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CNN Live At Daybreak

USS Carl Vinson Gets Preview of "Behind Enemy Lines"

Aired November 29, 2001 - 06:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Over the long holiday weekend, 5,500 sailors aboard the USS Carl Vinson got a little taste of Hollywood. It was a sneak preview of the new film "Behind Enemy Lines." They're playing themselves, many of the women and men that are stationed onboard that aircraft carrier.

CNN's Sherri Sylvester takes a look at the movie.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are the cream of the crop, that's why you're here.

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Credit these troops with 2,000 sorties since their October arrival in the Arabian Sea. They have had just two days off during Operation Enduring Freedom, but this is movie night, two hours of R&R courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox. The studio filmed parts of "Behind Enemy Lines" onboard the USS Carl Vinson. Many in the audience are extras in the film.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SYLVESTER: The story is very loosely inspired by pilot Scott O'Grady who was shot down over Bosnia. To play a Navy top gun, actor Owen Wilson trained in an FA-18 Super Hornet jet. He also spent time at sea on the aircraft carrier.

OWEN WILSON, ACTOR: On the Carl Vinson I was around those guys for a week, and then I went to Lemoore Naval Base and hung around with some of the pilots and went through the water training. These were really smart, funny guys that could easily be making a lot of money in the business world. They choose to do this where they don't make very much money because they love to fly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENE HACKMAN, ACTOR: I intend to put you in harm's way. Any man who doesn't wish to join this mission, step away right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: It is Gene Hackman's role to rescue Wilson who has been shot down in enemy territory. In real life, Hackman joined the Marines at 16, becoming a radio operator. (on camera): Does that inform your military roles at all?

HACKMAN: Even though I was just an enlisted man, you know I'd -- I had observed enough of what -- that kind of military protocol, what that takes, what people have to do to create a sense of power. But sure, that helps a lot.

SYLVESTER (voice-over): Hollywood's war effort is of interest to Washington, so when a prescreening of this patriotic picture for civilian moviegoers brought a rousing response, Fox decided to release it early.

HACKMAN: I hope that we're not trading on, you know, all of this patriotism, but it's inevitable, you know, that people will see that as a part and parcel of what's going on now.

SYLVESTER: Wilson praises the real pilot who pulled 6Gs on an F- 18 to deliver him to a San Diego premiere on the USS Nimitz. The actor's mission was not to get sick.

WILSON: That would have been brutal if I had gotten off and, you know, my parents are there and the military band and I had gotten sick on the plane.

SYLVESTER: But his onscreen heroics are guaranteed to rally the troops.

Sherri Sylvester, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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