The Bourne Identity

Some people claim to be tired of the ‘’James Bond’’ style of spy movies and long for something a bit more realistic. This is hard because while other known brands in the genre like James Bond and Mission Impossible might be pushing the realms of plausibility that a occupation solely based around secretive espionage might be like, they do at the end of the day need to be engaging stories that might not work as well with that kind of slow-paced style of presentation if not handled correctly. Case in point, The 2002 action-thriller, The Bourne Identity, does in many ways feel like its capturing what it would be like to work in that industry, and it’s no surprise most spies want to stay hidden. The film follows a man named Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon) who is found by a fishing boat out in the middle of the ocean laying unconscious, with two bullet wounds in the back and no memory of where, who and or even what he is, yet seems to have advance combat skills and is fluent in several languages. Lost and separated from the world, he finds himself on a wild goose chase trying to find his real identity after he discovers he has multiple passports and names. Along with a young woman named Marie (played by Franka Potente) who ends up getting in this situation, both must traverse from location to location in order to obtain more clues all the while avoiding the gaze of people out for his arrest or are out for his blood like CIA Deputy Director Abbot (played by Brian Cox), or the head of an CIA black ops program named Conklin (played by Clive Owen), in order to gain back his memory to discover whether he is truly Jason Bourne, or if this is just another in the long line of identities that he seemingly formed for himself before his memory loss. Based on the 1980 novel written by Robert Ludlum and the first in a film series that spawn four sequels, this move tackles every single mundane, bland, cliché, uninteresting, and easily replaceable spy trope in the book that gets washed away in the early 2000s era of failed products, with many of the films prospects either being toned down, jumbled, or just plain lazy. Though doing well critically and commercially at the box office, something is severely lacking with this spy thriller.

There appeared to be a lot of confliction behind the scenes of this film, with multiple rewrites that came from conflicts between personal tastes and what to keep or remove from the source material, arguments between the director and the studio over a need for more action or the cost of filming in certain locations, and it all resulted in a very messy experience that does start to explain some of the film’s complications.The biggest problem with this movie is that its long, confusing, and unimaginably boring. It tries to ground itself in a very realistic environment; avoiding the typical trope and elements that would with a Hollywood spy film like gadgets that seem to break several laws of physics and/or logic, super diabolical villains that have incredibly diabolic world-ending plans, and goofy crazy stunts that go over-the-top in an extreme way that doesn’t feel the least bit inconspicuous. This isn’t a bad idea as with the over saturation of this presentation, a more subdue, slow-paced and analytical take on the genre would be beneficial if its executed in an engaging manner. The problem comes from the fact that it is replaced with nothing interesting or complex, but only a horribly drawn out ‘’mystery’’ surrounding Jason Bourne’s identity that really doesn’t seem like it has that much to build up (the end results can really only be one of two things so its not really a surprise when it is revealed). This is a failing of the script handled by Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron, as a majority of the film doesn’t even really follow the plot of the book at all (on account of Gilroy actively not like the source material and thinking that it couldn’t be made into a source material), yet despite this, its still not taking the step to make it work from a visual perspective. It is a very cliche-filled plot with the usual tropes you’d expect, but to it and the source material’s credit, it might not have been as overused when it was created and the synopsis does sound like it would make for an engaging read, as the build-up to the eventual reveal would work better in a non-visual format where the exposition and descriptive writing could’ve built upon a basic idea a bit more. The directing by Doug Liman (who was also a co-producer on the film) seems to believe that the best way to make something look edgy and realistic is to have the whole film set in grey blue lighting the whole time. Everything down to the story, the acting, the characters, the settings, the music, the effects, everything is done in the blandest way possible that it’s almost impossible to get invested. The film’s pacing is so drawn out that most of the scenes feel like copies of the other, only bouncing between two different sets throughout the whole thing and it makes the entire experience feel like witnessing a patch of fog for roughly two hours. The idea of piecing together his identity is fine, but the obstacles that they go through, and the eventual reveal at the end, is nowhere near worth all the wasted time, and for a plot that could have been condensed or at least made a bit more intriguing, it doesn’t have enough content to stand on. The technicals surrounding the film’s plot are either never explained or if explained done very poorly, so it’s very easy to misunderstand the direction the film is taking.

