Bourne Identity

Jason Bourne

Bourne Identity

The scene opens with an establishing shot. Which serves two purposes. One, to seamlessly transition from the previous scene of the boat to him on land. Two, to establish his new location at the port. The non-diegetic music in the background gives the audience a sense of unfamiliar territory this is also accompanied by the MCU to CU shots of Jason looking around confused. This puts us in the same ‘boat’ (get it😊) as Jason as we also are unsure of the surroundings. This helps the audience relate to Jason at this point.

This feeling of confusion is also shown at the train station later in the clip where he is looking around confused once again. Again a MCU shot is used to get the audience close enough to see his facial expressions as facial expressions reveal a lot about the inner thoughts of the character and allows the the audience to relate more to that character this is commonly used on the protagonist so that the audience can easily relate to his ideals and his thoughts.

The one continuous shot from Jason leaving the boat, walking down the street and disappearing contrasts to show a sense of mystery as the continuous shot gives the feeling of realism as though there are no camera tricks just to have him disappear after a truck passes him. This leaves the audience Guessing as to what will happen next. We are lulled into a false sense of security which is then broken when he disappears behind the truck.

Later we cut to the moment when Jason is in the train. He sees his reflection in the window this is symbolic as mirrors in thrillers tend to reveal the inner thoughts or feelings of a character. The mirror reflection is blurry and layered possibly pointing to his multiple identities and how the are vague and unrecognizable.

the focus on the silver pill in his hand, shows explicitly that it is an important object and should be taken seriously. Previously in the film we find out that the pill gives a swiss bank account number which is as helpful to us as it is to him. He has nothing else to do but investigate it. The emphasis on the pill in this scene makes it clear, without dialogue, where Jason intends to go.

The theme of identity is 

very common throughout this movie and appears once again in the street scene where Jason is staring down a street at night and there is a blue tint to a night light in the distance. The darkness gives a sense of danger and mystery, We are shown just the silhouette of his legs and pan up to reveal the rest of his body still in silhouette. The silhouette helps solidify the fact the Jason’s true identity is dark and mysterious at this point, and all that we know is his physical outward appearance.  

When we cut to this scene the music stops hinting at us to focus particularly on this scene. This shows that there is a deeper meaning within this scene we can make the judgement that this scene shows that he is looking back at his past, represented by the blue hue, and beginning a journey to figure it out as it is Vague and a mystery. The foot steps in the snow represent the path he may have already taken to get to this point.

We then cut to Jason sleeping on a park bench as he is approached by the two police officers this scene contains a lot of meaning so I’ll do a step by step break down. when the policemen enter the scene, we are shown a low shot of their legs look at Jason on the park bench. This gives the sign that these are important people. Even what they wear shows a sign of authority. As the camera pans upward, it is revealed they are policemen.

When they begin to talk to Jason in Swiss it adds another layer of mystery as Jason replies in swiss seemingly unknowingly to him as well as we are given a CU shot of his shocked face. This scene again lulls the audience into a false sense of security as policemen are often represented as good people.

Non-diegetic sound of a quick whip is then added to regain the audience’s attention. This then begins a fight scene between the police and Jason. The fight quick and edited with quick cuts of Jason fending off the policemen. This challenges the feeling of security often associated with law enforcement officers. Once again breaking our sense of safety that it had established earlier.

The end of the fight shows the police on the ground with Jason holding a gun and pointing down.it seems he was almost in a trance as he seems to realize what he has done after the fight. The fact that he is holding a gun, other than being mysterious, is also a hint that his past he may have dealt with guns, this is later revealed to be true as he is an assassin.

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