles outside the demilitarized zone, in order to be rescued.

Spotting Bazda's patrol, Burnett falls into a mass grave, and hides under a corpse until the Serbs move on. To ensure Burnett's rescue, Reigart leaks news of the downed jet to Sky News, angering Piquet. Lokar realizes that the American jet's optical disc with the incriminating photographs may still be in the wreckage. Heading to the new extraction point, Burnett escapes Serb soldiers through a minefield. Pursued by Sasha, he encounters Bosniak guerrillas who offer him a ride to the town of Hač, which turns out to be a war zone. After the battle, Serb troops believe they have found Burnett's body, but Sasha realizes Burnett switched uniforms with a dead Serb guerrilla and escaped. The Serbs present the corpse wearing Burnett's uniform to the media, convincing NATO forces that Burnett has been killed, and the mission to rescue him is aborted just as he reaches the extraction point.

Realizing why the Serbs shot him down, Burnett remembers a statue of an angel near where his ejection seat landed, and returns to find it. He reactivates the seat's rescue beacon, notifying his carrier group that he is still alive, but also alerting the Serbs to his location. Knowing he risks being relieved of command, Reigart prepares a Marine Force Recon task force to rescue Burnett, in defiance of Piquet's orders. On the way to kill Burnett and recover his body, Bazda steps on a landmine; Sasha abandons him to his fate, and the explosion alerts Burnett that someone is approaching. Sasha finds the ejection seat, but is ambushed by Burnett, who, despite taking a shot in the arm, fatally stabs him with the spike of a railroad flare. Lokar arrives with armored vehicles and infantry, but is held off by Reigart's task force. Retrieving the optical disc, Burnett is successfully rescued, much to the dismay of Lokar as his crime is now being exposed.

The photographs of the mass grave lead to Lokar's arrest and conviction for war crimes including genocide. Reigart's actions result in him being relieved of command and retiring from service, and Burnett continues his career in the Navy.

Cast

  • Owen Wilson as Naval Flight Officer Lieutenant Chris "Longhorn" Burnett, the navigator who finds himself surrounded in a Warzone
  • Gene Hackman as Rear Admiral Leslie McMahon Reigart, Commander of the Adriatic Battle Unit
  • Gabriel Macht as Naval Aviator Lieutenant Jeremy "Smoke" Stackhouse, Burnett's pilot
  • Charles Malik Whitfield as Marine Captain Glen Rodway, a Marine Force Recon squad leader aboard the Carl Vinson
  • David Keith as Master Chief Tom O'Malley, Reigart's advisor
  • Olek Krupa as Serb General Miroslav Lokar, a ruthless Serbian General who was behind a genocidal attack on the Bosniaks
  • Joaquim de Almeida as Admiral Juan Miguel Piquet, commander of the NATO naval forces
  • Vladimir Mashkov as Sasha Ivanic, Lokar's personal enforcer and sniper
  • Marko Igonda as Serb Colonel Viktor Bazda, Lokar's second-in-command
  • Eyal Podell as Petty Officer Kennedy
  • Laurence Mason as Captain Glen Brandon
  • Leon Russom as Ed Burnett, Chris's father
  • Geoff Pierson as Admiral Donnelly
  • Vladimir Oktasec as Petrovic, the Serbian President
  • Salaetin Bilal as Ejup, Leader of the Bosniak Guerrillas in Hač
  • Kamil Kollárik as Babić, a Bosniak guerrilla whom helps Chris reach Hač
  • Aernout van Lynden as himself
  • Kyle Chandler as Young Naval Intelligence Officer

Production

The film was shot at the Koliba Studios in Bratislava, Slovakia and on location in the Slovakian village of Háj (in the village of Háj there is also a prop of an angel from the film).[3]

USS Carl Vinson was the aircraft carrier featured in the film. Exterior naval footage was filmed on board the carrier. Interiors were filmed on USS Constellation, and on a film set.[4] The release date was originally January 18, 2002, but this was moved to November 30, 2001.[5]

Historical inspiration

See also: Scott O'Grady § In popular culture

The film bears some resemblance to the experiences of former

F-16 Fighting Falcon.[2][6] The case was settled out of court.[7]

Reception

Box office

The film made $18.7 million in its opening week in the U.S., landing at the #2 spot and was held off the top spot by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.[8] Behind Enemy Lines eventually grossed $92 million worldwide, of which $59 million was from North America. The budget was estimated to be $40 million.[1]

Critical response

Behind Enemy Lines received generally negative reviews from critics.

weighted average of 4.8/10 and the site's consensus stating "The plot for Behind Enemy Lines is more jingoistic than credible, and the overload of flashy visual tricks makes the action sequences resemble a video game."[9] Metacritic has assigned the film an average score of 49 out of 100 based on 29 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.[11]

Roger Ebert gave the film 1½ stars out of four, likening it to a comedy: "Its hero is so reckless and its villains so incompetent that it's a showdown between a man begging to be shot, and an enemy that can't hit the side of a Bosnian barn."[12]

Sequels

Behind Enemy Lines was followed by three direct-to-video Spiritual successors. Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil was released in 2006, Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia was released in 2009 (this film was co-produced by WWE Studios) and SEAL Team 8: Behind Enemy Lines was released in 2014.

2017 television pilot

The Fox network ordered a pilot episode of a series loosely based on the film in February 2017 for consideration as part of the network's 2017–18 television season. It was ultimately canceled.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Behind Enemy Lines". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  2. ^ a b Susman, Gary (August 20, 2002). "Plane Truth: Downed airman sues over "Behind Enemy Lines"". Entertainment Weekly. New York City. Archived from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
  3. ^ "Anjel v obci Háj (rekvizita z filmu Za nepriateľskou líniou) 31 March 2016 Slovak language". Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  4. ^ Sutherland, Scott (November 27, 2001). ""Behind Enemy Lines" Showcases NAS North Island". FindArticles.com. US Navy Press Releases. Archived from the original on October 5, 2009. Retrieved August 22, 2009.
  5. ^ "Fox to Release "Behind Enemy Lines" Nov. 30". Business Wire. Omaha, Nebraska: Berkshire Hathaway. November 2, 2001. Archived from the original on November 18, 2001. Retrieved June 26, 2019 – via Yahoo.com.
  6. ^ "Pilot sues over Bosnian escape film". BBC News. London, England: BBC. August 20, 2002. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
  7. E! Online. New York City: E!
    . Retrieved February 16, 2019.
  8. Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  9. ^ "Behind Enemy Lines (2001)". Rotten Tomatoes. San Francisco, California: Fandango Media. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  10. ^ "Behind Enemy Lines". Metacritic. San Francisco, California: Fandango Media. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  11. ^ "BEHIND ENEMY LINES (2001) B+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  12. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 30, 2001). "Behind Enemy Lines Movie Review (2001)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved November 20, 2013.
  13. ^ Petski, Denise (February 13, 2017). "'Behind Enemy Lines': B.J. Britt Cast As A Lead In Fox Drama Pilot".

External links

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