Tagged: Jason Bourne
Jason Bourne’s Style Across Four Movies
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (2002)
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of when The Bourne Identity was widely released, check out this comprehensive breakdown of how Matt Damon’s style as the amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne, née David Webb, evolved over the course of the original Bourne trilogy and was updated a decade later in Jason Bourne.
Unlike his fellow J.B.-named super-spy, Bourne never dressed to impress, instead favoring a more subdued and utilitarian wardrobe consistent with the “gray man” philosophy of blending in, specifically in urban environments like the European capitals where he evades his one-time CIA overlords.
Matt Damon in Jason Bourne
Matt Damon in Jason Bourne (2016)
Vitals
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne/David Webb, amnesiac ex-CIA assassin
Athens, Berlin, London, and Las Vegas, Fall 2015
Film: Jason Bourne
Release Date: July 11, 2016
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 50th birthday, Matt Damon! Nearly 15 years after the actor first kicked cinematic ass as the amnesiac assassin, Damon again stepped into Jason Bourne’s globe-trotting boots for one more installment of the spy franchise extolled for its relative realism, intriguing narrative, and expertly choreographed fight scenes.
I remember… I remember everything.
Bourne’s Casual Leather Jacket in 1988
Richard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne in the 1988 TV mini-series, The Bourne Identity.
Vitals
Richard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne, amnesiac ex-CIA agent
Paris, Spring 1988
Film: The Bourne Identity
Release Date: May 8, 1988
Director: Roger Young
Costume Designer: Barbara Lane
Background
As fall turns into weather here in the northern hemisphere, many men are pulling their heavy wool overcoats and dark sweaters out of storage, emulating a look that certainly worked for Matt Damon in The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. Fourteen years prior to Damon taking on the Bourne role, Richard Chamberlain had played the spy in a two-part TV miniseries.
Also titled The Bourne Identity, this miniseries plays much closer to the original source material, Robert Ludlum’s 1975 novel, as the confused amnesiac Bourne follows bread crumbs to discover his past life as a decoy assassin trailing the international terrorist Carlos. Part of his investigation leads him to a Parisian boutique, where he poses as gregarious American buyer “Charlie Briggs”. Continue reading
Jason Bourne, 1988 Style
Richard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne in 1988’s mini-series The Bourne Identity.
Vitals
Richard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne, amnesiac ex-CIA agent
Zurich, Spring 1988
Film: The Bourne Identity
Release Date: May 8, 1988
Director: Roger Young
Costume Designer: Barbara Lane
Background
“HEY, THIS ISN’T MATT DAMON!”
That’s right. In 1988, Robert Ludlum’s wildly popular spy novel The Bourne Identity (I hope that you at least knew it was a book first) was adapted into a two-part mini-series that was much more faithful to the book’s plot.
While the 2002 version with Mr. Damon is often considered to be superior, the 1988 adaptation certainly held its own in terms of acting, action, and suspense. Continue reading
The Bourne Ultimatum
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).
Vitals
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne/David Webb, amnesiac ex-CIA assassin on the run
Everywhere (London, Madrid, Tangier, New York City), early 2004
Film: The Bourne Ultimatum
Release Date: August 3, 2007
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Shay Cunliffe
Background
After kicking a substantial amount of ass across a few continents, David Webb still isn’t taking it easy by the time The Bourne Ultimatum rolls around. As usual, he is paired up with a Bad Boy Super Assassin and defeats him with the usual weapons of a book and a bath towel and still manages to do it all without cracking a single smile. Continue reading
The Bourne Supremacy: Bourne in Europe
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Vitals
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, ex-CIA assassin on the run
Europe (Berlin & Moscow), Winter 2004
Film: The Bourne Supremacy
Release Date: July 23, 2004
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Dinah Collin
Background
By this point in The Bourne Supremacy, Bourne has already witnessed a tragic death, been in a car chase, beat up two U.S. Consulate officials, and stolen an old BMW. The complacent Bourne who, in his own words “got sloppy”, is now replaced by the professional Bourne.
It is important to recognize the parallels of the “two Bournes” used in the first two films: At the beginning of both, he is in a state of relative inactivity. In The Bourne Identity, he is searching for his identity (duh), and in The Bourne Supremacy, he has set up a home for Marie and himself in India. During these early parts of each film, Bourne is in more colorful clothes than usual.
After he is plunged into action (the Paris apartment realization in The Bourne Identity and Marie’s death in The Bourne Supremacy), he switches into his “Professional Badass” attire of long dark coat, sweater, dark jeans, and boots. Continue reading
The Bourne Supremacy: From India to Italy
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy (2004).
Vitals
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, ex-CIA assassin on the run
India to Italy, Winter 2004
Film: The Bourne Supremacy
Release Date: July 23, 2004
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Dinah Collin
Background
A year and a half after besting police forces and government agencies in Switzerland and France, Jason Bourne decides to return to Europe to wreak more havoc. Okay it’s not necessarily all his choice, but he returns all the same.
We first catch up with Bourne in India, where he is running on a Goa beach during what we can assume is a daily morning routine. At the end of the sequence, following a high speed chase, a shooting, a car crash, and a quick escape via land and sea, Bourne arrives at the Italian harbor of Naples.
Sartorially speaking, it is interesting to see how Bourne adapts the same clothing he wore while working out in Goa (a very hot environment) to arriving in an Italian sea port in the middle of winter (a very cold environment). Continue reading
Jason Bourne in Paris
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (2002).
Vitals
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, ex-CIA assassin on the run
Paris, Winter 2002
Film: The Bourne Identity
Release Date: June 14, 2002
Director: Doug Liman
Costume Designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud
Background
After Bourne realizes his identity (as you would expect him to in a film called The Bourne Identity), he begins dressing in a manner that allows him to be practical and blend in while still looking respectable enough to access offices and decent hotels. Continue reading
The Bourne Identity: From Zurich to Paris
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (2002)
Vitals
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, ex-CIA assassin on the run
Zurich to Paris, Winter 2002
Film: The Bourne Identity
Release Date: June 14, 2002
Director: Doug Liman
Costume Designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud
Background
The Bourne Identity was the first installment of what became a very successful trilogy—and, ultimately, a moderately successful series—starring Matt Damon as an amnesiac government assassin named Jason Bourne… based on a 1980 novel by Robert Ludlum that, as it happens, was also about an amnesiac government assassin named Jason Bourne. Continue reading