8
Thursday, December 6, 2001
Yet Another War Movie Fails to Rescue Itself
By Graham Parker
Staff Writer
“Behind Enemy Lines" is an excel
lent 30-minute movie.
Pity that it’s surrounded by 75 min
utes of crap.
As the tide suggests, “Behind Enemy
Lines” sees disillu
sioned Navy navi
gator Lt Chris
Burnett shot down
over Bosnia.
Gene Hackman
plays Adm.
rewew/
“Behind Enemy
Lines"
Reigart, Burnett’s crusty superior who is
faced with the usual Hollywood prob
lem of obeying stupid orders or risking
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THE HOLIDAY SEASON CAN'T BE BOUGHT. SOLD OR STOLEN
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NO. AT THE END OF THE DAY. THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS
ABOUT SHARING. SHARING YOUR TIME. SHARING YOUR
KINDNESS. SHARING YOUR FRIENDSHIP
AND SHARING YOUR HEART.
THAT'S ALL I WANTED TO SAY.
NO SALES PITCH THIS TIME. THERE ARE PLENTY OF
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all to save his pilot.
Burnett (played by Owen Wilson,
who is not Tom Cruise) leads Serbian
forces on a merry chase through some
jaw-dropping Slavic terrain, dodging
booby traps, batdes and a deadly
Bosnian sniper in his race to escape exe
cution.
The sequences of Burnett sneaking
around the war-ravaged Bosnian land
scape offer some of the movie’s finest
points and vividly portray the suffering
of civilians in war zones.
If the writers had focused more on
the plight of Bosnia or Burnett’s trek to
safety, it would have been a fantastic
film in the vein of “The Killing Fields”
or “Bat 21.”
DIVERSIONS
Sadly, “Behind Enemy Lines” fails to
focus on one topic, instead becoming a
muddled, confused pseudo-epic.
Is it a war movie, genocide awareness
film or Navy recruitment commercial?
The answer lies nebulously -and
frustratingly - somewhere in the mid
dle.
Wilson almost succeeds at creating a
believable character out of Burnett. But
the pilot-on-the-run story has been
done, and Wilson adds nothing new to
the genre.
His radio conversations with
Hackman vary from almost believable
(an angry Wilson demanding to be
picked up) to simply stupid (a calm
Wilson cracking bad jokes over the air
waves, with his would-be rescuers smil
ing dutifully on cue).
. And excepting a few surprises, the
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whole movie is nauseatingly pre
dictable: The rescue is called off,
Hackman has to risk his career to pull
his man out, and so on.
Even the camera work is repetitive
and annoying.
The hand-held perspective is used far
too much to be anything more than tire
some.
And the editors seem obsessed with
the “pause” button, constandy stopping
the action at pivotal moments.
“Behind Enemy Lines” fails to live up
to the potential generated by a few well
done scenes, and the repetitiveness of
the plot makes the audience wonder if
the projectionist has the film in reverse
by mistake.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.
Local Director Reinterprets
Casting of'Romeo & Juliet'
By Russ Lane
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Director HeidiJacot likes to take over
looked Shakespeare works and polish
them until they shine or dust off old
favorites and put them into anew context
Last March, she directed Company
Carolina’s rendering of “Pericles;”
Jacot’s latest project is a mostly male
casting of “Romeo and Juliet,” which
opens Friday at the Arts Center.
“I have to feel like I’m doing some
thing new,” she said. “I’ve no desire to
do ‘As You Like It,’ because I’ve seen it
before done well.”
While Shakespeare was living, all
male casts wasn’t anything new.
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But Jacot’s re-envisioning is a bit
more radical: the play’s protagonists are
both male; Friar Lawrence is less of a
“Friar Tuck” archtype and was recon
ceptualized as a repressed homosexual;
Mercutio is cast as a woman; the Nurse
is a mustached man in drag; a gun in the
mouth replaces a knife in the chest as
Juliet’s method of suicide.
