BOURNE IDENTITY, THE - Blu-ray review

Once upon a time there was this fledgling little format called HD-DVD. It did some pretty cool things Blu-ray could not do and Universal Home Video was one of the studios to take full advantage of what HD-DVD could do. One such trick that Blu-ray was not capable of pulling of was the "Combo Format" releases where Universal had a standard definition DVD platter glued to the rear of the HD-DVD platter. Because the two formats shared the same manufacturing capabilities, they could do this. Blu-ray was based on a manufacturing process similar to that of the old CD specification; I believe Red Book. It could not pull of the same trick and to provide consumers this capability a second DVD was simply included in the packaging. Technology has improved and now Universal is releasing single disc versions with Blu-ray and DVD merged and the "Bourne" trilogy is their first releases featuring the new "Blu-ray + DVD: Both Versions on One Disc" technology.

Starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, "The Bourne Identity" is about a CIA hitman who is suffering from a strong case of amnesia. He does not remember anything about himself, but has found a peaceful existence with some fishermen who saved him from drowning. Slowly, bits and pieces of his previous existence return to him and Bourne discovers he can speak a multitude of languages and also tie intricate knots, make coffee and read maps. Eventually, the trawling vessel lands in Zurich and Bourne sets off to look into a bank account he remembers and hopefully unlock more information on who he is and how he got into the water in which the fishermen pulled him from near death. In Zurich, Bourne opens a safe deposit box which contains money, various passports containing his picture and a firearm. Bourne assumes he is the man on the American passport.

Bourne's trip to the bank was far from routine. Along the way, he easily disarmed and defeated armed police officers. He realized he was adept at hand to hand combat. Across the ocean, at Langley, CIA official Alexander Conklin (Chris Cooper) meets with CIA Deputy Director Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) and they discuss a botched assassination attempt against an African dictator. Conklin's super secretive Operation Treadstone group was tasked with the job and Conklin is ordered to eliminate the agent that failed to kill the African dictator. Of course, this agent was the man who is trying to discover his identity in Zurich and Jason Bourne soon finds himself running away from the local authorities, government agents from the United States and others hot on the trail of the man with no memory of whom he is. After emptying his safe deposit box, Bourne hires a pretty young girl, Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente) to take him to Paris, France.

Along the way on his travels to France, Bourne and Marie encounter a number of people who recognize Jason. Bourne uncovers more clues, but some lead to confusing situations and alternate identities. Bourne also encounters one of the hitmen sent to kill him, but easily bests the CIA agent with his apparent expert hand to hand skills. By aiding Jason Bourne travel to Paris, Marie finds herself under the sights of those trying to capture or kill Bourne. Their time in Paris is quick, but informative. To protect Marie, Jason sends her away with his money. Bourne and a hired hitman, the Professor (Clive Owen) clash and Bourne interrogate the Professor for information. The meeting points Bourne to the direction of Conklin and a path that will bring about a return of many of the troubling memories that will help Jason Bourne discover his true identity.

"The Bourne Identity" helped make Matt Damon a star. The actor had not been in many films prior to the first Bourne entry and after receiving solid praise from the majority of critics for both his performance and the film, "The Bourne Identity" paved the way for the remaining films in the trilogy and a slew of other projects eagerly awaiting Matt Damon. The praise received by Damon and the filmmakers is well deserved, as "The Bourne Identity" is an intelligent spy thriller that throws away the conventions created by the "James Bond" films of the world and grounds the character and the action on realistic situations and an air of believability that is a warm welcome for the genre. Jason Bourne is a character that thinks things through and uses his fists and weapons when needed. His fighting style is clean and efficient and not showy. Jason Bourne and this film are as such – efficient and not showy.

You can only watch machine guns pop out of Aston Martin and BMW cars so many times before it becomes hokey and uneventful. Gadgets, one-liners and spectacular stunts become mundane and tedious when you've seen and heard them too many times. In "The Bourne Identity," you have none of this nonsense. The cars are beat up old Mini Coopers or Renaults. Bourne speaks only when necessary and does not relish his role as an assassin. He uses what is available to him at the time and has little to no technology to assist his investigation into his identity. Conklin and his team have all types of electronic gadgetry at their disposal in locating Bourne, but they are unable to surpass Bourne's instincts and cunning ability to avoid trouble. The comparisons to James Bond are interesting, because the Jason Bourne movies have no similarities to the suave British double-o agent. "The Bourne Identity" is great because it is a departure from the formula created by those films.

