Dan's Papers - August 17, 2007 - The Bourne Ultiamtum

"We have seen the enemy and they are us," to quote humorist Walt Kelly's "Pogo." His observation aptly describes the United States' identity crisis, which, in turn, accounts for the villains in The Bourne Ultimatum being our own overly authoritarian government officials. As led by a self-aggrandized, self empowered, incompetent administration loathed around the world, KGB agents and Chinese nationals don't seem all that evil. Like Jason Bourne's search for his real identity, Americans are wondering if we are the jingoistic god-all-mighty, egocentric dolts that are ruling us. The search to discover our true selves is about as tough a task as Bourne's since his gauntlet run is explosively deadly. Not so funnily, so is the Administration's. Don't worry about Jason, he runs it as swiftly and dangerously as an ATG missile.

Cherubic Matt Damon as Jason Bourne has transformed himself into a bonafide, multi-million dollar action hero. Some may remember that he and his close pal, Ben Affleck, assumed the mantles of important action heroes in 2002. Affleck inherited Tom Clancey's Jack Ryan, from Harrison Ford who'd done it a few too many times and before Ford, Alec Baldwin chose to do "Streetcar" on Broadway! Damon got the Bourne role out of the blue. His first, The Bourne Identity led to The Bourne Supremacy in 2004 and now, the Ultimatum presumably the final as Jason has dug out his identity. Don't count on it as Damon jokes, " I might get conked on the head and, off we go again." And Ben Affleck? His career has tanked and he's trying directing. We hope he can come close to the success of Ultimatum's Director, British Paul Greengrass, who's acclaimed United 93 added a new phase to cinema's steadily evolving techniques. His work on the 2nd Bourne took movie making beyond the theatrical stage and, intricately into the fabric of the curtains and the fabric of the performer's internalizing. It is that close and intimate and, he does it all in a flash. He chews the curtains into shreds and seemingly spits it out creating a sort of Jackson Pollack-like swirl of imagery-just like action painting - he gives us a multi-faceted, instantaneous progression of encapsulated time. A fine match for a story that is essentially abstract.

The Bourne movies repulsively distance themselves from the James Bond root source of spy/thriller. Alike in literary bases, vocation and identical initials, Bourne's five year success prodded the James Bond producers to reboot their franchise with a spunkier 007. Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne was constructed as a Frankenstein's monster, created by intelligence as a killing machine. He was stripped of any memory of his life before his deadly purpose job for purity of action. The Bourne Ultimatum reveals that he voluntarily relinquished his previous life and his soul to protect America. However, power mad keepers callously misused him for their own malevolent purposes. Bourne's self-dictated goal is to recover his true identity and, by doing so, uncover the monstrous makers and, have revenge. The rotters are now throwing everything they have at him but he will not be stopped. Damon's Bourne is not a Super Spy or, a muscle-bulging action hero in the usual sense. He is diminutive and angelic looking though, as directed by Greengrass, Damon infuses his mission with a blazing intensive force that helps the director break the formal boundaries of the black bagcarrying CIA agent's genre. Sure, plenty of bodies are popped but the thrills come from the seriousness reeking from every sprocket of the film as the frames whiz by almost as fast as the story.

Jason Bourne had lost a meaningful love in Supremacy and now is completely alone, making it more important to protect his one time colleague Nicky Parsons, played by Julia Stiles, setting into motion the relentless chases: zig zagging roof top to roof top, train station to airports, country to country and fearsome situations to situations. Penetrating performers connect, reconnect and disconnect: Joan Allen as spy master Pamela Landy on Bourne's side, David Strathairn as Noah Vosen, head of an umbrella Black-ops program who dispatches "assets" to eliminate Bourne before he gets too close and Albert Finney as the mind altering man-god who twisted Bourne out of shape.

Bush's war is indicted by the film's use of his covert intelligence, the former CIA Black ops arm (real life Backwater security contractor) defined as "The sharp end, of the stick," it's a totally unfettered authority for warrantless surveillance and, extreme "tools" of interrogation. When Agent Landy asks Black-ops head, you go down this path and where does it end?" he answers coldly, " It ends when we've won." They're not winning.

Guy Jean de Fraumeni is the producer/writer/director of award-winning European and American feature films. He has been a judge at Major Film and TV award competitions, including the Oscars, the Emmy's and various film festivals. Sarah Halsey assists him.