The Bourne Identity Movie Citation

Going to the movies is a favorite leisure activity for people not only in the US but also around the world. Some people like sappy romantic comedies, some love animated movies voiced by their favorite funny actors, and some prefer action movies. I personally love an action thriller and these movies are always at the top of my list, particularly when there's a series involved as is the case with the Bourne movies. At first glance, the Bourne series is a plot-heavy action flick involving a secret agent who does the CIA's bidding and the international affairs the CIA involves itself in. Upon further examination, however, this is the story of a soldier on a journey to understand himself and find absolution for the evil he has perpetrated by destroying

the evil itself. The cinematography, the words, actions, and expressed thoughts of Jason Bourne, and overreaching plot arcs emphasize the journey that Jason Bourne takes to reach the ultimate truth. The initial state of Jason Bourne at the beginning of the first movie indicates that he is confused and afraid of himself.

Imagine going to a mall and there are "wanted" posters of you all around the mall before you enter the mall. When you are in the mall all eyes are on you and people are whispering while staring at you and giving you dirty looks. You have no idea what is going on or how people know you. This is what our character experiences throughout the first movie, The Bourne Identity. There are many scenes that underscore this confusion. For example, Jason Bourne has no idea where he learned the martial arts that he uses to escape police, nor the origin of his deposit box full of money, passports from different countries all around the world, and a gun. Furthermore, he cannot remember where he gained the ability to understand and speak very fluently languages other than English. Bourne expresses his concerns to the female lead at the diner: he knows the weight of the guy sitting at the bar, the license plate numbers of all six cars in the parking lot, and the safest route out of the diner. The scary part for Bourne is the fact that he doesn't know how he obtained this knowledge. All of these plot points, the way the other characters view Bourne, and what Jason Bourne says to other characters underscore the soldier's sense of confusion and fear in relation to himself and

