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Review of The Bourne Identity (John Powell)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... only if you are a tremendous supporter of all of the
Bourne films' soundtracks of the 2000's and seek the grittiest and
most electronically harsh entry in the franchise.
Avoid it... if you want the best recordings of the same basic ingredients introduced in this first score, because John Powell's subsequent sequel works are much stronger in their balance of similar grit and style.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Bourne Identity: (John Powell) When author
Robert Ludlum was writing his internationally popular series of three
thriller novels involving the talented spy Jason Bourne, it is doubtful
that he had this music by John Powell in mind. The first of the trilogy
of stories, The Bourne Identity, was a bestseller in its initial
release in 1980, and the 2002 interpretation of the story by director
Doug Liman on the big screen follows the same nervous, frenetic, and
action-packed feeling of determination encapsulated by the original
story. A Richard Chamberlain television miniseries a number of years
prior didn't do the same justice to the concept, but 2002's film version
of The Bourne Identity (as well as the sequels later in the
decade) is a 21st Century techno-thriller with all the modern gadgets
and super-fighting that studios had been anxiously developing for modern
audiences. While blockbuster spy thriller remakes from Hollywood had
dwindled in numbers through the years, the scores that accompany them
have often been an interesting, if not entirely enjoyable combination of
sounds from both the era in which the story was conceived as well as the
modern era in which the film is created. Finding the right balance in
this picture was something of a nightmare, however, for Liman, who was
unimpressed by a reportedly more symphonic recording by Carter Burwell
and went searching for a less conventional solution with practically no
music budget remaining. In stepped John Powell, who was not only a Liman
fan but was himself searching for a good opportunity in the action genre
at that point in his career. Ultimately, The Bourne Identity
opened the doors to a franchise of work for Powell that would yield
superior sequel scores. Its counter-intuitive personality caused
imitations from other composers for years. It was a fortuitous change of
direction for Powell, whose fame at the time had come via animated
comedies and silly spoofs ranging from Shrek and Chicken
Run to Evolution and Rat Race. Powell's ability to
merge the sounds of the traditional orchestra with his wide range of
expertise with synthesizers was defining him as one of the more
versatile composers of the day, and this assignment catapulted him on to
other high-profile action works. Few listeners realize that the
construction of this score was a total mess in post-production, the
movie containing several significant re-scores and the remainder cut to
death in the editing process to compete with sound effects.
Stylistically, the balance between the organic and synthetic elements are what changed the most in the score for The Bourne Identity during Powell's revisions, the equation largely gaining its string section and notable bassoon. While these elements are employed for the work, the orchestra plays a minor, if not completely subdued role. It's intriguing to see such a large-scale production use only a string section, piano, and a single bassoon, and it is mostly because of this lack of depth in the soundscape that this score doesn't hold as much interest as its two successors from Powell. All of the major structural elements that would flourish to a greater degree in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum are clearly established in this first score, but their use is marginalized. The "Main Titles" cue introduces most of the franchise's ideas, from the primary theme for the title character to the melancholy variant on that idea and, of course, the famously chopping string ostinato that accompanies the overarching element of chasing in the franchise. The performances of all of these ideas fall into the domain of the orchestra, which is used somewhat infrequently compared to the electronic elements, but Powell does show hints of the layering of the various string tones that later intensified in strength in the sequels. The use of the bassoon continued later as well, but it is mostly restricted to a few early performances here. The domination of the score by synthetic rhythms and percussive sound effect samples causes the work to become overwhelmed with the propulsive, nervous side of the story. Unfortunately, that result is only marginally effective in the film and makes for a tedious listening experience on album. Another interesting result of Powell's work for The Bourne Identity has been its widespread popularity. The positive reviews that the score received from national publications, as well as the great popular success that the album experienced in sales, obviously point to a triumph of luck on the part of Powell. The reasons for that popularity, especially with the more appealing sequels, are a complete mystery, though. The approach Powell took to the concept misses the mark by making Jason Bourne into an action hero variety of gadget stuntman and therefore becomes hung up on the technological thrills that the story offers. Most importantly, it suffices in capturing and furthering the grit and nerve of the Bourne stories and, in a basic sense, the ostinato pushes the sense of movement well enough, but it neglects the style that Ludlum had worked into his stories. The score for The Bourne Identity is, in short, such an odd identity for a Ludlum story, regardless of the focus of the film's adaptation, that