SNEAKING WITH THE 'ENEMY' ONCE SET FOR 2002, PATRIOTIC CROWD-PLEASER SLIPS INTO HOLIDAY FILM SCHEDULE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Suddenly, Hollywood is at war.

After panic postponements of a number of film releases in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks and much speculation over whether a traumatized public will still accept the well-worn terrorist theme, straight-ahead combat pictures that had been scheduled to open in 2002 are being rushed into theaters before the year's end.

The first to get its boots on the ground, so to speak, is ``Behind Enemy Lines'' which opens today. ``Black Hawk Down,'' about the 1993 ambush in Mogadishu, Somalia, that left 18 Americans dead, is coming out Christmas week. Interestingly, MGM's ``Windtalkers,'' a drama about Navaho Indians who used their native language to pass top-secret messages for the U.S. Army, was moved to next June.

``Enemy Lines'' is a fictional piece set at an indeterminate point in the Bosnian War. It's about a shot-down American naval flyboy's efforts to evade murderous Serb militias, while the commander of his carrier has to buck NATO protocol to be able to stage a rescue mission. The film stars Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman, and with its rock-video visuals and over-the-top triumphalism, distributor 20th Century Fox is hoping that it will play perfectly to the sensibilities of the generation that's coming of age during the war on terrorism.

Not that everybody involved in the film is entirely comfortable with that.

``I'm not involved in those kind of decisions, but I suppose the studio felt this was a good time to (release it),'' says Hackman, a former Marine with a number of military roles (``Uncommon Valor,'' ``A Bridge Too Far,'' ``Crimson Tide'') on his substantial resume. ``From what I understand, the film is tracking, as they say, and tracking very well. People like it and they like it at this time.''

Trying times

But Hackman is understandably wary about the times we're in, even if the fighting in Afghanistan is going remarkably well for us at the moment.

``I don't feel good about it and I don't see how anybody could feel good about us being in this war, but I suppose it's something that just had to be done,'' the veteran actor says.

John Moore, an Irish music video and TV commercial director who makes his feature helming debut with ``Enemy Lines,'' thinks the advanced release date is a good idea in many ways. But he understands the feelings that Hackman expressed, and how some who share them might view the move as trying to capitalize on recent and potential tragedies.

``I'm happy it's moved up because I think it's a good winter movie,'' Moore, a former news cameraman and longtime military buff, explains. ``It's set at Christmas, I think there's an emotional weight to that. But, obviously, the story - or the focus of the story - seems to be that it's moved up because of Sept. 11. I feel good about that, too; I can't affect what happened and it's not like we shot the movie on Sept. 12. But I think that people will enjoy it a little more now. They feel a little more confident and feel better coming out of the movie now, I've heard.

``But I am sensitive to the potential insensitivity of a move like that,'' Moore adds. ``The press has to do their job and question that. 'Aren't you cashing in on this' is the crude version of the question. Yes. No. Whether or not you like the movie will determine your answer. But I think it's valid.''

It certainly is for Wilson, an actor/writer known mostly for his comic gifts (``Zoolander,'' ``Shanghai Noon,'' the upcoming ``Royal Tenenbaums'' with co-star Hackman). But Wilson attended military school in his teens and, not coincidentally, he's a member of the young male demographic ``Enemy Lines'' squarely targets.

``I definitely support what's going on now; I don't see how anyone couldn't,'' Wilson says of the Afghanistan action. ``I think that Sept. 11 did create a surge of patriotism with people - especially men; I think that's just how we're wired.''

Shipping out

Wilson, Hackman and the ``Enemy Lines'' crew got a chance to see patriotism as it's lived every day when they filmed for a week on the USS Carl Vincent, one of the aircraft carriers that's currently stationed in the Arabian Sea (and where a print of the film was screened for the troops this week).

``It was interesting being around the naval aviators,'' Wilson recalls. ``They were really smart, funny guys that you could easily see being leaders in the business community or making a lot of money at something. But they don't make that much money; they're kind of volunteering to do this and the living conditions are not that great on these ships, even for officers. So it's inspiring to see these guys; obviously, they do it because they love the country and they also love to fly.''

