Bourne Again: The Bourne Identity

Bourne Again, Part 1: The Bourne Identity

In preparation for this month's Jason Bourne, I'm making my way through the first three (I don't include the Jeremy Renner stinker, The Bourne Legacy) Bourne movies.  The first film in the series was 2002's The Bourne Identity, directed by Doug Liman and starring Matt Damon as the amnesiac superspy, Jason Bourne.

If you can remember back to 2002, the film spy world was left for dead.  The world's most famous super spy, James Bond was on its last legs after a forgettable stretch of Pierce Brosnan stinkers.  And Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible series was a few years away from getting the J.J. Abrams makeover.  The world needed Jason Bourne, a no nonsense American spy, who lost his memory after a failed assassination attempt.

14 years later, this film still feels as fresh as the day it came out (save for some really outdated cellphone technology).  The character Damon plays is in direct contrast to other cinematic spies.  There are no exploding pens and cheeky one-liners, and no mask reveals or elaborate action set pieces.  The Bourne Identity is a straight forward, balls to the wall piece of cinematic storytelling.  I love that we, as an audience, get to experience the character of Jason Bourne come back to life.  Nothing is explained or spoon fed to us, we experience the movie as Bourne experiences his return to form.  It's almost as if he's a machine that has been given the factory reboot.  His abilities don't come back to him all at once, but only arrive as Bourne pieces his life back together.

Most refreshing about this film was its visual style.  It was cold and stark, again in direct contrast to the big budget 007, and Mission Impossible series.  The camerawork is handhald, and the camera itself is placed in up close and personal places, bring us closer than we have ever been to the action.  The editing is tight and frenetic at he same time.  The story never lags, or feels stale.  And the techno score (while it feels dated today) was a breath of fresh air.  I don't think Doug Liman gets enough credit for bringing this character to life.  He gets overshadowed by the flashier sequels and their director, Paul Greengrass.  However, I think The Bourne Identity is still my favorite in the series.

After watching this again, I am certain that we can thank it for both the Daniel Craig series of Bond films and for Mission Impossible coming back to reality (I really hated Mission Impossible II and all of its slow motion motorcycle chases).  Who knows where these franchises would be if not for Bourne.  Would we ever have gotten Daniel Craig's gritty, realistic take on cinemas longest running super spy?  I don't think so.

Up next:  The Bourne Supremacy