A Look Back at Jason Bourne: The Bourne Identity

Copyright 2002, Universal Pictures

I have to confess something bad: I do not like the Jason Bourne series. Or, rather, I'm not particular to the trilogy of films starring Matt Damon as an amnesiac CIA black-ops trying to figure out who he used to be pre-memory failure; so much am I not a Bourne person that I've only seen the first two films, 2002's The Bourne Identity and 2004's The Bourne Supremacy, and the latter I saw twice in theaters.

However, I'm a human, so I'm imperfect. For example, the first film I saw the weekend of my high school graduation with my father, uncle, and my uncle's girlfriend. So I can safely say that I was distracted a bit when I noticed that, for a good half of the film, my uncle (well into his forties in 2002) and his girlfriend were making out like two kids fresh out of ninth grade. That is honestly all I remember from the first film; that and noticing that Clive Owen and Julia Stiles must have good enough agents to have their faces plastered all over the film's marketing despite being in about 15 minutes, each, of the actual product.

The second film I saw twice over its opening July 2004 weekend. The first time, I was in the second row and focused more on craning my neck, and I fell asleep on the lap of my soon-to-be girlfriend (and future wife) the second time I saw it. It's fair to say that none of these viewing experiences were helpful to my enjoyment of these movies. With the success of those films and, especially, 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum, I feel like I definitely missed out on Jason Bourne and his attraction to so many people. Like with Battlestar Galactica, whose second season I will finally start watching this week, I feel the need to start over with a fresh slate; having the Bourne series released on Blu-ray as a box set helped, so I'm taking a look back at the series, starting at the beginning.

To those on the edges of their seats, hoping I won't dash their hopes by sticking to my original summation, take a breath. I most certainly enjoyed The Bourne Identity. No, I didn't love it, but considering that I pretty much disliked it upon first viewing, this is a major step up. I realized about 25 minutes in, as Bourne stealthily climbed down a U.S. Consulate building in Zurich, that I was hooked. Still, I'm curious to see how much of a tonal shift (let alone the change in cinematography) will come with the final two Bourne films, both helmed by Paul Greengrass. Doug Liman's the director of Identity, and proves more than able in filming most of the action, though it seems that Bourne's hand-to-hand combat, at least in the early going, has some sped-up photography, making it clear that Damon probably wasn't involved.

The plot is something you're probably familiar with: a man washes up next to an Italian fishing boat and, when revived, has no memory of who he is. However, he is fluent in multiple languages and has a bank account number embedded in a chip found on his hip and, once he visits that bank, realizes that he has lots of money, lots of fighting skills, and lots of passports with different names. Taking the most popular name on the passports, Jason Bourne, he tries to figure out who he was while taking on a sidekick-cum-love interest, Marie (Franka Potente, a little calmer than in the 2000 classic actioner, Run Lola Run). Meanwhile, a CIA agent (Chris Cooper) tries to wipe Bourne out, with the help of three top assassins.

What surprises me most about The Bourne Identity is how little action there is. It's not a negative, certainly, but aside from a Parisian car chase in the middle of the film and a couple short shootouts (including the incredibly cool final battle in an apartment building), it's hard to classify this as an action film, despite how much Universal Pictures tried when originally marketing the movie. There's more here about the ins and outs of spy work and the soullessness of the job (Owen, who plays one of the assassins, gets in a good line in his final scene, reflecting how much he and other assassins--Bourne, for example--are asked to give for such dark work). Bourne, of course, wants none of his past once he realizes that he wasn't involved in shipping. Though I'm not too clear on how he gets back to fighting off government agents and the like in the sequel, I know exactly how successful his dreams of living in Greece with Marie will be.

The shock is that Liman and screenwriters Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron make the drama work and don't make the audience restless for action. What action there is impresses, but doesn't bring on a sense of overkill. Potente and Damon have a solid chemistry and never seem forced, even when undressed. If there's any flaw in the film, it's that the villains, especially Cooper, seem underdeveloped. We know that Cooper and his superior, played by Brian Cox, want Bourne taken in, we know that Cooper was part of a black-ops mission to kill a power-mad African dictator (hey, Mr. Eko!), but there's very little more to it. In fact, the Treadstone group seems a bit slow in trying to capture Bourne, appearing only when it's truly a threat, not when it's surprising; the only time there's any real surprise in the story is when Mr. Eko (OK, it's not his real name, but you know who I mean) is taken out. I hope that the government's position will be strengthened and spelled out clearer in the final two films.

I realize that most of you, if not all of you, will read this and wonder why it's taken me six years to figure out that The Bourne Identity is a damn good movie, when everyone else came to that decision a while back. Well, it's hard to move off a first opinion, even when the consensus is otherwise. Despite my dislike of the first two films, it's a testament to Damon and Greengrass that, when ads for Ultimatum started popping up, some part of me was genuinely curious to see what happened, even if I had no solid memory of what happened previously. Though I've made that mistake once, I won't make it again. If, however, you're like me, someone who wasn't swayed by Jason Bourne the first time around, take my advice: rent this, Netflix it, or even buy it...just don't turn your back on this series yet. By the time The Bourne Identity was over, I felt exactly as Paul Rudd had in The 40-Year Old Virgin: "You know, I always thought Matt Damon was a Streisand, but he's really kicking some ass here." And, hey, Rudd wasn't even referring to the first Bourne movie, so I'm actually pretty excited to see what comes next for the beleaguered CIA spy.

Check back next week for the next installment of "A Look Back at Jason Bourne." For those interested, "A Look Back at Pixar" will continue tomorrow with 1998's A Bug's Life.