A Bourne-again action flick. (Spoilers!)

Rating: 7/10 (20 June 2002)

"The Bourne Identity" is a diverting entertainment piece that moves as quickly through the mind as it does across the screen. It says little, and means less, and that, arguably, is what "action pictures" are all about: good, "clean", violent entertainment with an ostensibly happy ending. "Bourne" is mostly comic-book stuff with a modest bite - more a nibble, really - and it's fine for an early summer's "family" entertainment. The night I saw the film, there was a young girl, maybe age twelve, sitting with her parents a few seats away from me. At film's end, I didn't have a sense that she had seen anything terribly inappropriate, especially by current dismal standards.
For one thing, there wasn't any sex. The one promising clinch in the film between Matt Damon (Jason Bourne) and Franka Potente (Marie Kreutz) quickly faded from view - shades of the 1940's! - once the embrace got really close and it was apparent that tongues, and other body parts, might soon be involved. In the only other scene where sex seemed likely, Damon/Bourne elects to sleep on the floor rather than share Potente/Kreutz's bed. The efficiently homicidal chap is clearly a Boy Scout under that - well - Boy-Scout exterior. And that's important, of course. Children who attend movies like this must be protected from displays of adult sexuality. Never mind that the set is drenched in blood and littered with bodies at film's end: Hollywood has its values.
Although I really enjoyed the film, I do have a few problems with it.

The main problem, as I see it, is with the depiction of the CIA, and even its inclusion in the plot. It might have been better if Bourne's controlling organisation had been referred to, semi-anonymously, as "The Agency", a ruse that has proven useful in other films of this genre. ("Marathon Man" comes to mind.) For better or for worse (my own bias is for better), the CIA and its companion agency, the FBI, are in very bad odour in the wake of their colossal failures leading up to 9-11. The once-happy notion that the CIA is populated with hugely intelligent and hyper-efficient guys and gals who never, or almost never, make mistakes has taken a well-deserved hit, and their reputation is basically in tatters. The tragedy of 9-11 more than suggests the opposite, that these two governmental critters are in fact bloated bureaucracies where internal turf battles and self-interested ladder-climbing are more of a preoccupation than actually protecting the nation (and the larger Western world) from terrorism and other international nastiness.
And that highlights the inherent problem with films like "The Bourne Identity". Thanks to a moderately vigilant press, and the courage of a few formerly anonymous public servants (who, miraculously, appear to believe that they really are servants of the public), most of us have become more than just a little sceptical of the shenanigans of the CIA and its fellows, with their penchant for covert operations that involve the murder of foreign political leaders they don't like. It's especially bothersome, of course, that last year's brave and treasured ally is too often the current year's loathsome villain. In this context, it's useful to remember that both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were CIA darlings before they "went bad", and forfeited their dubious attraction for the strange group of souls who set and abet foreign policy in Washington.
It was fitting, then, that Bourne's CIA chief, Ted Conklin (Chris Cooper) is so unlikeable, and so obviously a villain. When he is taken out in one of the final scenes, it was no surprise, and even pleasing, but that didn't succeed in lifting the moral tone of the film: certainly nothing like the sheer joy that reverberated through the theatre when Dustin Hoffman took out the "Agency" bad guy, William Devane, in "Marathon Man".
For all of the above cavilling, though, I have no lingering bad thoughts about "The Bourne Identity". It was entertaining and I enjoyed it. Matt Damon continues to elevate his career, and his obvious talent combined with refreshingly off-beat looks - faint echoes of a youthful Jimmy Cagney - should fuel the ascent, providing he maintains a reasonable amount of discretion in role selection. (Ben Affleck take note.) And if Bourne's amazing epiphany in suddenly rejecting violence and deciding to eschew the career of an ultra-efficient assassin doesn't really convince, that's okay. We always knew Bourne was really a nice guy under the 9 mm Glock, a sort of Jimmy Ryan/Will Hunting in-waiting.
Franka Potente was an interesting choice for the love-interest role. She's a good actress and I look forward to seeing her again. I admit, however, to thinking several times during the film that "Bourne" was a good choice for her major American debut: all that running through the streets in "Run, Lola, Run" (1999) must have gotten her into terrific shape for the frantic racing around Paris and elsewhere.
One final question, though. What happened to the Julia Stiles character? Did she live? Did she die? Why, in fact, was she in the film in the first place? It's something of a comedown, surely, after serious roles in "O" and "The Business of Strangers", to be included in a major film simply as a pretty face.