The Bourne Ultimatum
Directed by Paul Greengrass
Starring Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn
Universal Studios
Available December 11, 2007

Back in 2002, director Doug Liman’s The Bourne Identity became the first great action movie of the new millennium. At the time, it was a revelation: a satisfyingly complex story, an enigmatic lead character, documentary-style cinematography, and some of the most brutally realistic fight scenes ever filmed. It felt fresh and original, and many action movie fans hoped that The Bourne Identity was the harbinger of a new direction for action movies.

Well, the action movie renaissance hasn’t quite gotten off the ground just yet. But five years after The Bourne Identity, director Paul Greengrass brings us the third (and reportedly final) installment of the series, The Bourne Ultimatum. In this film, Greengrass has tightened the “Bourne style” of filmmaking by paring down the story to its most essential elements. Some might criticize the film for having too little story in comparison with the other two films in the series, but I disagree. There is plenty of story in Ultimatum, but it is told as much through action as it is through more traditional styles of exposition.

This is still a sophisticated action movie, but even more so it is a visceral tour de force. It’s hard to believe it’s even possible, but Greengrass has ramped-up the intensity of the action scenes beyond the previous two films. By way of an example, there is a scene in the Waterloo train station in London in which Bourne is meeting a journalist. Bourne knows that the CIA is watching the station in search of him. What is remarkable is the level of tension created in a scene that consists almost entirely of Bourne and the journalist walking briskly through the station trying not to be spotted by the CIA agents. An action scene with no real action? Yes, and it’s all in the pacing and remarkable camera work. But if action of a more violent nature is what you’re after, you should be more than satisfied with the frenetic rooftop chase in Tangiers which culminates in one of the most brutal depictions of hand-to-hand combat ever put on film.

I can’t think of any actor who could play Jason Bourne as well as Matt Damon. On the one hand, he effortlessly fills the action hero role, believably fighting, jumping, and car chasing his heart out. But, more importantly, he is able to fill in the emotional holes left by Bourne’s amnesia, presenting a very human character even though Bourne himself doesn’t even know who he is. The mark of a great action hero is that he’s as believable when he’s chatting with a stranger at a coffee shop as when he’s kicking ass. Damon nails it on both accounts.

Other notable cast members include Julia Stiles in a much more fleshed-out role than the awkwardly edited-in role she had in the first movie. David Strathairn is excellent as a CIA Deputy Director with dubious motives, and Joan Allen turns in another strong performance as the agent in charge of the hunt for Bourne.

The DVD release is technically quite accomplished. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio sounds great, and the video transfer is up to the challenge of the movie’s quick pans, speeding cars, and even speedier fists.

The DVD extras are all quite good. Director Paul Greengrass gives an audio commentary that shows why he’s such a good director by nimbly moving from on-set anecdotes to the technical details of filmmaking. There is a 20-minute documentary called “Man on the Move,” which follows the filmmakers to sets around the world. It’s mostly a travelogue, but it does give a good sense of the chaos of moving such a large production around the world. More interesting are four short segments that each dissect how a particular scene was shot. The scenes examined are the most technically challenging scenes in the film, including car chases and fight scenes, so these brief glimpses into how they were done are very interesting. Rounding out the extras are about twelve minutes of deleted scenes. For the most part, these are very good scenes that deepen character development. It would have been nice if Greengrass had recorded commentary for them, if only to explain where in the film they would have appeared and why he decided to cut them.

In a summer that saw a very traditional Hollywood action movie, Live Free or Die Hard, The Bourne Ultimatum stands out as an entirely different breed of film. It has a European flavor not just because of its locations, but even more so because of its sensibility. In the Bourne universe, characters are more important than explosions, and that in and of itself is a fairly radical notion in Hollywood. It is heartening that Ultimatum was as wildly successful as it was. Hopefully its success will cause Hollywood to take notice and try to emulate what makes the Bourne films so memorable.