Review 101: The Bourne Indentity
Based on the novel The Bourne Indentity by Robert Ludlum, A man (Matt Damon) is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea with two gunshot wounds in his back and a device with the number of a Swiss safe deposit box embedded in his hip. Upon reaching shore, the man assumes the name Jason Bourne after finding a passport under the name in the safe deposit box, along with other international passports, large amounts of assorted currencies, and a gun. He subsequently attempts to discover his true identity while countering attempts on his life by CIA assassins, eventually realizing that he is one such assassin who failed to complete his most recent mission.
The plot is masterful and completely original. It may deviate from the original Robert Ludlum book but the result is a touching story about one man and his search for identity and his attempt to cling onto it in spite of being turned into a killing machine. What director Doug Liman and his screenwriter have done is taken the novel, which was largely a Cold War thriller and reinvented it for the 21st century.
What makes this film is that it's an engaging, touching and really realistic thriller as it deals with powerful themes of the loss of identity and not knowing who we are, loneliness and international espionage.
So how do these themes play a part in The Bourne Indentity.
Identity: The backbone of the film revolves around Bourne's memory loss and trying to find out who he is and his situation is something everyone can relate to as we go through the same thing at some point in our life. Like Bourne we struggle with deciding who we are as a person and we go on a search to find that identity.
Loneliness: The journey Bourne goes on is a dangerous and lonely one, even though he's acommpanied by a girl named Marie (Franka Potente) they can't stay with each for very long because it makes it easier for the CIA to find them. Loneliness is another thing we go through in life, sometimes we feel we have no friends or family or anyone we can talk to or confide our problems in and Bourne's loneliness in The Bourne Indentity is something people can relate to and one of the reasons we care about him.
The film also dose a great job of showing that the Treadstone agents
The Bourne Indentity's depiction of International Espionage is quite gritty and stripped down compared to what we're use to in spy movies. The Treadstone Programme is shown to be pretty corrupt with them being as bad as the villains themselves excellently shown as they try to hunt down and kill Bourne.
And this brings us to some amazing character moments: take the scene where Bourne is in the Embassy and his about to be aressted and beat up the guards and holds them at gunpoint, all the people duck down terrified. That is one of the many scenes where you think "oh yeah that so could happen in real life." Or parhaps the scene where after Bourne has deffeated the assassin in his apartment and he and Marie are escaping, Marie is so shocked that he's got photographs of them and how violent Bourne fight with the assassin was she throws up.
The Fugitive part of the film I think is played particulary well: It's very engaging and keeps you on your toes and it gives the idea that CIA could be after you.
Doug Liman's direction is suspenseful, taut and sympathetic, the cinematography is splendid, the stunts are amazing (you can so tell they're doing them for real instead of using bluescreen). The score by John Powell is brilliant, haunting and adictive, the production design is terrific, the costumes are stylish, the locations are beautiful, the effects are fantastic, it's fast paced, the action scenes are exciting and well choreographed (with special praise going to the car chase the suspense is gripping, the props are terrific and the ending was wonderful.
The acting is superb though the star performer has to be Matt Damon as the title character. He is so Jason Bourne - Need I say more. Franka Potente is luminous and sensitive as Marie, she is an ordinary woman who gets caught up in Jason's chase but eventually falls in love with him and grows sympathetic towards him. We grow to care about their relationship and hope it work out in the end.
Chris Cooper is trecherous as Conklin, the Treadstone head, he's an example of the good guys being less scrupulous than the villains and he'll stop at nothing to have Bourne killed.
Two other actors who really stand out for me in the film are Brian Cox as Ward Abott, Conklin's boss who's totally unscrupulous in this and Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons.
The Bourne Indentity is a edgy and hard boiled thriller, a an action picture that never lets go, 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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