The Bourne Supremacy

I quite enjoyed The Bourne Identity when I first watched it, and so I decided that buying the next two films would be a worthwhile investment. Having now watched The Bourne Supremacy I can say that it was a good buy. It follows on from The Bourne Identity, and yet feels like a much more modern and gritty film, which is to its benefit.

Following the death of Marie (the girl who helped Bourne in the first film), Jason Bourne seeks revenge and tries to follow a trail from his past which leads him to the death of a diplomat and his wife in Berlin. In much the same way as The Bourne Identity, the plot unfolds in a very engaging way and has intricate little twists and turns to keep you interested. With a couple of exciting car chases thrown into the mix as well, The Bourne Supremacy is a very entertaining action movie.

However you do have to keep your eyes trained to the screen. The first time I saw The Bourne Supremacy, I made the mistake of trying to dip in and out of it. This didn’t really go very well for me. There’s quite a lot going on and so I would advise making sure that you know what is going on most of the time. There are several plots within the main plot and quite a few characters to keep track of, so it is quite advantageous to know who is who and what is going on.

Matt Damon reprises his role as Jason Bourne from the first film, and is every bit as well cast as before. The character of Bourne appears to perfectly suit Matt Damon and he does as well in this film as he did in the previous film. While I don’t think Jason Bourne will ever be as iconic as, say, James Bond, Matt Damon’s performance in both The Bourne Identity and Supremacy have ensured that the Bourne films are a modern action favourite.

While Matt Damon is very impressive in The Bourne Supremacy, the supporting cast is fairly anonymous. This makes it rather difficult to follow who is who and it is quite easy to get lost. Despite being rather critical of her in my review of Identity, it was good to see Franka Potente back as Marie, albeit briefly. A couple more flashbacks would have made it easier for me to remember who Ward Abbott (Brian Cox), but this was not a major problem. I did like Karl Urban as Kirill and was quite surprised to learn when researching this post that he played Eomer in The Lord of the Rings. In The Bourne Supremacy he is quite a background villain, and is as memorable as the secondary villain in many of the James Bond films. However, he is very good in his role and the character he plays is a fitting target for Bourne’s revenge. I particularly liked Joan Allen as Pamela Landy and thought that she was quite dislikable early on as she played the typical American intelligence officer who is seeking her target. However, throughout the film she becomes slightly more likable for me. By the end of the film I was quite sympathetic with her, and looked forward to the next installment to see how her relationship with Bourne played out.

There’s not much that marks out The Bourne Supremacy as an incredible film. It is a suitable follow up to The Bourne Identity and nicely sets up The Bourne Ultimatum. It is a modern action film that fits the mould perfectly. It isn’t necessary to have seen the first film in order to understand the second, but it can’t hurt to get a bit of background can it? Overall, it is probably one to watch, but I don’t think it is essential.

Saving Private Ryan

First of all, this post is coming a day later than normal. I was moving house yesterday and there was a bit too much going on for me to post. I hope no-one minds this coming on Sunday. This one is about Saving Private Ryan.

In my opinion, Saving Private Ryan is the definitive modern war film. It is an absolutely classic film, and one of Steven Spielberg’s greatest. It follows a group of soldiers who are on a mission to save Private Ryan. All of his brothers have been killed in action and the American high command feel that sending Private Ryan home is the best thing to do for his mother. The soldiers, led by Tom Hanks, track down Private Ryan and attempt to take him away from the war.

Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, who is in command of the group of soldiers. There is a certain air of mystery about him for the majority of the film because while we find out little bits about the other soldiers we know very little about him. Tom Hanks is absolutely marvellous in this role though. As with most of his roles, the emotion he puts into his character is phenomenal and his command of the screen is incredibly engaging. His role as Captain Miller just adds to the long list of phenomenal roles Tom Hanks has starred in. His dedication is amazing, and the hand tremor that his character shows for much of the film is so perfectly portrayed by Hanks that it is slightly present even when it is not in focus. There’s not really much else to say about him in this role though. There’s not much more to it. He’s fantastic.

Despite being the title character, Private Ryan (Matt Damon) isn't in the film for very long at all. The band of soldiers finds him very late on, and from there the film is building up to the final battle. Matt Damon does very well in this role, but it is quite difficult to critique him too much because he just isn't in it for very long.

