This is the deal: I own around 350 movies on DVD and Blu-ray. Through June 10, 2015, I will be watching and writing about them all, in the order they are arranged on my shelf (i.e., alphabetically, with certain exceptions). No movie will be left unwatched . I welcome your comments, your words of encouragement and your declarations of my insanity.
Movie #36: The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Supremacy is a transitional movie, there is no denying it. Its structure and purpose is to get us from where we were in The Bourne Identity, to where we have to be in The Bourne Ultimatum. But where most transitional movies fall short, not supplying enough of a plot of their own to stand as separate films, this one focuses on the twist of a conspiracy within the former Treadstone, tying together the first film with the third, but also working as its own separate mystery.
It starts with some nefarious goings on in Berlin that thwart the operation of CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) that will set her hot on Bourne’s trail. We are brought back to Jason and Marie still living in bliss off the grid in India, and then Marie is quickly dispatched by some bad guys (by accident — they were after Bourne) because she has served her purpose as a plot device in the last film and her death will serve as motivation for Bourne in this one.
This time the structure is different, because the audience knows who Bourne is now, and knows he’s being framed for something. What that something is will be resolved by the end, but it will also provide a window into the events of the next movie, where everything is laid bare. We even get two closing scenes that will carry into the next movie: Bourne’s meet up with Irena Neski in Russia, immediately after which Ultimatum will pick up, and a scene much later in the timeline, that will feature prominently near the climax of Ultimatum, when Bourne is back in New York, calling Landy from a rooftop with a clear view of her through an office window — a trick used to get effect earlier in this film as well.
Julia Stiles is back as Nicky, and while she does do some grovelling here, it’s while Damon’s Bourne has a gun to her head, so I’ll allow it. Joan Allen’s presence only adds to the strength brought to the film by Nicky — she’s decisive, authoritative, intelligent, focused, and in charge. I’m not sure if the film technically passes the Bechdel test, given that Nicky and Pamela only talk about Bourne, but since Bourne is the target of a CIA investigation that is their job and not some dude one or both of them happen to be crushing on, I’m going to say that it does, which, for action films, is kind of a big deal.
I always watch these movies, with Bourne in and out of almost every different country in Europe, with a bit of curiosity about the feasibility of that. I know he’s a super spy or whatever, but as a regular person, how easy is it to just travel across Europe? Having only ever been across the ocean to England, I don’t really know. I think that means a trip to France is in order. And maybe Russia. I took Russian in college, so any movie set in Russia (which this is, at the end), I always watch intently for Cyrillic, trying to at least sound out the words, even if I have no chance of gauging what they mean. Here the Cyrillic goes by a little too fast for me to do it without slowing the movie down, so I don’t really catch most of it.
However, even with its frenetic pace and furiously chaotic chase and fight scenes, The Bourne Supremacy still is filmed in such a way as to allow me to follow what’s happening in the chase or brawl. More and more recently, films are sequencing these things so chaotically, with such close and quick-cut editing, that it’s impossible to tell what’s going on. This one, it’s still quite clear. We’ll have to see if that changes by the time we get to The Bourne Ultimatum.
Viable Option 