The Bourne Identity

Bourne Again

The Bourne Identity
USA/Germany/Czech Republic 2002
Directed by Doug Liman
Universal Films Blu Ray Zone B

What a great film. 

It’s been around 15 years since I last revisited this version of The Bourne Identity but I remember still the very first time I saw it at my local multiplex back in September 2002. I wasn’t expecting much from the film and I hadn’t at that time read Robert Ludlum’s original novel (which probably helps... it’s a loose adaptation at best) and I also hadn’t seen the original version starring Richard Chamberlain in the title role. This one, co-produced by Ludlum himself, who died before post-production was finished, was something Liman had wanted to make and I think Ludlum was not happy with the Chamberlain version. Whether he would have been happy with this version is anybody’s guess but... I’m pretty sure he would have hated the sequels, which have almost nothing in common with the novels on which they purport to be based.

All I can say is, I remember being overwhelmed when, quite against my expectations, this first movie in the series turned out to be incredibly good cinema. The hand held responsive camera work, the standout performances by Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen and Julia Stiles, plus the somewhat aggressive editing style which, no matter how choppy it gets in certain sequences, doesn’t confuse the viewer as much as the sequels would later (I’ll get into that when I review those films for this blog... coming soon)... they all add up to a pacey film which doesn’t let huge action sequences get in the way of both the story and some incredibly good character work from the performers.

One reservation I had is Matt Damon. He’s always been a great actor but he seems somewhat too young for the role. Or rather, he actually isn’t too young for the part... he just looks it. However, he does such a credible job and handles himself so well during the fight scenes (some of which were apparently done without a stuntman), that he totally manages to sell the movie. And, of course, the always marvellous Franka Potente, star of the phenomenal Run Lola Run, is so much more an interesting version of the character she plays and seems to bring more depth to the role than what a cookie cutter American actress might have done with it, it seems to me.

About that camerawork, some of it was handled by Liman himself (and I really wish this director had stayed around for the sequels) and some of it was by Oliver Wood, who was deliberately left out of some of the rehearsals so he could actually respond with the camera to where the action goes, rather than know where he was going. It’s an interesting idea and, since the camera is sometimes late to make a movement because of this, it does give the film a certain feeling which puts the audience right there in the events, as if they were responding to what was going on around them, in a different way to how some other films manage it.

The way the story is handled is great too... although it could have done with more of Marie (Franka Potente) in it, in terms of the importance of her character in the books. We start off totally in the dark as to who or what Bourne is, just like the character... although Liman does put in the odd scene or two early on of the CIA who are trying to track and kill their own operative, not knowing why Bourne has ‘gone rogue’. In the early appearances of the CIA manhunt scenes, they’re literally there to keep the audience warm as to the fact that something ‘fighty-punchy’ will eventually happen. Another scene early on where Bourne casually takes down two policeman, not knowing how he’s doing it, serves as a similar reminder to the audience that the slower pacing (for an American film) is going to get more action oriented as the movie progresses.

Lastly, I should probably mention John Powell’s absolutely brilliant score. The main title music and it’s use in the film plus other wonderful themes including the Treadstone theme (sadly and mysteriously absent from Powell’s own revisiting of the score in a composer’s cut, decades later) are absolutely top notch and the modern, almost techno style orchestrations really help carry the load, especially the strings section going into overdrive with repeat motifs to build suspense in certain scenes. Actually, that’s the one constant in four of the five films starring Matt Damon’s interpretation of Jason Bourne (both the character and actor are absent for the fourth off the five movies which, ironically, seems to me to be the best of the sequels)... no matter what you may think of those sequels, Powell’s scores for these are a powerhouse and also a great listen away from the images they were written to accompany. I’ve had the CDs for these movies on many spins over the years.

And that’s my take on this version of The Bourne Identity (and I will get around to the Chamberlain version, which I bought over twelve years ago but still haven’t reached that point where I need to watch it as yet). Despite the seeming age of the lead actor, this is truly one of the great modern spy films... normally I’d stick to the sixties classics in terms of that genre but, yeah, this one is a great movie and it certainly deserved the success it got. If you’ve never seen this one, seek it out and give it a go.

The Conjuring 2

Warren Piece

The Conjuring 2 - The Enfield Case
2016 USA Directed by James Wan
UK cinema release print.

With special thanks to my good friend Doctor Rob Wilson for providing the exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ pictures while The Conjuring 2 was filming last year, three of which are pictured above.

When I reviewed The Conjuring, also directed by James Wan, a few years ago... I proclaimed that it was essentially one of the all time great, classic horror films (you can read that review here). There was a spin off film about the spooky doll who featured in that film, Annabelle (review here) but this was not exactly the classic that The Conjuring was, to be fair. As far as the original film goes, though, I still believe that it’s going to be even more well thought of in, say, 40 years time, than it is now. Definitely it will be hailed and remembered as one of the all time greats of the genre... I'm pretty sure about that.