it becomes bizarre to hear even if it serves its basic purpose for most casual viewers. It has no intrigue, no subtle character development, and certainly no passion... all of which were sadly missed on both the screen and on the albums. Action spy thrillers can often present a tasteful and exciting combination of rhythms, percussion, orchestra, and even chorus, as was heard with Graeme Revell's still popular The Saint from five or so years prior. By contrast, Powell's The Bourne Identity music, whenever it begins to develop itself into a substantial cue of orchestral or synthetic integration, reverts to distractingly harsh electronic pounding and hair-raising, looped effects. Detractors will argue that it lowered the intelligence of film music in general, as it helped usher in the era of popular but rather mindless looped techniques that became so pervasive in subsequent years. The mixing of the score's key elements is also suspect within the film, with key parts of the score missing and often the irritating electronics over-emphasized at the forefront. The less obvious touches, like the solo vocal effects in "Jason Phones It In" are completely swallowed up by the obnoxious tone of a cue like "At the Farm House." It was the first score in a while, perhaps since Ennio Morricone's disastrous Mission to Mars, that actually detracted from its film in the theatres. The mixing issue involves the lack of priority given to the string orchestra and several male vocalists who could have added the style that the score for The Bourne Identity is missing. The lack of much development of the themes was arguably a good move considering the primary character's lack of identity. But the key moments of intrigue between Bourne and Marie, his partner, are scored with a comatose level of passion. A rejected version of the "Love Scene" cue contained a little more life from electric bass, but that personality was apparently too much engagement for Liman, and the replacement cue is totally devoid of any emotional connection. This move towards diminishment during the later recordings was especially pronounced in the "Bourne On Land," a cue that the filmmakers and Powell struggled with several times and ultimately reduced in quality by the end. In most of the cases in which Powell's alternate cues exist for fans to appreciate, it can be noted that the score became more anonymous and disjointed with each passing change, though even in its original form, Powell's music was rather cold, metallic, and disconnected. Overall, the harsh electronic and string rhythms are the key selling point for the score to The Bourne Identity, and the main chopping, descending chase motif is all that most listeners will ever remember from the work. Powell even takes those to the realm of the bizarre in the manipulation of such sounds in cues like "The Bourne Identity." Some of the irritating editing techniques used to alter these sounds are downright headache-inducing. Looped rhythms, keyboarded effects, and creative manipulation techniques can be very tastefully applied to spy thrillers, but as The Bourne Identity progresses, Powell's composition becomes more metallically distorted and obnoxious in tone. Late cues feature passages that sound as though he's recorded the banging of metal garbage cans and the scraping of metal rulers on a blackboard and integrated them as rhythmic highlights in his music. While this may be interesting at the very least for the first half hour of the score on album, it becomes increasingly intolerable as the presentation continues. By the last three tracks on the original, lengthy album for The Bourne Identity, the electronic slashing and grating noises are too insufferable to handle, and they even make Powell's nearly as ridiculous Face/Off seem palatable. Cues that hint of a sense of higher style, such as "Taxi Ride" and "On Bridge Number 9," only yield to more of the same electronic grinding. By the time you reach "Drum and Bass Remix," you'll realize just how one-dimensional this score is compared to its peers in the franchise. This didn't stop the Varèse Sarabande label from expanding that 2002 presentation in 2020 with Powell's help, adding twenty minutes of missing music and, more importantly, several earlier takes on more emotionally involved cues. The earliest version of "Bourne On Land" is especially important to enthusiasts of the franchise, revealing the origins of the fuller, more romantic half of Bourne's thematic material (with duduk?) that would come to highlight the sequel scores. (The underlying chords are reprised in "Got Any ID?") There is some intellectual appreciation to result from hearing Powell initially tackle the bassoon lines with an electric bass. Sound quality is also seemingly more dynamic in the louder, percussion-driven cues. Still, the score cannot support a 75-minute listening experience, and the narrative is a bit challenging to match up with the movie given the redundant alternate tracks in film order and the butchered nature of the final recordings in context. Ultimately, The Bourne Identity popularized some of the most annoying trends in 2000's film music. It also emphasizes the grit and nerves of the concept and forgets what made the Ludlum stories so appealing: the passion and the style.
TRACK LISTINGS:
2002 Varèse Sarabande Album:
Total Time: 54:59
2022 Varèse Sarabande album: Total Time: 75:04
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 2002 album includes a list of performers in the
partial Hollywood Studio Symphony but no extra information about the score
or film. That of the 2022 album includes details about both.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Bourne Identity are Copyright © 2002, 2022, Varèse Sarabande, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 7/6/02 and last updated 6/27/22. |
