Plot: What’s it about?
“The Bourne Identity” was a novel by Robert Ludlum, a failed actor, written some twenty five years ago. I vaguely remember the book sitting in the house, my parents had read it, I think. Imagine my surprise when they made a movie starring Matt Damon! I thought to myself…is that based on the novel? Well, loosely it is, though screenwriter Tony Gilroy wasn’t allowed to read the book, only draft the script based upon the outline given to him by Director Doug Liman. Ludlum was a notorious perfectionist, who would often research the locales he wrote about and just about everything about them; much like Tom Clancy is to technology. The real question was this: could a twenty five year old novel work as a movie long after the rest of us had forgotten about it? Evidently the answer was “Yes” as the movie racked up nearly $200 million worldwide and has produced a sequel “The Bourne Supremacy” (the second of the three ‘Bourne’ books). When it comes to a choice between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (the two can’t help but be compared), I’ll watch a Matt Damon movie any day of the week. Affleck has chosen the more commercial route and Damon’s movies have always been more to my liking (“Rounders” and “The Legend of Bagger Vance” in particular). So it was with much anticipation that I went into this movie somewhat blind…
Damon plays Jason Bourne, a CIA agent who awakes in the middle of the ocean without any real memory of who he is. He has what is referred to (in the featurettes) as “selective amnesia”, meaning that he doesn’t know who he is, but he retains the skills of his former self (language, combat, etc.). He is rescued by a fisherman with two bullet holes in his back, no less. He also has a capsule in his body that has a Swiss bank account number in it. Managing to find the bank, he sees that he has several identities and some money at his disposal. Paying a local gypsy (Franka Potente from “Run, Lola, Run” fame) to drive him to Paris, the chase is on. The CIA, led by Ted Conklin (Chris Cooper), is on his tail and as we see what skills Jason has, we like him more and more. Bourne is by no means a good guy, he’s a trained killer and it’s only because he’s the lesser of two evils that we tend to root for him. That and he’s played by Matt Damon. There’s the obligatory car chase scene, sex scene and many other more predictable scenes that we’ve become so accustomed to thanks to James Bond movies, we forget that there might actually be a plot somewhere.
“The Bourne Identity” has its greatest strength in the way it underplays itself. Movies pretend to be about something and then don’t deliver and then there’s some that don’t really profess to be about something and we walk away amply satisfied. Go figure. Damon’s expression rarely changes throughout the course of the film and though we’d like to see a character (a main one at that) smile, he’s dealing with memory loss. How many times did Leonard Shelby in “Memento” smile? Right. The movie combines the right elements of a spy movie, action movie and even a few elements of a love story to sustain viewers. As mentioned before, the movie was successful enough to spawn a sequel – “The Bourne Supremacy” (no doubt the reason for this new DVD…more on that later), but time will tell if they’ll be able to create the trilogy. I found “The Bourne Identity” a rather good action movie that doesn’t really follow the blueprint for the rest out there. Fans of the genre or fans of Mr. Damon, will most certainly want to check this DVD out.
Video: How does it look?
“The Bourne Identity” is presented in a brilliant 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer. The film varies from extremely over saturated to the blackness of night. That being said, it’s hard to really nail down exactly how good it looks until you compare it with some other recent films. I saw no evidence of artifacting, no edge enhancement, but I did notice some dirt on the print. This is never a good thing. A few of the scenes seemed a bit soft, but nothing that leapt out as being “bad”. This appears to be the same transfer as the first edition as the “extended” scenes are shown in a non-amamorphic widescreen format.
Audio: How does it sound?
The first edition of this movie (on DVD) had a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and a DTS soundtrack as well, this is noticeably absent on the new version, so it’s tough to recommend this based on the audio. Don’t get me wrong, the DD 5.1 track is good and it will give your speakers a workout, but the absence of a DTS track (when it does exist on Region 1 DVD) is a bit disheartening. Dialogue seemed clear and natural and though there aren’t quite as many explosions as one might expect, what few there were did sound good. Surrounds kick in at the appropriate times and add some much needed depth to the track. Again, a bit disappointing on the lack of DTS, but viewers should be happy with what’s offered here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Ok, I’ve been pretty fair to this DVD so far, but here’s where I say what’s what…first, this is entitled the “Explosive Extended Edition” that features a new beginning and ending. Let me set the record straight when I say that this is not a better disc than the original. First off, we lose the audio commentary by Director Doug Liman and then we lose the DTS soundtrack. The original had the alternate ending, so what you really get is the alternate beginning, which was changed due to 9/11. That being said, the picture and audio are exactly the same as the previous version, so no debate there. What you really get with this version (conveniently coming out just a week before the sequel, “The Bourne Supremacy”) is a bunch of featurettes and a free pass to see the sequel (which admittedly is good…if you pick up the disc in the next month. However you might be SOL if you get this for Christmas). What is carried over from the previous edition are the DVD-ROM materials, the “Extreme Ways” music video by Moby and the deleted scenes. What you get are some featurettes about the author – “The Bourne Mastermind”. There’s a look at Covert Ops, which was actually fairly interesting, that tells of the CIA training and how realistic Damon’s character was portrayed. There’s a look at how the script emerged and how the fights were choreographed. That’s it in a nutshell. I’m really at a loss here as to what to recommend. On one hand you have a perfectly good disc with a commentary by the director and a great DTS soundtrack, but if you’re more into featurettes (and don’t care about sound and commentaries), then this might be more for you. Either way you cut it, “The Bourne Identity” is a great movie and whichever version you choose, you’ll get your money out of. I’m just trying to understand the logic here as this seems more like an “Alternate Version” as opposed to an “Ultimate Version”.
