The Movies’ Military Strike

Just six weeks ago, as the events of Sept. 11 shook America, Hollywood rushed to postpone any terror-related films that might offend public sensibilities, abruptly pulling a number of completed pictures such as the Arnold Schwarzenegger action thriller “Collateral Damage,” and the comedies “Big Trouble” and “Bad Company.” The World War II drama “Windtalkers” was also pushed back from November to next year because of fears that Americans wouldn’t want to see war movies any time soon.

But those concerns appear to be receding. Last week, “Black Hawk Down,” directed by Oscar-nominated Ridley Scott and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and another high-profile war film, “Behind Enemy Lines,” about a rescue mission to save a downed U.S. pilot in Bosnia, pushed up their release dates from next spring to this holiday season

In part, the studios and filmmakers seek to capitalize on the traditional Oscar-Christmas season rush, but they also hope to tap into the public’s new appetite for patriotic fare.

And “Black Hawk Down” and “Behind Enemy Lines” are only the first in a veritable boom of military movies in the next year. The films include “We Were Soldiers” (starring Mel Gibson), about the battle of Ia Drang, the first significant military battle of Vietnam, as well as two WWII pictures, “Hart’s War” and “Windtalkers.” “We Were Soldiers” was originally scheduled to open next summer but has been moved up to March.

Based on Mark Bowden’s acclaimed nonfiction book, “Black Hawk Down” tells the story of the 1993 botched American mission to Somalia, in which 18 American servicemen lost their lives.

“I felt the film was timely and great, and I thought we should get people to see the picture as soon as possible,” says Joe Roth, whose company, Revolution Studios, financed the $90-million film with Sony Pictures. The film opens Dec. 28 for an Academy Award-qualifying run in Los Angeles and New York, with national distribution coming in January.

“For me, the film’s less about patriotism and flag waving,” adds Roth. “It’s a study in heroism under fire, by a couple of soldiers who are outmanned and over their heads. I found it stirring and frankly, slightly apolitical.”

“Behind Enemy Lines” producer John Davis calls his film “a mature version of ‘Top Gun,”’ the 1986 action-adventure about Navy pilots that starred Tom Cruise and was co-produced by Bruckheimer. “Behind Enemy Lines” is very loosely inspired by the story of pilot Scott O’Grady, who was shot down in Bosnia. In the movie version, the downed pilot, played by Owen Wilson, must fight his way out of enemy territory, pursued by a secret police enforcer. The 20th Century Fox film opens Nov. 30.

Davis says he’d been “begging” the studio to move up the release from the spring to the holidays. “The kid is shot down on Christmas Day, and obviously with what’s been going on ... I felt we needed a movie that rallies people and captures the best of our spirit.”

Like Roth, Davis said he wouldn’t describe his film as patriotic: “To do so means you’re trying to glorify a situation unnaturally. This movie feels realistic.”

Why the change of heart in Hollywood? Soon after the terrorist attacks, the conventional wisdom was that comedies and escapist fare would play best to shaken American audiences. But the post-attack success of harder-edged violent films such as “Training Day” and “Don’t Say a Word” showed that not to be the case.

Notes Roth, “I think people erroneously felt that after Sept. 11 all people wanted to see is comedy, which is stupid. I think people want to be engaged in a story that moves them, whether it’s to laugh or scream or cry.”

Fox tested “Behind Enemy Lines” twice in October and resulting high scores contributed to accelerating the film’s release. “At the end the audiences cheer. You see on people’s faces this sense of gripping connection to the scene. There’s an intensity in that that I’ve never seen before,” says Davis.

Touting Heroism, Addressing Naivete

In today’s uncertain climate, almost everyone involved with the war pictures take pains to describe their films as not simply jingoistic. Indeed, all the movies were mostly finished before Sept. 11. While many tout the heroism of America’s fighting men, they also comment on American naivete and insularity in regard to the rest of the world, as well as the perils and uncertain consequences of the use of military force.

In “Behind Enemy Lines,” just before Gene Hackman bucks military bureaucracy to send reinforcements to rescue his pilot, a French NATO commander worried about delicate peace negotiations chastises him: “All you Americans care about are other Americans.... You won’t be around for the consequences.”

The first image in “Black Hawk Down” is not of America burying its deceased soldiers, but of a Somali wrapping her dead loved one in a shroud. Early on in the movie, one jaded soldier discusses the political situation with a nervous young sergeant: “It doesn’t matter what I think. As soon as the first bullet goes past your head, politics go out the window.”

“Black Hawk Down” is no doubt the most topical movie. Since Sept. 11, a number of networks have produced stories on the Somalia battle as an example of the risks that could be faced by special forces units in Afghanistan. The Rangers had flown in to capture two henchmen of Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid, but two helicopters were shot down and the soldiers were beset by a mob.

Last Friday, as director Scott shot additional footage for the movie, Bruckheimer showed a number of completed scenes. As several soldiers descend on ropes from a flying Black Hawk, Bruckheimer said, “These are all the real guys. They’re now in Afghanistan.” Six months ago, 90 American military personnel were in Morocco working on the movie. The Department of Defense also supplied four Black Hawks for the film. (Later on Friday it was reported that an American helicopter actually did crash in Afghanistan, and the wounded were evacuated.) While Scott has chosen not to reconstruct the scene of Black Hawk crew chief Bill Cleveland being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, the film is violent, featuring a sequence in which a soldier gets his bottom blown off, and another has an unexploded rocket-propelled grenade lodged in his body.

“It’s not something we candy-coated,” says Bruckheimer, who was criticized in the press for tacking on an upbeat ending to his last movie, “Pearl Harbor.” “It’s very honest, a very strong look at modern warfare....Ridley stayed away from making it a ‘Hollywood’ movie, where the good guys win and the bad guys lose.”

While the film focuses on events from the soldiers’ point of view, it includes an epilogue that discusses the events of the film in light of Sept. 11, noting that the debacle and loss of life contributed to American reluctance to involve itself in conflicts ranging from Rwanda to Kosovo and emboldened Osama bin Laden.

“[Sept. 11] clearly crystallized what we’d already done,” says Scott. “Basically, we are obliged to pay attention to the rest of the world because if we don’t it will come down and bite us.”

In a rare departure, Bruckheimer and Roth decided not to test-screen the film to gauge audience reaction.

Yet Bowden, who is also one of the “Black Hawk” screenwriters (along with Ken Nolan and Steve Zaillian), says, “Judging by the level of interest in my book in the last seven weeks, I think the audience would be larger now than ever.”

According to Paramount vice chairman Rob Friedman, at recent screenings of “We Were Soldiers,” the “audiences were rapt.... This movie would stand up at any time, but the country is in a more patriotic mood.”

“We wondered how the audience would feel about a movie about young men going to war,” says the film’s writer-director, Randall Wallace. “What the audience told us is that the current world situation did not affect their viewing of the movie at all.

“On a personal note, I didn’t want this movie to be for any given time. I wanted this movie to be for any time. I have not been keen on trying to rush the movie because people are now waving flags.”

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Times staff writer Patrick Goldstein contributed to this story.