Day of the 'Dog: "Behind Enemy Lines"

Let me get right into why people think that today's 'dog - Behind Enemy Lines with Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman - is mediocre at best and horrific at worst. It isn't John Wayne's army, where heroes are hard, dedicated, iron clad men who would sooner cut out their hearts as bad mouth the US of A.

Face it: most war movies might as well have cast Sgt. Slaughter in the lead, draped in an American flag, a Coke in one hand and a machine gun in the other, a Marlboro cig hanging from below a handlebar mustache of ass-kickery. We don't like the idea that there are people in the military like Wilson's character, Lt. Burnett - reluctant, selfish men who aren't too keen on dying and like to question the efficacy of seemingly redundant missions during a seemingly redundant war (Bosnia).

I'm not dogging on The Duke - I'm up for a Wayne-a-thon as much as the next guy, but I can also appreciate a little flip side of war, and I don't mean violence. Plenty of war films ascribe to the idea that more gore must mean more truth - let's show 'em what war's really about by having some guy picking up his body parts and asking his sergeant "paper or plastic?" Dissension is an unpopular model for showing that other side, but is done exceptionally well in Lines. Not every solider has to be an ate-up Rambo type (despite pilots being notoriously that way).

Okay, so there must be some other reasons why Lines made Day of the 'Dog besides the clever back-talk of snarky Wilson. Well, consider this:

1. The cinematography is first-rate. Everything from shot angles to slow-mo to the use of color and shadow are just awesome. Lines is one of those movies I would be alright watching with the sound off, maybe having it in run on loop in the background like gangstas do Scarface.

2. Owen Wilson is great in this very atypical role. If you like Wilson in other leads, then you'd definitely like him in Lines.

3. The story isn't exactly deep, but it does present an oft-neglected facet of our recent war history - that of our Clinton-era involvement in Bosnia.

So while IMDb flamers have pondered whether Lines is the worst war movie ever, and the overall 6.1 score speaks to its generally poor reception, just remember that blind or unrealistic patriotism does not a good film make, nor the opposite a film not worth seeing.

So check out Lines and make your own mind up as you enjoy the smashing visuals, clever dialogue, and unique point-of-view. Realistic? Not so much. But an awesome ride with a novel conductor? You bet.