In
the midst of the Bosnian War, American naval aircraft in the
Adriatic Sea were assigned by NATO command to conduct aerial
surveillance of the combat while negotiations to end the conflict
were in progress. On one such mission in 1995, a reconnaissance
airplane was shot down, and the survivor of the crash, Lt.
Scott O’Grady, subsisted on leaves for several days before
being rescued. Behind Enemy Lines, directed
by John Moore, very loosely attempts to recreate the drama
of the incident in order to portray a sample of the horrors
of the Bosnian War, with a tagline "In war there are
some lines you should never cross." Sent on Christmas
Day to photograph Bosnian Serbian movements, the F/A-18 Superhornet
flown by Chris Burnett (played by Owen Wilson) and Stackhouse
(played by Gabriel Macht) is shot down. Stackhouse is so injured
that he is unable to move after landing by parachute, while
Burnett radios his home base, the USS Carl Vinson,
after reaching the ground to notify the ship’s commander,
Admiral Reigart (played by Gene Hackman), of the status of
the mission and the fact that Stackhouse has been executed
by Serbian Bosnian forces. Reigart then makes arrangements
to rescue Burnett, only to have his order countermanded by
Admiral Piquet (played by Joaquim de Almeida), the French
commander of NATO naval forces, who fears that the peace process
will be aborted when Serbian Bosnian authorities realize that
the United States has taken sides, with a possible loss of
thousands of lives. Reigart must then inform Burnett that
his orders are to make his way to a UN-declared safe haven
at the city of Hach. Burnett then sets on the path, as ordered.
However, the local Serbian Bosnian commander, Lokar (played
by Olek Krupa), is secretly marching his troops to capture
Hach; he orders two subordinates to hunt down the remaining
American, whom he sees in the distance after Stackhouse is
shot. Thereafter, Burnett encounters fierce weather and a
mass grave of civilians before he bums a ride on a truck of
a Croatian family bound for Hach. When the truck arrives,
Serbian Bosnian forces are already there, fighting to seize
the city before the peace agreement. Donning the uniform of
a slain Serbian Bosnian soldier, Burnett escapes from the
town, notifies home base of the latest developments, and Admiral
Reigart assures him that he will be rescued. However, Serbian
Bosnian propaganda claims that Burnett has been killed by
renegade troops, and the rescue mission is called off for
the second time. Burnett then returns to the site of the reconnaissance
airplane, where he activates a transponder. When Admiral Reigart
learns that the signal is being transmitted, he realizes that
Burnett is still alive, so he decides to personally command
an armed rescue mission, knowing that he is disobeying orders
from above. When three armed helicopters arrive at the crash
site to rescue Burnett, Serbian Bosnian forces are at the
scene, so a shootout occurs in which American bullets hit
targets but Bosnian artillery misses almost every target.
Burnett is picked up, but only after he goes back to the crash
site to pick up the magazine containing the photographic evidence.
Titles at the end indicate that Admiral Reigart, to be reassigned
to a desk job in Washington, decided instead to retire, whereas
the photographic evidence was used to indict Serbian commander
Lokar for war crimes. Clearly, Behind Enemy Lines
dramatizes one of the most puzzling wars of the twentieth
century by showing the depraved and cynical attitudes of Bosnian
Serb troops. (The actual filming was in Slovakia.) Released
three months ahead of schedule, the film may serve to discourage
George W. Bush from withdrawing American troops as peacekeepers
in Bosnia, since an end to peacekeeping may be a beginning
to further barbarity. The Political Film Society, accordingly,
has nominated Behind Enemy Lines for an award
as best film exposé of 2001. MH
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