Now The Conjuring 2, which has the subtitle The Enfield Case, at least for the British public, is also not quite the classic that the first movie was and, frankly, how could it be? That being said, it certainly doesn’t stop lightening from striking twice in that it’s still a beautifully put together horror movie and it lives up to the high standards of that first outing pretty well. If you go and see this next adventure from the real life files of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s case books, played charmingly again by the wonderful duo of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, it really won’t leave any bitter taste in your mouth and it’s a true, spiritual sequel to that first, opening movie a couple of years ago.

I had an extra reason for wanting to catch this sequel as soon as possible and so I went on the Monday night it opened in my local cinema, which is an unusual day to release a movie on over here in the UK. That reason being that the main narrative of the movie is actually set (and also shot) not very far from where I’ve been living the last 40 years. I moved to the Enfield of the story back in 1976, after surviving a mind bogglingly strange car accident, which I won’t go into here. The stuff which was happening in this film started happening a year later in 1977 and it was a bit of a local myth around town at the time. I personally didn’t hear quite so much about it because I spent two years being home schooled due to the accident I had but it was featured on a lot of TV shows at the time... the late 1970s in Enfield was the zeitgeist of the poltergeist, I guess.

The movie starts off completely differently to how I thought it would... actually picking back up with the Warrens’ not long after we left them in the last movie, when they were going to investigate a certain, extremely famous haunting which was also one of their cases. So things pick up here with a seance style session within that investigation around what many people now know as... The Amityville Horror. In fact, the set designers choose to pick up on the architectural design of the 1970s movie but, instead of seeing those big ‘eye’-conic windows from the outside, we see them from inside the house. This opening sequence which has Lorraine leaving her body and going through some disturbing visions isn’t just to remind us who the characters are, either... but I’m trying to do this without spoilers so I won’t go into too much detail here.

Once again, James Wan and his crew prove themselves to be absolute masters of this kind of genre horror movie, with long lingering shots that dwell at places where you can either see or imagine details which may or may not be important. Everything is timed pretty perfectly, which anyone who has seen some of the horror movies coming out over the last few years knows isn’t a given, and the movement of the camera combined with the slow discovery by the actors or the frantic mad dashes for escape or engagement with various evil forces, does a lot to help the director ratchet up the tension to almost unbearable levels at some points.

And, of course, one of the best ingredients of the first film is carried over into this one... in that all the human characters are really nice people who you would not wish to see any of this stuff happening to. Farmiga and Wilson excel at playing these two characters and their level of charm is completely off the scale. They portray the couple as so ‘in love’ and that really helps ground the horror film and also, of course, increases the emotional stakes. The scene where Wilson plays the guitar and imitates Elvis is such a great scene which might have slowed down the whole film in the hands of another director and editor... but presented as it is here, it does wonders for the movie. The two leads are coupled with a bunch of actors and actresses who are absolutely faultless, with special shout outs to Madison Wolfe and Frances O’ Connor, as the main troubled daughter and her mother. In fact, the whole cast manage to accurately bring to life the stresses and camaraderie that living in this particular town at this particular time was like and it really rang true for me. I remember people like this from my childhood. They even got Franka Potente in there as a sceptical researcher and it was good seeing her on screen again.

So, of course, you totally fear for them all.

Especially when the writers fling further tension at the audience in an earlyish part of the picture involving Lorraine’s vision of Ed’s death in a specific manner which you are just waiting to half happen all the way through the movie. You know there’s going to be a high stress moment coming at some point in the movie and... well... yeah, the iconography from the vision certainly comes into play at one point in the running time.

There’s one thing which I did find silly in that the girls are reported here as going to Enfield Grammar School, and it seems to have been shot there too. I know because that’s my old school and I recognised quite a lot of it. However, I should probably point out that, in real life, the girls didn’t go there because, well... it was an all boys school. So I did find that kinda curious but I guess it was done to give something with more recognition value for audiences, in terms of the name of the school and reminding the audience where the majority of the movie is set when transitioning between countries at certain points for establishing shots.

However, this is really the only thing I noticed as maybe not ringing true, well, apart from all the ridiculous, over the top stuff which is part and parcel of these kinds of films. And the movie does, of course, benefit from having another of Joseph Bishara’s marvellously effective horror scores. It’s got a slightly different tone from most of his other horror work, as did the score to the previous Conjuring movie he worked on and he really does quality and supportive work in this field. I just wish somebody would give him some other genres to work in so we can hear what else his compositional voice is capable of. Great score though and you can bet I’ll be snagging a CD when that’s released (in fact, it turns out it's only available on a proper physical format from US amazon so... head over to their website if you want a credible version of the music).

And that’s all I’ve got for this one. A generally spooky film which, although not quite as great as the first one in the series, certainly lives up to the former film’s reputation and it deserves the success it’s already garnering at the box office. Hopefully a rich box office will mean we can see Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprise their roles as Ed and Lorraine sooner rather than later. It’s like they were born to play these characters and I certainly want to see more of them. If you liked the first movie or even you didn’t see that one, The Conjuring 2 - The Enfield Case is well worth some of your time if you’re a horror movie afficionado. A masterful approach to the subject material and I hope James Wan also comes back for a third go with these characters.