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2002 saw the release of Jason Bourne's first escapade and James Bond's twentieth. Both were commercial successes, Bond managing to outgross the lesser-known newcomer, but the comparison between the two films is striking. While Die Another Day seemed (at least to many viewers, including this one) stale, tired and frequently ridiculous, The Bourne Identity was fresh and exciting, with the emphasis on verisimilitude. It was a film beset with production problems, the script undergoing frequent rewrites, and director Doug Liman's insistence on reshoots resulted in its release being delayed for nearly a year. Fortunately, Liman, who made his name with cult favourite Swingers and has since helmed the Brad/Angelina juggernaut Mr. & Mrs. Smith, displays an assured hand with both the intense action sequences and more intimate character moments, managing to disguise the behind-the-scenes difficulties.
The casting of Matt Damon was an unconventional move that proved to be an inspired one. In 2002 Damon's career was overshadowed in terms of exposure by that of his best buddy (and co-Oscar winner for their Good Will Hunting script) Ben Affleck, but with the help of The Bourne Identity his career has since skyrocketed. He had a relatively small part in 2001's Ocean's Eleven amongst a big name cast, but now he's a more bankable star than George Clooney and even Brad Pitt. Damon's boyish looks, atypical of a Hollywood action hero, made him initially seem ill-suited to the role of Bourne, but the actor handles the character's emotional complexities with aplomb and actually makes for one of the most believable professionally-trained assassins ever portrayed on film. The way he prefers to use brains rather than brute force has become one of the series' trademarks, and lends the film some superb action scenes, including a pulse-pounding escape from the US Embassy in Zurich and a tense sniper duel in a field featuring a brief but noteworthy turn from Clive Owen.
A plot involving the protagonist suffering from amnesia is not a hugely original angle, but combined with a spy thriller it makes for a compelling blend. A political assassination subplot is underdeveloped but it is Jason Bourne's personal journey that is the focus of the film, which works very much to its benefit. One of the major sources of Identity's dramatic momentum is that the audience is just as in the dark as the main character; the film's atmospheric opening gives us no insight into who this character is, so we discover the facts at the same time as Bourne. Also beneficial to the film is the high-calibre cast. Franka Potente plays a love interest who pleasingly fits into neither the action woman or blonde bimbo types, while Chris Cooper supplies another one of his patented smarmy bureaucrat characters for which he is so perfect.
The only time when the constant script changes can be noticed is in the ending, which is fairly disappointing. The film tempts us throughout with revealing the truth behind who Bourne is and the shady government agency he worked for, but there are no particularly enlightening ending revelations. This is rectified in the sequel The Bourne Supremacy, but as a standalone film Identity suffers slightly for it. The final action scene is unusually small in scale, which in itself is not a bad thing; however, during this scene is the only moment in which the consistent aura of realism and plausibility is broken. Nevertheless it's only a small lapse that doesn't detract from the fact that for its entire running time, The Bourne Identity is utterly engrossing. It's no surprise that the makers of the Bond franchise took a leaf out of Bourne's book when it came to Bond 21.
The extras
The back of the box calls this edition of the film "a new movie experience with an all-new beginning and ending". Well, I wouldn't go that far - the extended version (which you can choose to watch or not) simply adds a scene to the start and end, forming a framing flashback structure which is rather superfluous. There's no commentary, which was annoyingly included in the original DVD release, but the seven featurettes are interesting for their unfortunately brief duration, averaging about 5 minutes long. Four more deleted scenes are worth a watch. The music video of Moby's "Extreme Ways", which has become something of a Bourne theme (it's played at the end of Supremacy too), is also included. Finally, there's the bizarrely irrelevant and completely unrelated trailer for Van Helsing.
The summary
A thrilling and intense ride, The Bourne Identity has come to define the 2000s action film - gritty, realistic and believable.
