Historical Inspiration
The film bears some resemblance to the experiences of former U.S. Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady, who was shot down over Bosnia on June 2, 1995. He managed to survive for six days before being rescued. He reportedly filed suit against the film's producers for defamation of character, as well as making a film about his ordeal without his permission. However, the film's characters and events are almost entirely fictional. O'Grady never entered populated areas, nor did he interact with civilians. Also, O'Grady never flew an F/A-18F (which wasn't in service in 1995) but rather an F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Read more about this topic: Behind Enemy Lines (2001 film)
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or inspiration:
“This seems a long while ago, and yet it happened since Milton wrote his Paradise Lost. But its antiquity is not the less great for that, for we do not regulate our historical time by the English standard, nor did the English by the Roman, nor the Roman by the Greek.... From this September afternoon, and from between these now cultivated shores, those times seemed more remote than the dark ages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study. The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his occasion, and who would be distracted by the event and the crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)