It is the other soldiers that I want to talk about. The band of actors who play the soldiers in Captain Miller’s command are a joy to watch. Between them they manage to perfectly convey the little family that each troop comes to represent, and the collective grief, anger and shock when one is killed is portrayed fantastically. Each actor brings a fantastic sense of camaraderie to the film. They are all very likeable in their own individual way, and there are a lot of familiar faces in there. Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi (from Friends), Adam Goldberg (Friends and A Beautiful Mind), Barry Pepper (The Green Mile, Enemy of the State, True Grit) and Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor) jumped out at me. Jeremy Davies particularly excelled for me though, as the nervous and obviously out of place Upham. He is taken from his ‘desk job’ and planted into full combat, and does very well conveying this struggle. I found myself liking Upham increasingly right up until the final battle where his lack of hardened soldier-ness shines through. In many ways it is this team of soldiers that completes the film, rather than one actor.

Saving Private Ryan is a horribly honest film. Its depiction of the war is horrendously graphic. The scene at the beginning where the soldiers are taking the beach is one of the most graphic and gory scenes I have ever watched. The effects were absolutely phenomenal and the wounds that they convey are 100% believable. The whole thing is very gritty and is the most accurate depiction of a war that I have ever seen (though I have never been in a war so I don’t have anything to compare it to). This can only be a good thing. No film should ever try to depict a war if it is not whole-heartedly conveying just how horrendous and graphic it is. The first half and hour left me a bit shocked, so you can only imagine what it must have been like to have witnesses it first hand.

The direction of the film is breathtaking as well. Spielberg continues his interest with the Second World War and makes the film as nail-biting and realistic as is possible. Some of his off-screen direction is what really credits his abilities as a director though. The actors playing the soldiers were trained for military portrayals, and Matt Damon was deliberately left out of this so that he would be resented by the group. This comes across beautifully in the film, and the sincerity with which the soldiers question the loss of a fellow officer for one Private pays testament to this. Also, Spielberg did not storyboard the first battle scene because he wanted it to be spontaneous. It certainly is that, and the action that plays out in front of you is very impressive.

Saving Private Ryan is the ultimate war film, and is a wonderful piece of cinema. I can’t say much beyond impressing the importance of the film. Simply for the reality it portrays and for the engaging atmosphere of the whole thing this is not a film to miss. It should be a must-see on everybody’s list.

The Bourne Identity

After I watched The Bourne Identity I immediately wished that I have watched when I was a few years younger. In my teenage years I know I would have absolutely loved it. It is an action packed film about a man who is on the hunt to find out exactly who he is. The combination of intrigue, mystery and action all combine to create a film that should appeal to the kind of person who likes James Bond and other similar movies.

The plot is very clever. To start with, a man is pulled out of the sea with two gunshots in his back. This is Jason Bourne, but he doesn't know this, as he has no memory of anything that has happened to put him in this situation. What follows is a desperate attempt to discover who he is and how he got there. What he doesn't realise is that the CIA are tracking him as well because of his involvement in an attempt of the life of an exiled African dictator. The twists and turns in the plot make this a very worthwhile watch and definitely made me want to watch the rest of the ‘Bourne’ films.

Matt Damon stars in the role of Jason Bourne, and puts in a good performance. He does a good job of creating a character who desperately wants to know who he is and what he has done, and creates an air of two separate characters. There is the pre-memory loss Bourne and the post-memory loss Bourne, and for Matt Damon to make these two characters so distinct is quite an achievement. It’s very difficult to be ‘incredible’ in this kind of role, and as a result I will settle for ‘convincing’. Matt Damon is very convincing as Bourne, and the success of the subsequent films must indicate that he is doing something right.

As with every film of this kind there is always a girl. The Bourne Identity manages quite well not to fall into the typical ‘Bond girl’ trap though. Throughout the course of his journey of self-discovery, Bourne is assisted by Marie, played by Franka Potente. Now it’s nothing to do with her acting, and is probably more to do with the nature of the film, but absolutely nothing jumped out at me about her role in this. I feel that you could have replaced her with any other female actor and she would have done an equally good job. In this kind of film, there is a lot less of a focus on the acting in general. It says a lot that despite its huge success across the world, the James Bond films have never won an Academy Award. They’re just not that kind of film. However, despite being quite anonymous, Potente does a good job of being ‘the girl’ in the film.

