BEING BOURNE

Doug Liman was born in 1965 in New York City.
In 2002, he directed a movie based on a Robert Ludlum´s Novel. That movie made such an impression on Hollywood filmmakers, Actors and most importantly the audience…that the standards on action movies were about to change forever. Just a regular guy being able to kill, run, drive using only his intelligence and not gadgets. Not even James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) could defeat.
Forget the flying cars or dinning with royalty. Girls in Bikinis and Martinis. The predictable plots( As Austin Powers parodied) of the super agent against the evil villain ended.
I´m talking about The Bourne Identity.

Starring Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) as Jason Bourne. "A man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and without memory, then races to elude assassins and recover from amnesia." IMDB Hitchhiking a ride with (Run Lola Run) Franka Potente. This movie escapes from every day ordinary U.S.A. and takes Bourne from Italy to Barcelona from Zurich to Rome and Paris . Using every day things as weapons: a towel, a mini cooper, the yellow pages, a pen, a magazine, an exit map, a toaster, a cell phone, trains and subways … but most importantly his common sense. He is not betrayed by the importance of being in her Majesties Secret Service; he is not after one evil tyrant villain. He only wants to know who he really is.
A new genre was Bourne.

This FILM changed everything. Saar Klein´s EDITING introduced us the 4 seconds per shot (an apprentice to David Brenner and Sally Menke), Oliver Wood´s wonderful CINEMATOGRAPHY & the MUSIC of composer John Powell  (a Hans Zimmer alumni) The team effort made for this film was incredible. The breaking barriers did not stop in the acting or directing. Bourne cut straight to asking before killing. No romantic inuendos, no lame action. Not even a joke. Bourne spawned so many bad imitations as the new James Bond (CASINO ROYALE, QUANTUM OF SOLACE and SKYFALL) Daniel Craig as the Famous 007. Even Liam Neeson in (TAKEN and TAKEN 2)or MISSION IMPOSSIBLE´S (3 and GHOST PROTOCOL) Ethan Hunt solo movies, seem weak. So Tom Cruise tried to do his Bourneish film with JACK REACHER. Not even close. Kevin Costner is doing “3 DAYS TO KILL” his character name is Ethan Runner….“EH?” The normal guy /bad ass he didn´t know he was. Even James Macavoy did it in "WANTED". Star Trek star Chris Pine is doing “JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT”. Even the poster art is the same. Ha ha ha!


I´m sure Liman was influenced by many, many movies such as: The French Connection, Bullit, Ronin, Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Reservoir Dogs, Dobermann, The Last Boy Scout, Killing Zoe, Die Hard, True Romance, Memento and Irréversible. Instead of doing a REMAKE. He broke the mold and told an action movie differently.