I've enjoyed all three of the "Bourne" films and although I feel the story arc is complete and feel that the character is ready to enjoy his retirement, I'm not sure I'm ready for Matt Damon to not revive the CIA hitman in the future. When comparing "The Bourne Identity" to the other two films, this one is easily my favorite of the three and I feel it is the best written and most captivating adventure. It was the introduction to the character and because of its fresh approach; the worthy sequels didn't break any new ground. Another reason why I prefer "Identity" to its two younger siblings is the directing by Doug Liman and camera work by director of photography Oliver Wood. Paul Greengrass took over the series after the first film and the documentary style shakey-cam didn't feel as refined as what Liman and Wood created for this film. "The Bourne Identity" feels more intelligent and more polished than the follow-ups and I give Liman much of the credit for this.

Matt Damon is great as Jason Bourne. The role almost feels created for the actor. Co-star Chris Cooper is one of my favorite supporting actors and I enjoy him heavily in this film. Franka Potente and Julia Stiles are lovely ladies and their presence is felt in this film and they hold their own with Damon on-screen. Brian Cox and Clive Owen are also solid in their supporting roles and their presence in the film helped make "The Bourne Identity" the franchise keystone it became. This is a classic spy film that throws away convention and tried something else. It tried to be intelligent and rely on story and characters over flashy cars and spiffy gadgets. It succeeded and I have absolutely no problem recommending this film to anybody.

Video:

With both versions included on this release, it is difficult scoring the release with one singular digit. You can't grade the DVD based upon the Blu-ray and vice versa. Thankfully, the 2.35:1 framed picture looks very good on both formats, but admittedly "The Bourne Identity" looks a little more dated on the standard definition side after enjoying the film in full high definition splendor. I've always enjoyed Doug Liman's visual style more than that employed by Paul Greengrass in the sequels and "The Bourne Identity" will always be my favorite of the three to watch based upon visual quality. The release features very good detail on both sides and neither is going to become reference material, but now you can flip the disc to show friends how great high definition is. As I've stated in previous reviews of this film, the Parisian architecture and skyline looks great in this film. Colors are also good, but slightly desaturated for stylistic reasons. Black levels are good and aside from a little graininess, there is zero reason to complain about the film.

Sound:

"The Bourne Identity" brings its fast action and exciting sequences to the viewer with a very good sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 From the important car chase to Bourne's moments where fists are flying, sound arrives to the listener from every direction. Gunfire, the sound of a subcompact engine and other audio effects come across great to show off the excellent sound design. The aggressive mix is not quite as lively as a Jerry Bruckheimer picture, but "The Bourne Identity" sounds very good at higher levels. Comparing the flip side to the high definition audio shows that the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is good, but just doesn't have the impact and power of the higher definition audio. The DVD side still sounds quite good, but it just lacks the power of the DTS-HD track. Dialogue is very clean and the musical score by John Powell is solid. Regardless of which side you use, "The Bourne Identity" is an above average sounding film for its format.

Extras:

The Blu-ray side of the release includes BD-Live features for Profile 2.0 based players that is carried across all three films and is identical on each of the discs. These next-gen features begin with the My Movie Commentary that allows users to use their EyeToy or other camera and record their own video commentary. I love this feature and it is played back via a PiP window and can be shared across the Internet. This allows everybody to be their own expert and can be fun. I enjoy it. The Chat feature allows you to sync up with friends who are also watching a film with "My Chat" and banter back and forth via a keyboard. I guess it lets you watch a movie with friends across the world, but I'm not sold. My Scenes let you share scenes with friends and is just an Internet based bookmarking service. Finally, the Bourne Card Strategy Challenge is a simple interactive card game that is relatively simple and can be enjoyed once or twice.

Both sides include a large number of supplements, but the Blu-ray side hosts the largest number of features. To simplify things, each stand-alone supplement will have BD and/or DVD listed in parenthesis to state what side it is available on. Only the Blu-ray side possesses the always entertaining U-Control functionality. The profile 1.1 items begin with the Treadstone Files, which allows for graphical based information in eleven of the discs twenty chapters and this pertains to background information on various aspects of the film. The Bourne Orientation is a new graphical-based feature for the Blu-ray release and provides information pertaining to the entire trilogy of films during eight scenes in the film. The final U-Control functionality on this disc is the Picture-in-Picture, which appears in eight chapters and provides a lot of information and behind-the-scenes footage.

