The 007 Series has ruled the roost since the 1960’s. Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman’s Eon productions have made 20 successful James Bond films with five different actors, placing it on the short list with a few others for most successful running franchise ever. When looking at spy franchises, Bond is the undisputed king. During the “Spymania” period of the 1960’s Bond had to deal with competing series from America like those of the Harry Palmer, Matt Helm and Derek Flint franchises. In the end, Bond was the only series to have any sort of staying power due to the series’ ability to evolve with the times and uncannily give its audience what they wanted. Only recently have spy films tried to make a comeback to attempt to compete with Her Majesty’s best agent.
Pictures like the duo of Mission Impossible films and Swordfish have done what they can to try and take a piece of the spy film market by giving spies the glamour of their predecessors, taking audiences to exotic locations, and using futuristic spy equipment. Other spy films of late have tried to compete with Bond by presenting movies that are grittier espionage tales. Spartan, The Tailor of Panama and Spy Games all stripped away the fantasy aspects associated with Bond to bring us spy features that felt like they could actually happen. One of the most successful new series to try and compete with Bond is the Jason Bourne series.
The Bourne Identity Starring Matt Damon and Chris Cooper. Directed by Doug Liman
Based on the books the by Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Identity finds its hero, Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, adrift in the ocean and riddled with bullet wounds. After being saved by a fishing boat, Bourne awakens to find that he has amnesia. His only clues to his identity are his wounds and an account number. Eventually, Bourne travels to Zurich where he finds the mystery account number belongs to a safe deposit box. The box contains a gun, thousands of dollars in cash, and several passports; one of which has the name Jason Bourne in it. Things really get rolling in the film when Bourne accidentally taps into the super-spy faculties he possesses. While being arrested for Loitering, Bourne incapacitates a couple of police officers with a lightning fast series of martial arts moves.
The action continues when Bourne enters the US embassy in Zurich, trying to evade the authorities. Having to escape the embassy after being spotted, Bourne knocks out several guards, and finally eludes capture by a repel down the side of the building that would make Jackie Chan proud. Luckily Bourne makes it out of the city by paying Franka Potente’s Marie $10,000 for a ride to Paris. Looking for answers and hidden clues, Bourne travels to the Parisian address in one of his passports. The plot thickens when the CIA finds out about Bourne’s whereabouts. It turns out Bourne is a government agent who was assigned to eliminate an outspoken third world leader. When Bourne did not return from his mission and then turns up in Zurich, the CIA assumes that Damon’s character has gone rogue. They send out several agents to eliminate him. For the remainder of the film, Jason Bourne must run a gauntlet of spies and protect Marie on his way to discover his identity.
As far as setup films go, The Bourne Identity is a tremendous first effort. The film is able to separate itself from 007 by giving audiences grit instead of glitz. The locations for the film are places that seem real instead of hollowed out volcanoes and ice palaces. The film is action packed, with many scenes of brutal hand to hand combat instead of long, drawn out flashy battles with expensive camera work and CGI. For those tired of seeing Aston Martins and Z3 roadsters do battle, Bourne includes a car chase featuring vehicles that probably cost less than the car most of our readers drive. In the Bond films, Europe is a paradise of beautiful locations, a far off Wonderland.
Europe seems perpetually overcast in this film. This helps to give Bourne a much harsher look and mood. There are no sunny skies until Jason can find inner piece with himself. This is not possible until he can subdue those trying to kill him and get to the bottom of his mystery. Director Doug Liman does everything possible to make this film a success. In a world of super agents and underhanded villains, Liman gives the film enough credibility to be a winner.
Credit must also be given to Matt Damon and Franka Potente for pulling off their roles with flare and craft. Damon is able to illicit sympathy for his plight, making him seem more human, even though he is able to pull off amazing (and often brutal) feats one right after another. He is not the casual kill that agent 007 has been for 40 years. Bourne finds he has the instincts to kill, but not the taste for it.
Franka Potente’s Marie is an innocent caught in the middle of this terrible situation. Where many actresses fall into the trap of making their characters one dimensional or weak, Marie comes off as a real person with real flaws and strengths. Honey Rider does not have that type of credibility as a character, very few Bond girls do. Chris Cooper also turns in a convincing performance as Alexander Conklin, the CIA boss trying to cover his tracks only to find more trouble. Lastly, Clive Owen is very menacing as a soft spoken, but deadly, agent out to eliminate Bourne. All this equaled to a great success in 2002, making over 121 Million dollars domestically.
The Bourne Supremacy starring Matt Damon and Joan Allen. Directed by Paul Greengrass
Bourne’s second adventure starts with the assassination of a Russian informant and a CIA field operative. The apparent assassin was Bourne and the CIA puts together a taskforce to bring Damon’s character in. Leading the taskforce is Pamela Landy, played by Joan Allen and Brian Cox’s Ward Abbott, who was the superior of Chris Cooper’s Conklin in the previous film. The problem is that at the time of the assassination, Bourne was thousands of miles away in India trying to at once remember and escape from his past. Bourne’s seclusion is broken when an assassination attempt on his own life brings about catastrophic consequences for Marie. Now out for revenge, Bourne travels back to Europe to confront his accusers head on and to take retribution. Once he gets back to Europe, Bourne begins to unravel more clues about his past, but has to contend against the CIA, local authorities, and another assassin still trying to end his life.
The Bourne series takes and darker and edgier tone in the second film of this acclaimed spy series. Once the sunshine of his life is gone, Jason Bourne must go once again into the overcast world he inhabited in his former life. Director Paul Greengrass generals what could have been a carbon copy sequel to the successful initial entry in the Bourne series. Instead, The Bourne Supremacy is infused with more kinetic camera work and a style that differs greatly from that of its predecessor.
This sequel is also paced with much more urgency than the first Bourne film. The tension in Supremacy hardly ever lets up all the way up to the film’s premiere action set piece, a French Connection style car chase through the streets of Moscow. The chase is an amazing spectacle of taxis and police cars with more collateral damage than any other car chase in cinema history. This is the best action sequence of either of the two Bourne films. Another contender for this title is an epic hand to hand combat scene with Bourne and another agent he is interrogating. Fists and household objects are let loose as Bourne and Jarda, played by Marton Csokas, have the most extended fighting sequence in the series so far.
What really makes all the action and suspense work this time is the job done by Damon as the title character. Bourne is played with less vulnerability, but with twice the intensity as before. Damon also brings a heart to Bourne, who still manages not to come off as a comic superhero like Bond, but instead as a real person struggling to make things right. Special mention can also be made for Joan Allen as Pamela Landy. Landy is a hardliner the audience is supposed to hate at the beginning of the film, but gradually we grow to respect her as she starts to discover the truth about Bourne’s innocence. Allen is able to be convincing in this role without pushing the character too far. Lastly, just as Clive Owen had his character in the first entry brimming with menace, Karl Urban makes his Kirill an even more sadistic villain. While the Bond series always established its villains as horrific monstrosities, Bourne’s opponents all seem to exude a threat that lies underneath the surface, which in the end is actually more terrifying.
By making their films in a real world with realistic villains, the Bourne films are able to compete with Bond by giving audiences a nice change of pace from 007. While Bond will always be the product of a studio system and huge budgets, Bourne drops the flash for more substance. Matt Damon is also able to give Bourne a gravity that Bond will not, and perhaps should not, possess. Bond films should remain in the realm of fantasy whereas Bourne is able to bring spy down to Earth. However, only time will tell which character will have a more lasting appeal.