Every single actor in this film is either wasted or kept from giving a good performance on accounts of the directing. It feels like the film doesn’t want to be too forward or dangerous and instead keeps everything at a mellow tone that feels more grounded, but sucks out the enjoyment that could come from this idea even with a more subdued nature, and this lifeless feeling is felt in the performances. Matt Damon feels like he could easily play a good spy character, but he is directed to be so toned down and show as little emotion as possible that you just can’t get into him as a role. The amnesia factor could contribute to that, but Jason Bourne as a character is not made interesting even after his identity is discovered. Other spies like James Bond are likeable and interesting because we see the human being behind the actions and intellect, so the audience can get invested when they take part in the action and in the mission. Because this entire story is revolved around this individual trying to find his identity, Jason Bourne is nothing but the action, so he has no lasting impression. He shares absolutely no chemistry with the character of Marie, and her whole involvement in the film is very forced and pointless. Franka Potente, though not giving a very good performance, does have good facial expressions (mainly whenever she has to shoot an intense glare) which does at least give her something memorable to hold onto throughout the film, but that’s about it. Chris Cooper is just the yelling police commissioner (even if that’s technically not what he’s playing), and Brian Cox, whose usually great in a lot of stuff,  is almost entirely pointless in this film. All the side character’s acting is very run of the mile generic delivery, so the whole film is surrounded in dull performances.

For a spy movie, the film has very limited action and for the stuff that it has, it’s not really that impressive. For the kind of movie its trying to be, a more small-scale approach with hand-to-hand fights sounds fine, but even with this in mind, its not done in the best way. The fights are slow and often hard to make out due to the editing by Saar Klein, but they do at least have some decent choreography behind them. There is a chase scene near the middle of the film that drags on way too long, they are almost too quick to really suck in the coolness factor, and they can almost never be seen because the camera work in this film is horrendous. The film has a horrible shaky cam problem, especially in the fights scene that aren’t only jerky, but the editing is so sporadic and sloppy that it can’t be made out (which could maybe be attribute to Liman himself filming certain parts of the film himself to connect back with his small-scale indie filmmaking roots). The movie is also very clearly made in the early 2000s, due to the awkward cinematography, the need to be bleak and lifeless, and the horrible soundtrack. Once and while there’s a decent establishing shot, only really at the end, but besides from that, the cinematography by Oliver Wood could be a lot better. Also, for a film trying to be some much more realistic, it can also push past certain areas of plausibility which pretty noticeable in this film due to how it wants to not be like the other examples (it seems to be okay with Jason Bourne falling almost ten stories of stairs and surviving because he had a body break his fall).

The film doesn’t have many if any positive, memorable or likeable qualities, but the product is overall relatively harmless; everything in the film is done poorly and it doesn’t have much of an impact on the spy genre, but it has nothing truly offensive in it. That doesn’t excuse the film’s execution, but it keeps it from being bottom of the barrel worthy. Even if the films get better as time goes on, The Bourne Identity fails at producing an entertaining interesting suspenseful film. Everything is washed out and bland, the directing is bad, the acting is very drawl, the story has potential, but is overused and uninteresting, the characters are stock if even that, the action is lacking, the cinematography is lazy , the music is way too much a product of the time, and it adds up to a complete mess of a spy flick. A spy film can be realistic and not have to rely on old tropes, but it needs to be engaging to compensate for that and nothing about this film is engaging in the least. Probably not one of the worst spy films ever made, but it could come close. If there’s any mystery surrounding this film, its finding out how this would go on to become a well-known franchise.