Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

John Moore

Writers (WGA):

Jim Thomas (story) &
John Thomas (story) ...

Release Date:

30 November 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Action | War | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

In War There Are Some Lines You Should Never Cross.

Plot:

A Navy navigator is shot down over enemy territory and is ruthlessly pursued by a secret police enforcer and the opposing troops. Meanwhile his commanding officer goes against orders in an attempt to rescue him.

Plot Keywords:

Rescue | Navigator | Navy | Christmas | Honor

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Owen Wilson	...	Lt. Chris Burnett
Gene Hackman	...	Admiral Leslie McMahon Reigart
Gabriel Macht	...	Stackhouse
Charles Malik Whitfield	...	Capt. Rodway, USMC
David Keith	...	Master Chief Tom O'Malley
Olek Krupa	...	Miroslav Lokar
Joaquim de Almeida	...	Admiral Piquet (as Joaquim De Almeida)
Vladimir Mashkov	...	Sasha
Marko Igonda	...	Bazda
Eyal Podell	...	Petty Officer Kennedy
Geoffrey Pierson	...	Admiral Donnelly (as Geoff Pierson)
Aernout Van Lynden	...	Aernout Van Lynden
Sam Jaeger	...	Red Crown Operator #1
Shane Johnson	...	Red Crown Operator #2 (as Shane Mikael Johnson)
Don Winston	...	Red Crown Operator #3

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for war violence and some language.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Serbo-Croatian | Spanish | Czech

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:MA (DVD rating) | UK:12 | South Korea:12 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Denmark:15 | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Australia:M (original rating) | Ireland:12 | Ireland:15 (DVD/VHS release) | UK:15 (DVD/VHS release) | Argentina:13 | Brazil:12 | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Hungary:14 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:R13 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #38516) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Koliba Studios, Bratislava, Slovakia

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

In the football scene, the filmmakers actually tried to have the catapult shuttle kick the football off. Unfortunately, the shuttle completely obliterated the ball, forcing a Navy Master Chief to just chuck the ball in the air for the desired shot.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the scene when Burnett fell in the mass grave, after Serbian soldiers retreat, he has memory flashes about the killing of civilians. There is a Croatian badge on one of the soldiers. However, it is obvious in the movie that the Serbian army killed those civilians, so there can't be a Croatian badge on their uniform.

Quotes:

Chris Burnett: You're an optimist, sir. See I had you figured for a grouch.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia (2009) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Rescue Blues

A superb and touching action film...

These are my first comments here on Imdb, although I've rated dozens of films. I usually don't do this, since I think there are much more competent people out there than myself. This is a rare exception, since this particular film depicts events which recently took place in my country and some neighboring ones. Furthermore, the majority of the cast is from several Slavic countries, mine included (Croatia).

All in all I liked the film very much. I gave it 8/10. The action sequences and visual effects are superb. The American cast is average, but good. However, it's the other cast that really excels. The 2 factions in the war-torn Bosnia are depicted superbly. Especially the "bad guys". To be able to appreciate this to the full extent, unfortunately, you'd have to live here for some time and get to know the mentality of the Balkan peoples. I've seen the DVD edition, which is excellent in itself and remember a director's commentary on their choice of cast. He said that they chose Slavic actors because they would never get the same character expression with American ones. That is perfectly true. Not because ones are better in acting than the others, but it's the question of the underlining mentality. It's very difficult for people brought up in countries which have known democratic societies for many generations to imagine how it is to be surrounded by such atrocities in a relatively small geographic area and all happening at the turn of the millennium. The mixture is very strange and produces some bizarre situations, saturated with dark humor. Like the scene where the American pilot asks Bosnian teenagers for some water, and they give him Coke instead. Or where children routinely cross over anti-personnel mines. Similar situations really did occur many times in such a surrounding.

My point is that the film does get superficial and even shallow sometimes, but in all the director and the crew did a terrific job seen from the point of view I'd just explained. Even the character lines (in perfect local dialect) are so real that my wife and I forgot it's an American film when we watched it... Indeed a rare combination of great action sequences and touching scenes in a local warfare.