Beginning with the standalone items, there is a three part look at Robert Ludlum. The Ludlum Identity (12:47, BD) features snippets from an interview with the original novel's writer and friends of the novelist recounting their memories of the man behind the Jason Bourne stories. The Ludlum Supremacy (12:41, BD) is the second part of the recount of Robert Ludlum. It features much of the same as the first part. The third part continues mimicking the name of the films and The Ludlum Ultimatum (24:48, BD) is the longest and most informative of the three Ludlum-centric supplements. This wraps up the Ludlum documentary and talks about Ludlum's interest in making a new film based on the book and other tidbits about the author.

Next up are different scenes and excised bits not used in the film. Both an Alternate Opening and Alternate Ending (10:46, BD + DVD) are included. They can be played together or separately and contains an optional introduction with Producer Frank Marshall, screenwriter Tony Gilroy and actor Brian Cox. This was a very nice way of providing the alternate bookends for the film and they were interesting enough. Four Deleted Scenes (6:58, BD + DVD) are contained on the disc. The feature is called Declassified Information on the DVD side. These provide character details, but are not missed from the main film. Sadly, their visual quality is poor with letterboxing and pillarboxing. An Extended Farmhouse Scene (:58, BD) is short and sweet and of even worse condition than the deleted scenes. It is interesting to see something that is VHS in quality in glorious high definition. Still, it is a nice addition for the disc.

The extras continue with The Birth of The Bourne Identity (14:31, BD). This relatively short featurette is your typical electronic press kit feature with plenty of talking heads moments and face time with the stars. It is glitzy and polished and does more advertising of the film than including making of bits. The last item on the first page of supplements on the disc menu is The Bourne Mastermind: Robert Ludlum (5:44, BD + DVD). This vignette doesn't cover anything that wasn't in the three part feature previously, but it is a nice quick look at the author. For those that do now want to sit through the other forty five minutes of Ludlum bits, this is a nice summary. The Access Granted: An Interview with Screenwriter Tony Gilroy (4:03, BD + DVD) is another quick vignette and spends just a few moments with the film's screenwriter. From Identity to Supremacy: Jason & Marie (3:37, BD + DVD). This is quick and features Damon and Potente discussing their characters and hinting at their involvement in the sequel. Having seen the second film, this was passable.

The short vignettes continue with The Bourne Diagnosis (3:25, BD + DVD) looks at the possibility of the level of amnesia suffered by the main character with a psychologist named Reef Karem. There are a lot of big words in just three and a half minutes. Cloak and Dagger: Covert Ops (5:31, BD + DVD) runs a little bit longer than the first and continues with the supplements that were produced together. This looks at the history of the CIA and the Covert Ops that actually occurs there. A little information is given with former clandestine operative Chase Brandon. Inside a Fight Sequence (4:42, BD + DVD) is the final making-of vignette and the Moby "Extreme Ways" Music Video (3:36, BD + DVD) is the last supplement. The Speed of Sound (4:05, DVD) talks about sound editing and then allows you to interactively mix audio and play with the film's main car chase scene. The Theatrical Trailer (DVD) is also included

Both sides also feature the Feature Commentary with Director Doug Liman. Liman is a very detailed person and it shows in his commentary track that goes into every aspect relating to the making of "The Bourne Identity" and while it may come across as dry at times, he provides far more information than the solid collection of vignettes and featurettes also contained on this two sided disc. I found myself enjoying listening to Liman discuss his film and this was one of the more informative commentary tracks that I've heard in a long time that didn't become tedious, but covered so many interesting sub topics on the making of the film.

Closing:

I enjoy that Universal has found a way to include the DVD platter on the reverse side of the BD-Live disc. Of course, I still hope this does not cost a great premium over a Blu-ray only release. Blu-ray never did too much as far as disc art was concerned, so that isn't a great loss. The "Bourne Trilogy" is a solid selection to release these as dual format discs as they are very good films, but have already been released in a couple incarnations in high definition. These are strong catalog releases and will certainly sell and move closer to a ‘unified' release where the DVD and the Blu-ray share street date and plastic. The first of the "Bourne" films is my favorite of the three and a great deal of fun. The sound and video on both sides is a tier under reference material, but both have a large number of bonus materials and are comparable. The Blu-ray side is certainly the way to go, but it's nice to take the disc on the go on a portable DVD player or to watch at a friend's house.