Bourne to Survive. Review on The Bourne Identity Movie

Bourne Identity is the screen adaptation of the Robert Ludlum bestseller by the same name. The fiction is first in the series of a Triology where the Protagonist Jason Bourne takes centrestage. The movie certainly belongs to the genre of Fast Paced Action Ridden Spy Flicks. Ludlum has specialised in demonstrating the numerous shades of human psychology in an effective manner. The movie showcases the enigmatic depiction of what Ludlum had pertinently preserved in the scintillating fictional masterpiece.

The movie starts with a fishing vessel braving the incoherent storm in the distant Mediterranean. Quite contrary to whatever happened in movies like The Perfect Storm or 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, a bullet ridden body is found floating in the froth. Soon, the fishermen are happy to resuscitate the man who seems to be all perplexed seeing the frenzy around him and gets violent the moment a surgeon excavates a Laser Beam Sensor implanted in his body along with the bullets, of course. The Sensor trails to a Swiss Bank account which the victim is unable to account for & more than that, he simply can't remember who he is. He Has Undergone A Worst Form of Brain Wash Or Call It Brain Damage.

Moments later, The hero Jason Bourne as he finds out an Identity after virtually swooping down on a Zurich Bank and claiming his antecedents which range from at least six different passports & foreign currency of different flavours in his name to a couple of Guns, is ON THE RUN. The CIA is after him & he is ignorant of their seemingly clandestine intentions. Soon, he bumps into the petite Marie Kreutz, a nomadic German who is offered a handsome $20,000 (50% in advance & 50% afterwards) to drive him into an hitherto unknown Apartment in Paris which the Once Alive,Now Officially Dead Jason inhabited. Then follows a Roller Coaster ride of sizzling action, drop-dead stunts and hair-raising Car Chases. The CIA boss Ted Conklin is hell-bent on getting him dead after he has realized that the initial attempt to kill Jason in the sea has ended up in a blunder. Some where down the line we seem to get a clearer picture as to how Jason, a CIA-Assassin had surrendered to his emotional inhibitions to get the better of an African Rebel Lord and thus, failed to carry out the duty assigned to him which led to his being earmarked as a failed agent by CIA and so on... Also the effervescent Marie,though initially tempted towards the Dollar Dreams develops an emotional attachment with Jason and as destined, gets entangled in this deadly cat & mouse Spy game while the joint photographs of Jason & Marie are splashed across almost all the newspapers of Switzerland, France & the Neighbouring countries as being in the list of wanted criminals. The rest of the movie is all about the attempts to survive & should be watched to derive the maximum pleasure. Although, I won't reveal the climax, I'd assure that it's not one of those Titanic kind of tragedies. It does have a happy ending.

Now, let's take a look at the credits. It's Matt Damon all the way who puts in a restrained yet exceedingly powerful performance as an Amnesiac. He runs, whirls, kicks, punches, jumps and literally brings the character of Jason alive with elan. His expressive eyes & subtle mannerisms convey the disturbed state of mind he harbours. The scene where he pleads with Marie to leave him in order to get away from the perils he's group to and the one where he looks indulgently at a little girl enjoying a night's sleep later breaking into a gentle sob saying 'Who Am I ?' as a visibly shaken Marie comforts her, have been given excellent coverage. Franka Potente shines as the vivacious Marie and proves a point or two. Her change of emotions blended with a sense of urgency goes down well with the theme. Chris Cooper as the ruthless, skin-saving CIA superior gets under the skin of the character aptly. The same can be said about Ted's number one played by Brian Cox whose loose character has been crafted pretty well. Clive Owen as the assassinator deployed by the CIA to erase Jason's life brings the suspense and thrilling factor alive, especially in the Cornflake field shootout, that's one of the best camouflage sequences I have ever seen. The Romantic angle between Jason & Marie is confined to a couple of kisses spanning just a few seconds and the movie doesn't have any form of vulgarity embedded.

The settings have been given a fresh lease of life with the banks & streets of Zurich actually stationed in Prague (Czech Republic). One of the high points of the movie is the Out-of-the-World car chase involving Jason & the CIA in the streets of Zurich. In my opinion the one staged in 'Ronin' gets the second spot. Matt has trained well in martial arts (I appreciate !!) and puts in a reasonably intelligent piece of Spy tactics. Oliver Wood's Cinematography captures the various hues of an European winter and John Powell's score is engrossing. The Director Doug Liman has left no stones unturned to propagate the movie in the most stylish of manners. Screen play by Tony Gilroy & WB Herron is suave and archaically attractive.

In Quest of Survival for Bourne to be reborn...