: (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,
, 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
(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,
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
. 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.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: *
- Music as Heard on the 2002 Album: *
- Music as Heard on the 2022 Album: **
- Overall: *
| Bias Check: |
For John Powell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.28
(in 50 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.16
(in 52,492 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
