Tigerland/Behind Enemy Lines/Thin Red Line

Triple bill of war films. ‘Behind Enemy Lines’ (2001) is a Hollywood war drama inspired by the story of Scott O’Grady, the US fighter pilot who was shot down over Bosnia in 1995 and managed to find his way back to base without being captured. After photographing some Bosnian Serb troops hidden in a forest, Lieutenant Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and his co-pilot Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) are shot down by an anti-aircraft missile. Stackhouse breaks his leg in the crash, and Burnett goes off to get help, but the Serbs soon locate Stackhouse and execute him. Burnett now finds himself alone in hostile country and sets out on the long and dangerous journey back to safety. Meanwhile, his commanding officer (Gene Hackman), against all army and NATO rules, sets out on a mission to locate and rescue Burnett. ‘Tigerland’ (2000) is set in Louisiana in 1971. When new recruit Jim Paxton (Matthew Davis) arrives at Fort Polk for basic training, he soon makes friends with the rebellious Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell), a soldier who is doing everything he can to get himself thrown out of the army. Bozz has plans to escape to Mexico, but Paxton refuses to go with him, arguing that if he doesn’t go to Vietnam, then somebody else will have to go in his place. However, when Bozz makes an enemy of his vengeful and sadistic fellow recruit Wilson (Shea Whigham), the need to get out of the army becomes even more pressing. The Academy Award nominated film ‘The Thin Red Line’ (1998), set in 1942, was Terrence Malick’s first film for twenty years. As US soldiers land on the island of Guadalcanal, hoping to capture it from the Japanese, the job of venturing into the jungle falls to the ‘C for Charlie’ company – and the troops are faced by both the enemy and struggles within their own camp. The war takes a heavy toll upon the young soldiers, leading them on a path of disillusion and possibly death.