Directed by Doug Liman.
Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen, Julia Stiles, Gabriel Mann, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
****1/2
The Mediterranean Sea, 60 miles south of Marseilles. A fishing trawler picks up an apparently dead man in a wetsuit floating in the water. He proves to be very much alive and suffering from amnesia. He also has two bullet holes in his back, and a chip embedded in his hip with the address of a Swiss bank hidden in it. It turns out that the man is an assassin called Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), who failed a mission in Marseilles and is now being hunted by his employers who believe he has gone AWOL. Bourne must elude his pursuers whilst also trying to unravel the pieces of his identity...
When THE BOURNE IDENTITY was (finally) released in 2002, it proved to be a minor revelation for an action movie. Here was a film with strong characters, a good plot, a well-written script and all the action a fan of thrillers would demand. Some have proffered the view that the less fantastical, more realistic direction the James Bond series took with CASINO ROYALE (2006) was directly influenced by the commercial success of the film.
As screenwriter William Goldman (BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, 1969) noted 'Nobody knows anything'. For prior to the release of the film, Hollywood predicted a disaster and even the film-makers themselves were nervous. Based on a novel over two decades old and set in the Cold War (the book was published in 1980 and written by Robert Ludlum), with a lead actor unproven in the action genre, and featuring a premise almost the same as the under-rated Geena Davis action vehicle THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996), THE BOURNE IDENTITY was no sure-fire hit. Reports of reshoots and fights between the director, the producers and the studio, plus the fact that action movies were out of fashion and a little taboo during the months after 9/11, only added more things for the film-makers to bite their nails about.
An action scene featuring explosions (still unreleased) was filmed during re-shoots and added to the end of the film after previews in August 2001. It had been demanded by the 'suits' who felt the film was too slow and character-driven. (Previews taught the film-makers that audiences were disinterested in the scenes involving the CIA, and they were kept to a minimum in the final cut.) After 9/11 the scene was ccnsidered inappropriate, and the action finale that features in the released film was added instead, plus a different beginning and ending that was added due to fears that the story might be deemed irrelevant in the current political climate. The opening scene involved Bourne searching for Marie in Greece in the current day, and suffering a blackout. The film that followed would have been a pre-9/11 flashback. The film would have closed with a coda again in Greece in the current day, with Bourne waking up in his hotel room to find Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) apologising to him and attempting to recruit him again. The scenes proved to be extraneous after a test screening without them was successful.
The finished film works so well that it is surprising to learn that the film was in production for nearly two years, during which time Matt Damon had to drop out of the film for a while to film his scenes for OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2002). (Brad Pitt had to drop out of Liman's MR AND MRS. SMITH, 2005, to film his scenes in 2004's OCEAN'S TWELVE!) The film's release date was delayed from September 2001 to June 2002 and went $8m over budget due to reshoots demanded by the studio.
Matt Damon is unconventional casting but a brilliant choice since he is an actor capable of conveying sincerity and dignity very well. He also handles the fight scenes quite effectively and gracefully. He shares good chemistry with his leading lady, German actress Franka Potente (RUN LOLA RUN, 1998). Potente's looks and acting style are both very natural and charming, and she serves to humanise the Bourne character, keep the film grounded in some sort of reality and also guide the audience through the developments of the plot. (One of the reasons the film works so well is that in Bourne and Marie respectively, we have characters who are as surprised, bewidered and shocked by the unfolding of the plot as we the audience are.) It's nice that it takes an hour for the pair to rip each other's pants off, as it allows for a convincing relationship to develop and is more realistic considering the fact Bourne has other things on his mind!
Liman himself, with his background in independent features such as SWINGERS (1996) and GO (1999), was an unconventional choice, but he had been a huge fan of the book since high school and been developing the film himself for a few years. Liman manages to make the film feel like a small, personal film, due to his frequent hand-held filming and matter-of-fact location filming. (The 'small' even applies to the size of the CIA offices when compared to those that feature in the sequels!) The script, credited to Tony Gilroy and William Blake Herron, is easy to follow and has some good dialogue scenes (such as Bourne expressing his confused state of mind to Marie in the all-night cafe) that develop and open-up the characters successfully. Such scenes allow the film to breathe in a way the sequels never have. Gilroy has stated that he wanted to make a 'simple' and 'intimate' action story and he has succeeded. THE BOURNE IDENTITY is definitely a more leisurely paced, character-focussed film than it's follow-ups, which gives it a high status in the quality stakes. It's interesting that all the characters in the film are defined by the practical things they need to get done. As such, they are easy to understand and identify with.
The film boasts an excellently filmed chase scene through the streets, alleyways and steps of Paris, a chase scene in the American Embassy where Bourne surprises himself with his quick-thinking and martial arts prowess, and a final denouement where he finally confronts his pursuers. It has more humour than it's rather grim-faced follow-ups, and the action scenes are very easy to follow, unlike the Paul Greengrass-directed follow-ups.
In short, THE BOURNE IDENTITY is the equivalent of a good paperback thriller. Many read novels for the beat notes, the characterisation, the character moments that normally don't appear in modern action thrillers. Under the tutelage of indie auteur Liman, THE BOURNE IDENTITY has all these, making it one of the strongest action thrillers of the last few decades.
Trivia: The novel had been filmed as a two-part TV film in 1988, directed by Roger Young, and starring Richard Chamberlain (as Bourne) and Jaclyn Smith (as Marie). It's worth watching as a much closer adaptation of it's literary source. The film is a very loose adaptation of the novel as were the sequels and their respective books. You may recognise Walton Goggins from the TV series 'The Shield' (2002 - ) and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje from 'Lost' (2004 - ). Clive Owen appears as one of the assassins sent to wipe out Bourne. Liman and Damon fought with the studio to keep the farmhouse scene in the film.
Edited by manfromjapan, 10 November 2007 - 08:50 AM.