The Bourne Affinity

I'm treating myself to one of my favorite franchises:

The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum

I love these movies... pretty much since seeing the first one in theaters. Obviously, I love a good spy action/thriller, but I have also always had a morbid fascination with all forms of amnesia. I also appreciated (and continue to do appreciate) that these movies kept the martial arts as realistic as possible. It was a great movie-going experience.

The Bourne Identity was fairly stylistically innovative to boot. Not only did it pioneer (well, maybe not pioneer, but it certainly at least popularized) the now ubiquitous shaky-cam in cinematography, it was also John Powell's first step in a grand new direction for his own "voice" (later continued in Paycheck and The Italian Job). So it was a stylistic milestone of sorts for the composer.

I guess these films resonate on a more personal level, a sort of subconscious appeal. Let's face it: for years, I've spent a considerable amount of time by myself, usually out and about accomplishing tasks with the same gritty resolve as Jason Bourne. Ergo, this music has carved its own sizable, indelible niche in my mind's ear. I guess that's the best way to describe it without sounding self-aggrandizing (I guess these movies make everyone feel like a badass, but the music alone has taken hold of me).

The Bourne films/scores fall into the very select category of "MINE!"--I can't help but feel a pang of childish, jealous indignation when I hear someone else speak of how much they love them. As if I have to compete with them over who loves them more.

You may have noticed that I keep mentioning the films and the scores. This is because, regardless of what 96% of the student body at BGSU may say, music is a HUGE part of any film, crucial to storytelling and style. The Captain might have something to say about this.

And now, on to the music itself.

The music is tightly constructed, getting an amazing amount of mileage out of every single motif. There are almost no "throw-away" musical moments, and each idea is developed through variation throughout the trilogy. Think about that last part. Many times, you hear someone praise a sequel for "developing" material "throughout," but more often than not it is merely gushing exaggeration. In the case of the Bourne trilogy, it's actually accurate, which is all the more impressive considering how much of the scores are rhythmically motivic (rather than a collection of instantly identifiable "tunes" you end up humming on your way out of the theater).

That is not to say that each of the Bourne sequels do not bring their share of new material to the table, either. They do. And it's all so brilliantly woven together. No way around it: the music is just damned professional. Personally, I think these scores should be studied, analyzed, and discussed in an academic setting, but academe would never go for that (it wouldn't be very "academic," after all).

There's a certain level of continuity in these scores that is rarely seen in action franchises. And that is reason enough to prize them, to hope that if they do adapt the other three books into films, John Powell will return to the helm. For me, a fourth Bourne movie would mean an exponential growth of personal enjoyment. The quality of continuity, the craft behind these scores makes them must-haves for anyone who listens to film music and wants to be rewarded for their attentiveness for a change.