Great Action Thriller

Rating: 9/10 (27 September 2018)

The world of espionage has been captivating the attention of audiences for decades. Almost everyone loves a good spy movie. In 2002, Doug Liman directed The Bourne Identity, adapted from the novel by Robert Ludlum, which took a new and interesting take on the classic espionage thriller. The Bourne Identity raised the bar for spy thrillers and started off a series that has spanned 5 movies and 14 years.
In the movie, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea by a fishing boat. He has been shot twice in the back, has no idea who he is, and the only form of identification on him is a laser-pointer-like gadget holding the information to a Swiss bank account that had been implanted in his hip. Soon after reaching the mainland, Bourne realizes that he isn't the kind of person who works a 9-5 desk job. He has increased awareness to his surroundings and his own limits, and he can easily beat up whoever gets in his way. After finding numerous passports, a lot of money, and a gun in his Swiss safe deposit box, Bourne enlists the help of Marie (Franka Potente) to drive him to Paris in exchange for 10,000 dollars. Bourne and Marie develop feelings for each other on the trip to Paris, so upon reaching Paris, Marie decides to stay with Bourne and help him discover who he is. Following clues to Bourne's identity, Bourne and Marie travel around Europe trying to piece together who Bourne is and was, all while trying to avoid the CIA. The CIA believes Bourne has gone rogue, and they are doing everything they can to track him down and kill him.
The movie is centered on Bourne's search for who he is. This search for identity is what keeps the audience involved and working with Bourne to piece together who he is. In a scene soon after Bourne leaves the fishing boat, Bourne is sleeping on a park bench and is woken up by two police officers who are looking for trouble. Bourne replies to the officers in their own language without hesitation, and this is our first clue that there is a lot more to Bourne than we know. After one officer pulls out their club and the other draws their gun, Bourne knocks them both out and disassembles the gun in a matter of seconds. After this incident, Bourne looks at his arms, wondering the same thing as the audience, "How does he know how to do that?" During these fight scenes, the camera is quickly shifting from angle to angle to show the details of what is happening in the fights. This, combined with hearing what Bourne is hearing, gives the audience more of a first-hand fight experience. Also, the lighting and color during the action scenes of the movie is typically brighter and more vivid. Throughout the movie, reaction shots on Bourne are frequently utilized because Bourne is always the first one to realize when there is danger close.
As Bourne is piecing together what he used to do, he doesn't want to believe that he killed people for a living. He realizes that he and the people around him will never be safe until he ends things with the CIA, so he decides to fight back so that he can live a different life. A life that includes Maria.
Near the end of the movie, when Bourne is confronting the CIA agent who was in charge of him, the agent says that Bourne is "a malfunctioning, 30 million dollar weapon," and tells him some details about the mission he was on right before Bourne was found by the fishermen. The agent says that Bourne had set up the entire assassination plan himself. Flashes of light, pictures, and different lighting is then used to show a flashback to when Bourne is on the boat of the target where the assassination was supposed to take place. During this flashback, we see that Bourne failed the assassination because the target's young children were laying on top of him, and Bourne couldn't kill the target knowing that the guy's young children would be forced to watch their father's assassination. This is when we learn one of the most important pieces of information relating to Bourne's identity. He is an assassin, but he is much more than just an expensive weapon. Bourne has compassion and a conscious that guides him. This character progression causes The Bourne Identity to be an enjoyable film from start to finish.