The Bourne Identity Case Study

'The Bourne Franchise' was a very successful US Franchise. This is the first film of The Bourne Franchise, and brought in quite a wide audience, the poster also helped achieve this. Starting off with the main star, at the top of the poster it says 'Matt Damon is Jason Bourne', this brings in quite a large audience because Matt Damon is a well known actor, and has many fans, so if people see he is the main actor, they will come watch. On the poster there are many different images on the front, but there is one big main image in the middle that people will first look at, which is a picture of Matt Damon in a running stance with a gun in his hand, this once again brings in the audience who like Matt Damon, also, the fact he is wearing a gun connotates that the genre of this film may be either a thriller or an action film, which will attract the audience who enjoy those 2 film genres. The tagline on the poster 'He was the perfect weapon until he became the target' This is a very interesting tag line as it is an enigma, it makes people ask questions like 'in what way is he a weapon, is he a threat?' or 'how did he become a target? a target for who? what has happened?' and this attracts a large audience because they want to see what happens and they want their questions to be answered. There are 3 other clear images you can see on this movie poster. 1 of them is a fighting scene between Matt Damon and another man, this shows that it's an action film, or at least has action elements, so this will attract the audience of action lovers. Another image is of Matt Damon climbing up a building at a very high height, this once again shows elements of action, so it will attract action lovers. The final image is slightly different, it shows Matt Damon and another female character kissing, this gives off a romantic element, maybe attracting some romance fans, but possibly not many because there are more action elements than romantic. Also on the poster is a crosshair from a sniper rifle on Matt Damon, once again bringing in action elements because of the fact it's a sniper, bringing in action lovers yet again. The production company for this film is 'Universal' which is a well known production company showing that it's a big budget film, meaning it will want to make a lot of money, and the poster helps do this.

- Starts with company name 'Universal'
- Shows main character with non-digetic sound 'he has the skills' makes audience wonder what skills he has
- Well known actor Matt Damon
- More non diegetic sound 'of a dangerous man' and then a clip of him fighting, shows action, attracts the audience
- Shows more small clips of the film, keeping the audience interested
- Non diegetic sound 'but he has no memory' makes audience wonder why and he will cope
- Non diegetic sound of a character 'he's trained, he's built to dissappear' makes you wonder why he was trained, what he's trained for, and why was he built to dissappear?
- Shows clips of him in action, climbing walls, showing his skills, keeps audience entertained
- Narrater constantly talking about how he was a top agent and now is wanted by many, and this keeps the audience asking constant questions and having to watch the film for them to be answered
- Shows unusual car chases, of cars going downstairs, police cars crashing, etc
- Non diegetic sound 'he needs to find out who he is, before they find out who he is' once again audience asking questions like 'who are they?'
- Shows lots more short clips of the film, mainly action packed, guns, bare hand fighting, attracting in action lovers
- Main character saying how they can't stay here and it's not safe, showing there constantly on the run and constantly on the move
- 'From Universal Pictures' showing the company name.
- More clips being shown and titles eventually saying 'Danger is Bourne' adding tension, and making the audience wonder why he's so dangerous
- Very fast editting near the end, showing as many clips as possible keeping the audience as entertained as possible
- Small clip of main character kissing a woman, adding romance, attracting a wider audience
- Title of film near end
- Movie credits at end, showing 'Universal Pictures' all the actors, a website and different studios involved

Genre - Action, Crime, Mystery
Director - Doug Liman
Stars - Matt Damon, Frank Potente, Chris Cooper
Release Date -
Budget - $60,000
Grossed - $214,034,224
Production Co. - Universal Pictures

Review:- "James Bond and Ethan Hunt take notice. "The Bourne Identity" is my new standard for contemporary spy thrillers. Gone (or almost gone) are the special effects that James and Ethan rely on all too heavily. Hell, in those franchises the special effects have virtually replaced story and characters. "The Bourne Identity" has a very straightforward story to tell, a mystery that slowly unravels. Spycraft is not all about technical gizmos, but requires human brains and human brawn (and a fair amount of gunplay and car chases).
Set in various locales in Switzerland and France during the winter much of the visuals for "The Bourne Identity" are gray and damp. That's a plus, Monte Carlo and like locales can get boring. Mat Damon is great as Jason Bourne, fished from the Mediterranean mostly dead by gunshot wounds. A total amnesiac, he slowly realizes that he possesses the deadly skills of a well-trained assassin, and that someone is out to kill him. Franka Potente is equally good as the young woman swept up in his life and forced to run with him. Run or be killed.
I can't say enough good things about this movie. Doug Limon, thanks, you did a great job. "