The Bourne Identity

The Bourne Identity (2002) changed how action films are shot, and it did so by removing something: the spectacle. Jason Bourne is pulled out of the sea with bullet wounds and no memory of who he is. He has a Swiss account number and several passports. As he tries to reconstruct himself, people start arriving to kill him. Doug Liman chose to hold the camera by hand, shoot the fights close, and cut fast. Instead of the wide, elegant action of the Bond films he put something cramped, ugly and quick on screen. Almost every action film of the following decade copied it. The fight in the apartment involving a pen is among the most cited hand to hand sequences in cinema. What defines Bourne is not that he is strong but that he is prepared. He walks into a room and counts the exits. That is the whole character. Franka Potente's Marie is not a character waiting to be rescued, which was rare for the genre at that point. Good for: spy thrillers, grounded action, and the start of a series. Less good for: there is violence, though it is not excessive. Anyone expecting large scale action spectacle will not find it. The small scale is the point.