"The Bourne Identity" - Opening scene

THE BOURNE IDENTITY

The Bourne Identity is a cross between a spy film and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) crime. The plot behind the story is that Jason Bourne - who is the leading character, is attempting to discover his true identity which he is clueless about. Whilst the CIA are trying to track him down to either arrest or even kill him. Along his quest he teams up with Marie, who helps him along the journey to learn about his unknown past. The film is followed by a sequel "The Bourne Supremacy" and thirdly "The Bourne Ultimatum".

The films credits open with the thriller type of atmosphere. A dark and stormy night on the ship of a foreign fishermen which alienates the audience completely. One of which notices a floating body with two gun shots on his back. The camera movement is unsteady making the audience feel apart of the scene along with the rocky motion of the ship. The narrative enigmas builds up to the audience realising where the character is. The audience is plunged into the world with the same lack of knowledge as the main character. Although he discovers he can perform skillful tasks he still cannot remember anything about himself.

Non diegetic soundtrack music is used to create suspense and tension. The diegetic sounds include loud sounds of thunder , lighting and the creaking floorboards of the ship to create realism. We are shown a contrast of the cramped old rocking boat with the worried fishermen whilst back on dry land in the quiet office of the CIA there is a calmness about this environment.

Martin Rubin proposes that a genre to be called as a "thriller" there is no such thing. He says that "thriller" is in fact a metagenre that gathers several other genres under its umbrella. He explains how many similar films are categorised into so many different genres for example one is labelled a thriller yet another a Crime drama, "the range of stories that have been called thrillers is simply too broad". Rubin goes on to explain that films are diverse and many can be considered as thrillers. Although it is not possible for a film to be defined as a freestanding thriller thriller. Thriller components seem to work better amongst some genres rather then others. These genres that would work well with thrillers include spy, crime and horror but not so well with musicals or war films. In my own opinion a film that is labelled as a "thriller" should work in a way to keep the audience in a state of suspense and anxiety throughout the film. The audience should only know as much knowledge as of the characters therefore playing with the mind of the audience as there are always the unanswered questions that puzzle us leaving us waiting and wanting more till the end of the film.

I think that this piece of research may be the most useful for our group. We picked up a number of factors and ideas we wanted to use in our own product. Along with the credits, the film begins with a thriller opening of a dark night on a boat, we too used a thriller element of a scary location. For our piece we used a scary looking house, creating a tense atmosphere and opening with an establishing shot of this. In "The Bourne Identity" shaky camera movement was used to involve the audience. Our piece when the young girl (Anna) walks into the mystery house, the camera follows her feet and we used a shaky movement this worked really well to add to the suspense. Also making the audience feel apart as much as the character herself.