End your Wednesday with a tense AF spy thriller…

Scrolling aimlessly through your many streaming services, looking for the most entertaining way to end your Wednesday night? We’ve all been there. It’s a tough situation, and the possibilities are literally endless when you’re on your streaming subscription of choice. So much so that it can be very well impossible to pick a solid title to dedicate the next two hours of your life to. Thus, we’ve made an executive decision: You’re hopping on Netflix and throwing on spy blockbuster The Bourne Identity tonight, and we’ve got five solid reasons why it’s the only logical choice for your Wednesday night. But warning, spoilers lie ahead (to be fair the film is nearly twenty years old, so you’ve had enough time!).

Amazing Fight Scenes

Probably one of the film’s most defining features, the fight scenes in The Bourne Identity are raw, brutal and most importantly, grounded in reality. There’s no flash or glamour, it’s literally just an assassin using every trick up his sleeve to fight off enemy combatants, all of whom are just as deadly as him. It’s all best shown when old mate, armed with a mere pen, goes up against an assassin with a huge knife. It’s moments like these where Bourne truly shines, using his skill and tactical prowess to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds and come out on top, a process he consistently repeats throughout the film.

See A Bit Of Europe

This doesn’t get talked about enough, but bloody hell, Europe is absolutely gorgeous in this film. Crossing across cities, coasts and wonderful countrysides in Paris, the Czech Republic, Italy and Mykonos, the film’s globetrotting levels are right up there with The Avengers or even a Christopher Nolan epic. Its aesthetic appeal is consequently enhanced to a ridiculous degree, juxtaposing the serious and dark tone of the film with vibrant landscapes that properly transport you from whatever dusty sofa or computer chair you’re watching from.

Matt Damon

Matt Damon really brought the grit, badassery and eternal sense of loss needed for the character of Jason Bourne. He perfectly portrayed him as a fragmented government weapon just trying to survive and figure out who the hell he is, all while making inhuman and at times immoral choices that helped us empathise and be drawn to him even more. Even the stunts he did were bloody ridiculous, further convincing us that Damon was every bit of Jason Bourne, that he truly lived and breathed the role.

Espionage Gone Wrong

We always see the peak of espionage, the very best of government agents and their complex web of plans as they make moves and counter moves in their journey to achieving their objective. Yet, we barely ever see what happens when all of that government planning, manipulation and training messes up the agent so hard that they go completely rogue. That is before The Bourne Identity burst onto screens in 2002. The premise that a highly skilled government assassin could fail a huge mission and become a threat to the very agency they work for is bloody brilliant, creating this hunter and hunted dynamic that’s totally entrancing (especially when you consider that Bourne doesn’t even know why he’s being hunted).

The Social Commentary

Aside from all the spectacle and high octane energy of the The Bourne Identity, the social commentary and messaging about morally ambiguous government agencies is second to none. It’s all embodied within the iconic line “look at what they make you give” after Bourne’s battle with Clive Owen’s ‘The Professor’. The idea that an individual has to give all they have to a shady government body (even their soul) in order to serve a cause they’re told is patriotic is bloody haunting man, especially given how fast everyone turns on Bourne once he fails his mission. Interestingly, it’s that complete submission to the system that bonds Bourne with the assassins tasked with killing him, all of whom are put through the same torture as him, reaffirming that the real enemy of the film isn’t the agents after him, but the government overlords calling the shots.

Be sure to keep your eye out next week, where we once again cure that film-infused existential crisis inspired by the Wednesday winds. Hit us up at info@lifewithoutandy to suggest any films that tickle your fancy.