Jason Bourne (2016)
Directed by Paul Greengrass
The most dangerous former operative of the CIA is drawn out of hiding to uncover hidden truths about his past.
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45 films that influenced Jason Bourne
What critics say influenced Jason Bourne
There is something humanizing about a first name, especially for an action hero (think of how many of them are referred to primarily by their last names), and the direct break with the manner in which the films have been titled—it follows The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), the titles of which derived from the Robert Ludlum novels on which they were more and more loosely based—signals a shift in narrative focus in the same manner that Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa (2006) sought to bring its Philly pugilist back to earth after five increasingly cartoonish Rocky films.
Mostly, the project marks a return to what worked about the franchise — namely, Damon — suggesting the relief of watching Sean Connery step back into Bond’s shoes after producers tried to replace him with a suave male model in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
It’s a lot to hold in one’s brain — far more than it was for, say, the innocent man played by Robert Redford in the seminal 1975 paranoid conspiracy thriller, Three Days of the Condor, who only had to cope with a sad-faced Max von Sydow, a bogus mailman, and Faye Dunaway’s bad temper.
Channeling the disenfranchised heroes from 70s paranoia thrillers like The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor, Bourne’s identity crisis was hard-wired with the disconnect many Americans experienced felt with the Bush administration’s prevailing ideology.
The series’ perennial bridesmaid Julia Stiles comes back briefly to lure Bourne out of hiding, where he’s quite absurdly paying homage to Rambo III in bare-knuckle fight clubs on the Albanian border, knocking his opponents out with one punch while suffering conveniently-timed expositional flashbacks.
The story picks up as Bourne attempts to stay off the grid in Greece while wrestling with his past demons by indulging in bare knuckle brawling (a la Rambo III).
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At times, Jason Bourne feels like an attempt to channel the essentialist filmmaking of The Driver, substituting the purity of its sheer inertia for a traditional three-act structure.
Just as Tom Cruise continues to carry the “Mission: Impossible” action franchise in his 50s, the 45-year-old Matt Damon still kicks butt in serious fashion in his fourth appearance (and first since 2007) as Jason Bourne in the film of the same name.
Although Jason Bourne is part of an ongoing franchise and works best for those who have seen at least the first three chapters (the movie has little or no connection to The Bourne Legacy), it’s like most other multi-sequel action series (James Bond, Mission: Impossible) in that it can stand on its own.
And, despite studios’ best efforts, there have been no new spy/action tentpoles dominating cinemas, unless you count continuing installments of the Bond, Mission: Impossible and Fast & Furious franchises (definitely disregard The Bourne Legacy, everybody else has).
There is something humanizing about a first name, especially for an action hero (think of how many of them are referred to primarily by their last names), and the direct break with the manner in which the films have been titled—it follows The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), the titles of which derived from the Robert Ludlum novels on which they were more and more loosely based—signals a shift in narrative focus in the same manner that Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa (2006) sought to bring its Philly pugilist back to earth after five increasingly cartoonish Rocky films.
The end result is that even action heroes who are grounded in reality (like Bourne or John McClane from Die Hard) possess superhuman abilities by the fourth or fifth film, and the tension evaporates.
The original trilogy, which began with 2002’s The Bourne Identity and made an effective exit in 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, is a self-contained bottle rocket of a franchise, easily the best thing to come for action movies since Die Hard.
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It led Bond and Hunt to have a look in the mirror and change what they saw – there would be no Casino Royale without The Bourne Identity, and M:I3 would likely have been a very different film.
Take out the shaky cam and add in a one-liner or two and Rae Dawn Chong, you basically have Commando.