image © Sony Pictures
Casting Matt Damon as Bourne was a master-stroke, capturing the bland everyman essence of an action hero who is all angst and no fun. Of course, the Bond series tried the gritty route with Timothy Dalton – and quickly reverted to charisma because it’s what the audience really want from their heroes.
Bourne’s sporadic and pacey violence may bring some realism to the spy world, but that accuracy is only a step away from paperwork and reality. Do we think that a licence to kill brings the necessity to make a pun to the recently departed? No. But isn’t it cool that he does?
It’s been suggested that the Bond ethos has been stretched thin by the years of films, whereas a trilogy of Bourne’s should bring down the curtain on his career whilst he’s at his peak. But Bond’s continual re-invention has made him stronger, not weaker.
Enormous Bond Special!
In Pictures: The Bourne Ultimatum
Message Board: Is Bourne Better Than Bond?
© Universal Pictures
Sean Connery was the ultimate Bond; tough but charismatic, but you name a favourite set-piece and invariably it will come from a Roger Moore film and his bon mots are still the most quotable to this day. Best car stunt? Dalton’s The Living Daylights. Best Bond girl? Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Best skydive into a plane? Best escape via the jaws of crocodiles? Best Union Jack parachute escape? Best collapsing Venetian building?
Every reinvention brings a new moment of quality; a new addition to the increasingly awesome caché of Bond. The truth is that Bond films have brought us some of the silver screen’s most genuinely jaw-dropping, quotable and fondly remembered moments. Will anyone be buying the Bourne box-set in 40 years time? No. Because all he can boast is a pedestrian plot and the odd bit of fisticuffs.
Movies are all about escapism and, to my inner child at least, a spy should get the bad guy, the girl and the biggest laugh before the final credits roll.
Finest Hour - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Bond is trapped, skiing away from multiple bad guys as his latest adventure begins and the odds are against him and getting worse. The camera pulls back and we see what’s coming: the end of the line for Bond as he sails unknowingly towards a cliff edge. The whistle of the wind is all you can hear as he sails over the precipice. And then, from nowhere, we realise that he has an unlikely escape plan, the first bloom of a parachute which opens as the James Bond theme cuts in at the perfect moment. It’s a Union Jack. It’s enough to send a shiver down my patriotic spine even thinking about it. That’s Bond in a nutshell – arrogant, brilliant and cooler than any other action hero you could name.
Greatest Line - Moonraker (1979)
Hugo Drax: Why did you break up the encounter with my pet python?
Bond: I discovered it had a crush on me.
Bourne V Bond Deathmatch: The Result
Distracted by his need to come up with a witty bon mot to start the fighting, Bond is staggered when Bourne goes straight for his jugular. Bond buys some time by asking Bourne who he is and wrestles the angst ridden everyman to the floor as he ponders life’s mysteries. Bourne’s vicious response is to pick up a handy sporting implement and try to hit Bond between the legs; ‘That’s just not cricket’ counters the Brit, gesturing towards the bat. Bourne goes in for the kill but is blinded by the laser in Bond’s watch and is kicked from the building. "That’s MY Bourne Ultimatum", says Bond.
Why Bourne Beats Bond
"Hasn’t Jason Bourne helped us get over the whole Bond thing? Hasn’t the new JB illustrated, in three killer blows, exactly what a modern-day spy movie can be, and what 007 can’t? Until Bourne, we clung to the sacred Bond-cow in the absence of any serious competition. Now the outdated conventions of the old shooter are exposed."
Enormous Bond Special!
In Pictures: The Bourne Ultimatum
