Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Franka Potente, Clive Owen, Julia Stiles
Country: United States / Germany
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 118 min
The Bourne Identity, adapted by Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name, is the first entry in the Jason Bourne film franchise. The film and its respective series launched Matt Damon to blockbuster stardom and revitalized the espionage sub-genre in the 2000s. It had a profound effect on modern action cinema too. Other films started emulating the series' shaky cam photography, copying its signature amnesia plot, and setting their plots in foreign locations like Paris, France. While Bond may have launched the spy genre in the 1960s, Bourne saved it in the 2000s.
The first Bourne film is a solid example of early 2000s action. It's not a great film, nor an excellent action picture, but a swell spy thriller none the less. It's the perfect example of modern American action filmmaking. The focus of the film is mainly on the plot and characters, while the action scenes are particularly short and somewhat underwhelming. However, such mediocre action is forgivable when a film features such a great protagonist and contains an immensely intriguing story. No matter how you look at it, The Bourne Identity is an immensely important espionage film whose effect can still be felt in contemporary action cinema.
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| The Bourne Saga all started here. |
Fishermen locate a body adrift in the Mediterranean Sea and bring it on deck. The man (Matt Damon) appears to have amnesia, two bullets in his back, and a small device lodged in his waist that leads to a safety deposit box in Switzerland. Once the man makes his way to Switzerland, he discovers that he is in fact named Jason Bourne and that he was once an assassin for a CIA operation entitled Treadstone. As Jason puts together the pieces of his identity along with the help of a kind German woman, Marie (Franka Potente), the CIA sends assassins and agents after Bourne in order to clean up their mess.
The Bourne series redefined action and spy cinema for the modern age in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The series took note of the ever growing issue of safety and surveillance and tied it into its plot about shady CIA dealings and dueling assassins. While other spy films tried to be hip and entertaining in the early 2000s, The Bourne Identity embraced the reality of modern day espionage and brought a maturity and realism to the spy genre. In fact, The Bourne Identity was released the same year as Lee Tamahori's schlock-fest Die Another Day and the hip Vin Diesel fronted XxX. In James Bond's darkest hour, Jason Bourne rose to the occasion.
The series also went on to heavily influence the style, setting, and plot of many spy films to come. While not as evident in the first film, the Bourne series is notable for its brutal hand to hand combat sequences. Therefore, future filmmakers took note of this style's effectiveness and incorporated it into their film's action scenes. The most notable examples include Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and the Taken series. Bond would become so influenced by this style of fighting (and its accompanying shaky cam photography) that many action fans decry Quantum of Solace for purely being a Bourne film and not a Bond film per say. The Bourne Identity also popularized the amnesia plot, which would go on to be duplicated in other films such as Unknown and American Ultra. Even the film's foreign setting of Paris would go on to become a popular location for American action films, such as Taken once again. There's no denying it, The Bourne Identity and its respective series influenced American action cinema for about a decade.
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| The action may seem dated but that sweater is eternal. |
The Bourne Identity introduced audiences to Jason Bourne's characteristics and trademark skills. Bourne proves his resourcefulness time and time again throughout the film as he thinks fast on his feet, improvises everyday objects as weapons, and proves himself a master surveyor of his surroundings. Watch the scene where Bourne escapes the U.S. embassy and spot how quickly he turns his situation around by quickly noticing and grabbing advantageous objects (i.e. security radio and map of building emergency exit). The sequels would go on to make these sequences even more unique and intense. Bourne also improvises his first weapon in the film, a pen, and turns it into a fatal stabbing weapon by piercing it through a hitman's fingers! The Bourne films are infinitely satisfying to watch time and time again purely for Bourne's survivalist instincts and improvisational abilities.
The film also tells a unique story about Jason Bourne at the first stage in his adventure. He is ultimately a killer who gets a second chance at life and to redeem himself. However, Bourne is not the go-getter that he would go on to become in the sequels in this film. Instead of going after Treadstone (the shady CIA black ops operation that he was apart of), Bourne decides to run away because he cannot deal with the mistakes he made in the past. Even though he will ultimately go on to pay the consequences for running in the sequel, Bourne's journey in the first film is made all the more interesting because of this.
Another pleasure of watching the Bourne films is for the numerous assassins and agents who combat him throughout the series. Bourne goes up against two notable assassins in the first film, a bleach blonde guy and the Professor (Clive Owen). His fight against the bleach blonde assassin is noticeably weak due to the film's poor editing, sound design, and cinematography during the bout. It's clear that the editors cut multiple times in order to add power to the hits. Unfortunately, the stock sound effects don't help out either. Just listen to the sounds of the punches when Bourne throws his first punch. It's pretty awful. This weak fight in no way convinces the viewer that Damon knows the moves at all.
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| Double barreled Bourne. |
On the flip side, the film's gun fights and car chases fare much better. In fact, this Bourne entry features the most gun fights of any the series. It's also the only entry in the series in which Bourne guns down his opponents and aims to kill instead of to wound, hurt, or maim (another sign that this Bourne is different from the one in the sequels). Bourne's gun fight against the Professor makes for a great game of cat and mouse as one armed assassin fights against an underarmed one. His resourcefulness shines once again in this sequence as he puts around eight shotgun shells to good use.
The film's mid-point car chase and the final gun fight are also solid pieces of action cinema. Unfortunately, nearly all of the film's action scenes leave much to be desired, especially the final gun fight. Most of the action scenes end before they even begin. The film's final set piece lasts less than two minutes in fact. The Bourne Identity is still solid action cinema, just don't rely upon the action to thrill you beyond a punch or two here and there.
The Bourne Identity establishes many of the tropes that the series would come to be known for. It explores relevant themes of privacy versus security and how surveillance plays a role in it. It also explores how shady our government can be at times and how some American lives can be put at stake in order to protect more American lives. The mysterious Treadstone program and the eventual Blackbriar training facility are further explored in the sequels, but only touched upon in the first film. The first film also establishes the series' knack for action, especially its love for hand to hand combat and car chases. However, it would be director/writer Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Phillips) who would take all of these elements and amplify them to perfection in the sequels as he brought a gritty realism to the series.
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| Mid-air shot, Bourne style. |
Doug Liman's sole entry in the Bourne franchise is a swell film that succeeds at the important task of establishing the tropes of a franchise and introducing audiences to its hero. Jason Bourne is an utterly iconic character now because of Liman's direction and Damon's performance. However, The Bourne Identity suffers from a bland visual style that lacks the gritty realism of its sequels. The editing is also especially poor during its fist fights. In short, The Bourne Identity has good content, but lacks the style and expert direction that catapulted the sequels to greatness.
Rating: 7/10 - A solid and memorable action thriller that relaunched the spy genre.
Franchise:
The Bourne Identity (dir. Doug Liman, 2002)
The Bourne Supremacy (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2004)
The Bourne Ultimatum (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2007)
The Bourne Legacy (dir. Tony Gilroy, 2012)
Jason Bourne (dir. Paul Greengrass, 2016)
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