The Bourne Identity

In 2002 the Bourne Identity hit the theatres and new spy movie franchise was born. This was also the year of Die Another Day, the last James Bond movie starring Pierce Brosnan. Where Jason Bourne is in search of his identity in the movie one could say that James Bond has been looking for his new identity ever since Sean Connery quit the role. Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton did not succeed and probably many also disliked Pierce Brosnan’s interpretation of the character. Compared to the 2002 James Bond Jason Bourne is a spie of another kind, unseen at that time. Absolutely brutal, violent, psychopathically switching from your average nice guy into a ruthless killer in the blink of an eye. But also smart, tactically cunning, always putting his opponents on the wrong foot. Watching it the first time the discovery of who Jason Bourne is works really well and turns the movie into a mix of detective story and action thriller. Not knowing what will come adds to the tension. But even without this when watching again this movie is still gripping. The hunt for Jason is relentless, every confrontation a merciless fight to the death. There is also no clear good versus evil here, no killing for the justified cause to save the world. Only killing for shady black ops reasons or to stay alive and to escape from killing done in the past without gadgets and often in the most ‘primitive’ way in combat at close quarters. Still brilliant 20 years later.