Moore confirms that life on an aircraft carrier is no luxury cruise.

``Physically, shooting on the Vincent was hell, it wasn't pleasant at all,'' the director says. ``The only analogy I can come up with is if somebody put a garbage can over your head for a week and beat it with a baseball bat, that's what it's like. You're sleep deprived, the actors are sleep deprived, you couldn't hear me talk from six feet away ... But, what it got us was a nice chunk of reality. There's a visceral nature to the stuff that's shot on the carrier.''

Getting the Navy's cooperation in the first place was a daunting task. While the U.S. military often cooperates with Hollywood, it just as often doesn't, especially if a film's scenario shows the service in any kind of questionable or inaccurate light. Because Zak Penn (``Last Action Hero'') and David Veloz's (``Natural Born Killers'') ``Enemy Lines'' script depicts rule-breaking at the highest levels of command, it was an iffy prospect for official cooperation.

``They have a complex agenda, and it would be trite of me to say that it was all roses,'' Moore admits. ``But they were ballsy enough to make the film when the default position was 'no.' There were one of two heroes within the Department of Defense who pushed to get it made.

``But they did have script issues. Primarily, their problem was a break in the chain of command, although they had no problem with us representing initiative. But once we introduced the notion that the individual paid for doing this, the D.O.D. were, I must say, very gracious - and to be quite honest, the studio weren't too keen on that idea.''

Kind of interferes with the gung-ho exuberance they want viewers to leave the theater feeling. And that wasn't all the studio wanted changed.

``The ending you see is true to the ending we intended, but it was more complex and there were more chapters that we actually photographed,'' Moore reveals. ``But when we test-screened the film ... Well, it's no surprise that a studio's going to want to end on an efficient emotional high.

``Yeah, I do have some moral problems with that,'' Moore admits. ``It's a pretty ruthless way to end the movie, when your intent was to make a story about making a difference, about having the faith and courage to turn back and finish what you started. It fell victim, a little bit, to the cliche of, 'Yeah, that's great, kid. We'll take it from here.' ''

While noting that he's wary of ``Behind Enemy Lines'' being dubbed the first war movie for the 21st century, Moore does feel that he managed to squeeze enough realism in between the flashy visuals and action genre overkill.

``That tag speaks more to the visual and aural style of the movie,'' he says. ``But we did use techniques that were gleaned from conversations that I've had with people who have been in combat. Basically, I tried to put the audience in that orientation, make them feel what Owen feels. And if that's a new thing, then great.

``But I also think that we've managed to maintain some credibility in trying to tell how complex the Pandora's Box of the Balkans were. Whether or not that's of great interest to an audience who wants to go and see this movie right now is questionable, though. That may get left along the roadside in their desire to enjoy the movie for the confidence it gives them in the American military.''

Of course, now we're involved in a very differently complicated kind of conflict than the long-smoldering ethnic clashes in the former Yugoslavia. And Moore swears that he'd take a vastly different approach to the current war than what's seen in ``Behind Enemy Lines.''

``People ask me what's coming next, where's the responsibility in Hollywood coming from,'' Moore explains. ``The responsibility is with the scriptwriters, to engage the national psyche that exists now. It's nothing to do with the four or five war films you're going to see in the next six months.

``How I would tackle a movie about the war on terrorism would be from a purely human standpoint,'' he says. ``I would not like to do a movie that had tanks and bombs in Afghanistan. I would rather do a movie about a father in Middle America who wakes up one morning terrified, and what it was that caused that for him.''

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Owen Wilson in ``Behind Enemy Lines''

(2) Owen Wilson, playing a pilot stranded in enemy terrain in the Balkans, discovers his guardian angel in the form of U.S. Navy helicopters come to rescue him in ``Behind Enemy Lines.''

(3) Gene Hackman bucks orders to try to save a downed pilot in ``Behind Enemy Lines.''