Jacot said that after she decidedjuliet
would be a man, her creative flood gates
opened. She pushed her experimenta
tion with gender roles further and fur
ther; between Juliet being a man, the
Nurse in drag and Lady Capulet, all pos
sible versions of femininity are present.
While Jacot plays with gender roles,
she is wary of presenting the play as a
social commentary. “I never wanted to
make this a political statement,” Jacot
said. “What (the play) has come to be
about is wanting to be loved.”
Consequently, Jacot deleted the fam
ily feud subplot, and refocused the play
on Juliet’s relationship with her family.
“Asa director you want to say ‘this
relates to you.’ Even if it’s not a socio-polit
ical statement, the emotions can transfer.”
The emotions are key tojacot; overt
shock value, however, is not. Anyone
expecting this new rendering of the play
to consist of explicit gay trysts will be
disappointed, as the characters only kiss
twice, as was dictated by the script
Jacot said she doesn’t intend to shock
as much as to jolt the audience and
make them see Shakespeare in a differ
ent light - make them realize that this
play isn’t about glorifying love but
revealing its danger.
Jill Burke, an actress who’s per
formed in Chicago as well as Chapel
Hill, said that’s what attracted her to
playing her double-billing as Mercutio
and Lady Capulet. “(General audiences)
don’t like to listen to Shakespeare any
more,” Burke said. “I wanted to get peo
ple to pay attention and really listen to
Shakespeare."
Jacot said she realizes her reinterpre
tation is a risk, but similar to her
description of the play, the risks are
essential. “So that’s the choice: knowing
that you’re screwed, do you live a life of
authenticity or do you hide?”
“Romeo and Juliet” will be per
formed at the Arts Center at 8 p.m. Dec.
7-8 and 14-15 and at the Cary Page-
Walker at 8 p.m. Dec. 21-22.
The Arts & Entertainment Editor can
...... 5 e reac h e d a f artsdesk@unc.edu.
dive
recommends
■ “Sullivan’s TYavels” DVD
Screwball-comedy director Preston
Stages tells the story of fictional
Hollywood director John L. Sullivan
(Joel McCrea). Unhappy with his
lighthearted smash hits, Sullivan plans
to make a tragedy about the plight of
the homeless, called “O Brother,
Where Art Thou?” To find an authen
tic angle, he dresses as a bum and sets
out for the heartland with a dime in
his pocket.
Stages’ film is a perfect mix of
comedy and poignancy. Three of the
best recent comedies overtly acknowl
edge their debt to “Sullivan” - “Dr. T
and the Women,” “State and Main,”
and especially the Coens’ “O Brother,
Where Art Thou?”
The Criterion Collection’s new
DVD sports a crisp picture and plen
ty of supplements. The commentary
track, featuring Stages admirers
Michael McKean and Christopher
Guest (“Best in Show”), isn’t as funny
or as informative as it might be, but
the disc’s many documentaries and
interviews more than make up for it.
■ “X-Force: New Beginnings”
In 1996, Marvel Comics was both
financially and creatively bankrupt.
Now the company is back on track,
revamping title after title, bringing on
writers and artists who made their
names outside of mainstream comics.
Writers like Grant Morrison (“The
Invisibles”) and Bob Gale (screen
writer of “Back to the Future”) have
reinvigorated the company’s comics.
The cream of the cream is writer
Peter Milligan and “Madman” pop
artist Mike Allred’s “X-Force.” It’s like
“Making the Band” for superheroes.
The idea is that a wealthy entrepre
neur owns this glamorous group of
mutant teen heroes, the way Jerry
Jones owns the Dallas Cowboys.
Except the Cowboys don’t kill -and
get killed - quite so much. The new
“X-Force” isn’t concerned with the
morality of their often-lethal actions.
They just want to sell official mer
chandise.
Jeremy Hurtz can be reached at
jhurtz@email. unc. edu.