Matt Damon on the movie that got closest to his ‘Bourne’ series
The Jason Bourne series, which stars Matt Damon as an amnesiac assassin across four movies, remains one of the most beloved action franchises of the 21st century.
With their gritty tone, realistic action, and focus on surveillance and corrupt government policies, these films perfectly capture the zeitgeist of post-9/11 America. When The Bourne Identity arrived in 2002, it redefined the spy genre. In the wake of the ‘War on Terror’ and a changing political landscape, the series has remained just as relevant as ever. The movies, especially the first one, might be artistically flawed, but they remain solid viewing experiences nonetheless.
Ironically, not only was 2002 the year this series debuted, but it was also the year the James Bond series descended into self-parody with the disastrous Die Another Day. A few years later, James Bond would successfully reboot with Casino Royale, a grittier and more realistic vision that was evidently influenced by the Bourne films.
This is but one example of the vast, extensive influence the Bourne series has had on action cinema as a whole. Many, many other action films have copied the handheld cinematography, gritty tone and narrative themes of the Bourne movies, though often unsuccessfully.
Casino Royale is one of the few Bourne-esque action films that actually worked out. There were many terrible rip-offs, various directors tried to copy this trilogy’s handheld camera cinematography with usually dire results. However, two unwanted sequels to this trilogy were released in the years following its conclusion.
Hollywood has never quite recaptured the success of this trilogy, and perhaps it’s telling that, in recent years, Bourne-like action films have become a thing of the past. Recent action flicks seem more influenced by the stylised, ballet-like action of the John Wick movies than the paranoid grit of Jason Bourne, and that’s definitely not a bad thing.
As well as being a unique property in Hollywood, the films have been a unique experience for star Matt Damon as well. He has done a handful of other action roles, such as Green Zone and Elysium, but he generally works in drama and comedy roles, and as such, the role of Jason Bourne is something of a career outlier. Damon himself has remarked that just one film has really reminded him much of his time as Bourne: The Martian.
They certainly aren’t similar in terms of subject matter, but Damon found the process of filming the two projects similar. This was because both involved long sequences of him acting on his own, without other characters sharing the screen with him.
Talking to Smithsonian, Damon explained, “I end up on my own, usually, in those, at least in the second two Bourne films. But that was the appeal of this. It was so different from anything I’d ever done before. I have these long monologues to nobody. I never would’ve considered doing it had it not been for a world-class director. It’s a very risky thing to do, but I had faith in Ridley being able to strike the right tone for it.”
Another thing that made Damon hesitant was that just the year before The Martian, he’d played a stranded astronaut in Interstellar. He wasn’t sure if he should follow it up with such a similar role; apparently, director Ridley Scott said, with characteristic bluntness, “Nobody gives a f**k about that!”
Damon was right to take on the role, as not only was the project a smashing success, but his turn in that film is a strong contender for his finest performance to date. Jason Bourne might be Damon’s most iconic character, but Dr Mark Watney from The Martian is possibly his best.
