Categories: aircraft carrier movies helicopter movies infantry movies reconnaissance movies sniper movies urban warfare movies
Behind Enemy LinesDirector: John Moore
Laguages: English / Serbo-Croatian
When F/A-18 Hornet is shot down over Bosnia the American airman has to fight his way through enemy territory so he could be rescued.
On board of American aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea, that soon will end the mission over former Yugoslavia, Lieutenant Chris Burnett feels that he is wasted in the navy since their role in the Yugoslav wars is just patrolling the area and not actually fighting. Admiral Reigart don’t share his views and puts up Burnett and his pilot for reconnaissance mission on Christmas Day. They took off in the F/A-18 Hornet and flew into the demilitarized zone where NATO aircraft and the warring factions are prohibited from engaging in any sort of military activity. During that flight they detected the armored vehicles in the nearby area, but outside the zone. Burnett managed to convince his pilot to make photos of the forces, even though it would mean breaking the orders. They photographed the Serbian forces as they were hiding the evidence of their secret genocidal campaign against the Bosnian population. But the moment they crossed the area Serb-operated AA missiles were fired at them and their F/A-18 Hornet was shot down.
Burnett and his pilot Stackhouse managed to bail out and land in the secluded area, but soon after Burnett set out to contact the headquarters Stackhouse is surrounded by the Serbian forces and later killed. Since that point Burnett has to survive on his own chased by the Serbians and a vicious, although not very talented, sniper.
American war movie loosely (in fact very loosely) based on the real events that took place in 1995 when F-16 was shot down over former Yugoslavia and the pilot had to survive 6 days in unfriendly area before being rescued. The big difference is that in reality the shot down pilot did what he was suppose to do - avoided any contact with the locals and kept his profile low as long as he could. In this movie the pilot (or rather navigator) suddenly becomes action hero and fights his way back to area where he can be picked up. Behind Enemy Lines is quite good adventure flick, but as war movie it is far from being perfect. In fact it is far from being decent war movie when you realize from how many impossible situations he got out without a scratch. Well not exactly without a scratch actually, he was slightly injured in the arm (where else). Also the creators simple could not help themselves again creating the world in which Americans are decent and brave people and rest of the world is full of morons - see how many incompetent people were chasing him (not to mention the pathetic sniper).
Our rating
4.8
Film value
4 / 10
Realism factor
2 / 5
Adventure factor
4 / 5
Historical accuracy
2 / 5
