Something NOT to watch tonight: Tuesday 20 August
Something NOT to watch tonight: Tuesday 20 August
The Bourne Legacy (Gilroy, 2012)
Today’s newsletter takes a slightly different approach as I see my deadline fast approaching and my search for something good that’s actually available is drawing a blank. (Apologies to reader JS of Mt. Victoria for another firearm in the photo.)
Besides, this is one of my favourite pieces of writing (from the Capital Times on this day in August 2012):
In The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon’s amnesiac super-soldier Jason Bourne is a shadowy figure, looming invisibly over a plot that for contractual reasons can’t accommodate him. It’s as if he’s in the sin bin – after a yellow card for demanding director approval – watching the clock tick down until he can take the field again.
The director that Damon objected to is Tony Gilroy – co-writer of all the Bournes and writer-director of Michael Clayton – and next time someone should listen to Damon’s instincts. He said he wouldn’t do another Bourne without Paul Greengrass (director of the last two, Supremacy and Ultimatum) and the weird compromise concocted by Gilroy to keep the franchise alive will probably only satisfy the studio and the Robert Ludlum estate. Bourne is on life support but no more than that.
The plot of The Bourne Legacy runs roughly parallel with the last of the Damon films. As Bourne is attacking the sinister government forces who turned him into a ruthless killing machine, the state in turn is trying deperately to shut down the programme and destroy the evidence. One of those bits of evidence is Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) who escapes an attempt on his life in Alaska and goes searching for the source of the drugs that made him so strong. His journey – with the help of scientist Rachel Weisz – is cross-cut with some of America’s finest actors surrounded by satellite imagery on big screens saying things like “How could that happen?” and “I don’t know!”
Perennial second-banana Renner shows leading man potential for the first time but unlike Greengrass, Gilroy is no great shakes as a director of action so – combined with the purposeless plot – the result is the first tedious Bourne movie – The Bored Legacy.
Also featured in that 2012 column are some much better (but unavailable) films: Richard Linklater’s Bernie and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s gorgeous I Wish, along with costume drama Cheerful Weather for the Wedding and the demented Nazis-on-the-Moon fantasy Iron Sky.
Where NOT to watch The Bourne Legacy
Aotearoa: Digital rental from Neon, Apple or Microsoft
Australia: Streaming on Binge, FoxtelNow or Paramount+
Canada: Streaming on Netflix, PrimeVideo or HollywoodSuite ON Demand
Ireland & UK: Streaming on SkyGo
USA: Streaming on Starz
Further listening
Here’s my latest chat with Emile Donovan on RNZ Nights last Friday. We covered Ghostlight, the arrival of Ms. Information as a digital rental and my free-to-stream selection was the classic romantic comedy His Girl Friday from 1939. That’s available on the library streamers Beamafilm and Kanopy as well some high quality but ethically dodgy versions on YouTube.
Nothing ethically wrong with watching His Girl Friday on YouTube! The film has been in the public domain for a while, but the 1928 play The Front Page on which it’s based was copyrighted for ages, which meant the film effectively couldn’t be screened without permission. However US 1928 copyrights expired this year, so the film is now fair game worldwide (and of course has been so in NZ for many years because of our shorter copyright term).