Throughout the film, Jason Bourne is being followed by Conklin from the CIA. Played by Chris Cooper, he is a difficult character to work out as you start to watch the film. This is where the twists and turns come in because I wasn't sure whether he was a good guy or a bad guy, and this makes the big twist at the end (about Bourne’s identity) quite interesting. Cooper does a very good job of playing Conklin, but I found it quite difficult to ‘believe’ in him. It may be that I’m trying too hard to analyse what is basically an action film, but I thought the character was just a bit fake. He seemed too artificial, and while this may have been the point, I couldn't help but notice it.

Overall though, The Bourne Identity is a very good film, and it is part of a series which I’m going to have to invest a bit more time and money in. In many ways it is similar to James Bond, in that it probably appeals more to men than to women, but I think it has a more engaging plot. If you sit down and get into it, you’ll find yourself enjoying it, and that can be no bad thing surely? 

The Departed

Once again I find myself writing about a film I've been dying to see for ages and finally have. With an all star cast, a fantastic director and great reviews from nearly everyone I know who has seen it, Academy Award winning film The Departed promised to be a very well spent two and a half hours. And it didn't disappoint.

While it was quite hard to follow at times, the plot was fantastic. It was full of little twists and turns that made for a brilliant anticipation of the climax at the end. With Leonardo di Caprio working his way closer to finding out who the mole in the police was, and Matt Damon working his way closer to finding out who the mole in Frank Costello's crew was, the realisation of the identity of the two traitors was brilliant. The way they solved it was equally exciting, and just when you thought that everything was going to work out, something happened to throw that into doubt.

The cast of this film is incredible. Jack Nicholson is always fantastic, and I don't think I've ever not enjoyed watching him act. As the leader of the gang in this film he came across as an extremely powerful and dangerous man (which I guess was the point), but there were hints of his performance as The Joker as well. He came across as slightly unhinged at one point, but generally exuded the power of a man who will smash another man's cast and broken hand repeatedly just to make sure he's not a policeman.

Leonardo di Caprio is very strong once again. Although he was a policeman of sorts for the whole film, his integration into Costello's gang meant that he came across as a bad guy, and this was refreshing because I don't think I've ever seen him as a bad guy. Nevertheless he was very good and was perfectly cast in this role in my opinion. His ability to flick between 'member of the gang' and 'convincing undercover cop' was good to see and the whole resulting scenes from his discovery of the police mole were thrilling.

These scenes would not have been complete without Matt Damon. One reason that the film is so thrilling is because right from the start the audience knows that Matt Damon and Leonardo di Caprio are the two traitors, and so you find yourself willing them both to discover the other, and urging them to pick up on clues, and admiring the irony of the police putting Matt Damon in charge of the hunt for the police mole. Generally I can't make up my mind on what I think about Matt Damon as an actor, but with The Departed I think I may have found a starting point for my appreciation of him. His role in the conclusion is thrilling, as I mentioned before, and he plays his part to perfection.

Now those three names: Nicholson, di Caprio and Damon, aren't bad names to have as the first billed actors on any film. The amazing thing about The Departed though is that they're not the only stars. Mark Wahlberg is brilliant as the wronged police officer who seeks his vengeance on the man who replaced him. Martin Sheen is the initial chief of the police who gets a bit too close to one of his moles. The appearances of Alec Baldwin, Ray Winstone and Vera Farmiga were delightful, and the roles that each of them played helped make this film that little bit more memorable. Obviously Ray Winstone was a non nonsense enforcer with a bit of an accent and taste for violence as ever, but in The Departed this works so well with the rest of the storyline that it fits perfectly.

Martin Scorsese is a genius. He has directed far too many of my favourite films for me not to absolutely love him, and with The Departed he does not disappoint. One thing I noticed was that several characters who die in the film is warned of this with a little 'X' in the shot before they die. This little tip of the cap to the 1932 'Scarface' is fantastically applied in The Departed, and with so many people dying, this helps the audience keep up, but only if they notice it. This is widely considered by film critics to be Scorsese's finest work since Goodfellas. While I cannot argue that it is a fantastic film, there are others that I prefer more. However, anyone who likes a Scorsese film has to see The Departed.

The Departed is a action-packed thrill ride of guns, blood, twists, turns and terrific actors. Yes it's difficult to follow at times. Yes it's quite heavy to watch. Yes you should see it though. It won 'Best Picture' for a reason, and what that reason is does not take much working out. It's simply fantastic and I would strongly recommend giving it a watch.