The Prague Post
October 11th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre
Prague Real Estate

Home » Archives » Night & Day

Bourne again

Matt's back, and the CIA is running
Cinema Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Steffen Silvis
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 29th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
"We regret the delay. This is due to a body on Platform 5." Damon as Bourne.
enlarge
The Bourne Ultimatum

Directed by Paul Greengrass
With Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney and Joan Allen

In this year of triquels, with its Spider-Men, Pirates and Ocean’s however-many, the reappearance of Jason Bourne completing his own trinity could hardly be surprising.
The rogue CIA op, drained of his former identity, is back to battle the more nefarious aspects of the self-proclaimed “intelligence” agency, and action will invariably ensue. As it is directed by Paul Greengrass (the director of the second Bourne outing and, more impressively, United 93), The Bourne Ultimatum is taut. Greengrass is an expert at sustaining tension without having to continually resort to the firecracker box under his bed (though naturally there are plenty of explosions to be had here).
Secure in the hands of an expert, Greengrass’ film truly shows up the inadequacy of other recent American action films, such as Next and the idiotic Shooter. It also helps to have a fairly solid cast.
Matt Damon is back, for better or worse, considering he’s one of the modern screen’s leading nullities. Yet the role of Jason Bourne is tailor-made for Damon, whose dead eyes have always harbored the suggestion of Manchurian candidature. Who better to impersonate the brainwashed?
There are other return engagements from the Bourne Repertory Players, including Julia Stiles, who assumes the role of CIA agent Nicky Parsons for the third time, and the excellent Joan Allen, returning as Pamela Landy, another Langley spook.
As for the villains, all of whom are CIA as well, there’s the impressive troika of David Strathairn, Scott Glenn and Albert Finney. There’s also a fine, if brief, performance from Paddy Considine, who plays a Guardian journalist who will be eliminated by the forces for freedom and democracy in the middle of the concourse at Waterloo Station.
The episode above occurs at the top of the film, and sufficiently signals to the audience that The Bourne Ultimatum has a few liberal bones to pick with America. Unfortunately, the film’s attempts at symbolism (if such obvious ploys as “the CIA vs. The Guardian” can be so grandly named) are far too blatant, if not clubfooted at times.
Also, like some hellish fashion statement, images will yet again be conjured from Abu Ghraib. Evidently, it is beyond the competence of Hollywood screenwriters to internalize social anxieties rather than externalizing them showboat-style.
After his various mishaps in The Bourne Supremacy, Jason Bourne is back on the hunt for his identity. An old codeword from the past Bournes, Blackbriar, will serve as his best clue, and inevitably his very private investigation will lead him back to CIA headquarters.
Knowing that Bourne is getting close to solving his past, those who’ve climbed the agency’s culprit ladder will use all of their power within the government to have young Jason stopped. These include CIA Director Ezra Kramer (the wonderfully cadaverous Glenn), Deputy Director Noah Vosen (Strathairn), and, representing the dark kitchens of science, Dr. Albert Hirsch (Finney). Strange that all the villains should have Jewish names, but I digress.
Brought in to help track Bourne down is his former contact Pamela Landy, who quickly realizes that she is being used in a setup. A power struggle will erupt between Landy and Vosen, while Bourne is dodging bullets and breaking necks in London, Madrid, Tangiers and, eventually, New York.
In Madrid, Bourne hooks up with Nicky Parsons, who also realizes that he is being framed by her bosses. She tags along with Bourne to Tangiers, where she will be called upon to utilize all of her crack CIA training to become a damsel in distress. Bourne, thankfully, is there to save her. And so it goes. But, again, Greengrass keeps the claptrap clipping along.
The brand of paranoia present in The Bourne Ultimatum always creates an inverse effect. In fearing an entity (here the dreaded CIA), the paranoia ultimately invests the feared object with power that it doesn’t possess. Recent revelations on the bungling tenure of George Tenet at Langley, along with Tim Weiner’s scathing study, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, capture what one journalist has rightly called a “portrait of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.”
It must be weirdly exciting to think that this lunatic age we’re forced to inhabit has some conspiracy of masterminds behind it. The reality, unfortunately, is probably rather dull. But then “fact,” as Somerset Maugham said, “is a poor storyteller.”

Steffen Silvis can be reached at ssilvis@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (29/08/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Provokator
Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.