his background. Jason Bourne's sense of confusion is also underscored by the use of Shaky Cam cinematography. Throughout the entire first movie and much of the second, the soldier is on the run from the local cops, the officials of the American embassy, and the CIA. Bourne is thinking fast, but is also fearful. The camera work in these scenes is jerky. Instead of being mounted on a tripod, the camera feels to the viewer as if it is hand-held. It is as if the viewer is running, jumping, and driving along with Bourne and experiencing his same sense of confusion. The Shaky Cam starts when Jason attacks the officers in the park, followed by when he is running from the cops after the bank scene and then the fight in the American embassy and running out from the embassy. The pervasive use of the Shaky Cam technique in the beginning of the movie heightens the sense that Bourne is confused. By now, Jason Bourne is starting to understand that he is not one of the good guys. This is the same thought in the mind of Marie (Bourne's stranger turned traveling companion). However, the journey continues literally and figuratively on the drive from Paris to Zurich. We have a break from the Shaky Cam cinematography, and Bourne's conversation with Marie humanizes him. He realizes for the first time on this long car trip that he is not on the run. He is in the company of a total stranger who is not trying to arrest or kill him and he is at peace. It is during this journey with Marie that Bourne starts to deviate from the role of lethal assassin. While the CIA expects that Bourne will kill Marie because she is slowing him down, we see that Bourne starts to develop feelings for his travel companion. When in his house in Paris he is looking for the intruder, and Bourne drops the only weapon in his hand, a knife. He is hiding it from Marie so that she doesn't think of him as the bad guy. This shows that he cares for this person, and does not want her to think badly of him. Bourne also starts to show his change in nature when he forces Marie to travel with him since he knows that if she were to stay behind she would be killed. If Jason were still the same person he once was, a weapon trained to kill, he would leave Marie to her fate. Instead he opts to do the right thing. He is falling in love with Marie, and this marks a transition on Bourne's journey. He is changing from trained assassin to a human being with a heart. The importance of these choices on the journey of Jason Bourne is again underscored by the use of the Shaky Cam technique. The director uses the technique to increase the intensity of the scene. The car chase scene is shot so that the viewers get the experience of being in the scene. Whenever the shot is from inside the car throughout the chase, the camera is shaking. The drifts, the sudden acceleration and brakes and the driving down the stairs, all are shown with shaky cam and short cut scenes, to make the moment look really fast and intense. While the Shaky Cam heightens the confused feelings, it also represents Jason Bourne's internal struggle as he transitions out of his role as a heartless CIA agent. Bourne's humanization is also evidenced at their stop at Marie's brother's house. Here again Bourne's words and actions show that he is, after all, a good person. He is standing over Marie's brother's children beds while they are sleeping. He lets Marie know that the children were so innocent and he would hate himself if something happened to them. The next morning instead of leaving the family to their fate and going after the assassin he first gets the family to safety. This is important because he is putting other people's survival before his own. There are other moments that also represent Bourne's transition to his new humanized self. The main character has a flashback to the point at which he first realized his actions could harm innocent people. Jason was ordered to assassinate a political head, but did not do it because the politician's children were in the same room with him. When Bourne has the flashback, the scene for the memory return is shaky and blurry, like when you actually try to remember a dream in real life. This way the director showed us the experience of being in the scene and underlined its importance in Jason's journey. At this point, Jason has a good idea of who he was - a heartless assassin. He also has had the recent revelation that he can opt for good. Furthermore, the company of Marie gives him a newfound sense of hope that he can start over. Here Jason decides that he no longer wants to know what his past was, but just wants out of the spider's web. He does not wish to be trapped in it. He does not want to work for the bad guys and he does not want to do bad things. He wants to run away from the evil. The director has underscored the mood of the character with the setting of the movie up until this point. When Jason is feeling confused, angry, and depressed, the director made the setting as real as possible by making the background as dull as possible. Towards the end, Jason reunites with Marie and feels hopeful and happy. The scene is shot in a pleasant, bright city along the coast. We see blue water, clear sky, a cool breeze and bright colored buildings. The scene is set for a relaxing mood. This connects straight to the viewers that the chase is over and it's a happy ending. The happy feeling does not last long. The opening of the second movie, The Bourne Supermacy, begins with the Shaky Cam technique. This cinematic technique along with the dull, hot, and humid weather in India foreshadows that something bad is about to happen. Sure enough, Jason and Marie are suddenly running from an assassin who was sent to kill Jason. Jason survives, but the assassin shoots Marie in the head and the car jumps off the bridge and lands in the water below.
The scene in which the protagonist discovers that Marie is dead and her body floats away is filmed underwater, with a green background. The green effect is carried throughout the remainder of the movie as Jason transitions into the next stage on his journey: a revenge streak. I think this was the director's way of showing that Jason's action are directly related to his loss of Marie. Her dead body in the green water is still running in his unconscious part of the brain. As Bourne seeks revenge by hunting down the head of the Treadstone Project, he realizes that he's hurt more innocent people. In Berlin, he finds out that he killed a Russian politician and his wife; he made it look like a murder-suicide. He also finds out that although this was his first mission it was not in the records, that he was used by the corrupt heads of the organization to cover up their bad deeds. Bourne locates the Russian politician's only daughter to let her know the truth: her mother did not kill her father, in fact, Jason did. This gives the daughter closure and the confession marks the beginning of Jason's final stage in his journey: absolution. The plot underscores the fact that Jason is wrapping up these loose ends. He visits Marie's brother to give him closure about her death. He also tries to save a reporter who was exposing Treadstone and was thus in danger from the CIA. But Jason again tried to do a good deed. We also meet another character named Nicky Parson, who was married to Bourne before the amnesia. We again see Jason's soft side which was lost after Marie's death. It should be noted that the scenery transitions back into bright colors as opposed to the muted colors of the second movie. This gives a sense of hopefulness as Jason seeks redemption. After Marie's death, this was the point where Jason decides that the evil has to be destroyed. There is no running from the devil, the CIA, and his own past evil deeds. Bourne realized that he could stop only when the root of all the problems was destroyed. The only way to seek redemption is to kill the operation that created him and expose the leaders to the public and the law, to cut the serpent's head off. This is the core point of The Bourne Ultimatum: the true transition of Jason from bad to good and his path to reach the ultimate truth. At first glance Bourne movies seem like just another action movie. Instead, it's an epic story about one man's journey to find himself and the ultimate truth. By destroying the operation and exposing the officials responsible, he attains a moral redemption. The past cannot be changed but the future can be decided on what kind of fate one wants. Even though Jason's journey is long and circuitous, it's also realistic because it reflects what happens in the viewers life. No one can change overnight, real changes take time. The director has done good job in providing the cues to the viewer about the different stages in Jason's journey, including utilization of the broad strokes of the plot, color, setting and camera techniques. Ultimately there was no clear path as Bourne has to choose bad first, as there was no easy way to kill the Treadstone project. This makes the movie more realistic as no persons path from bad to good is direct or easy.