Bourne: From Death to Life

Over the years, I have watched the Jason Bourne trilogy - Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum - more times than I can say. God willing I will do so again. Last night, however, I rounded off my latest viewing of the the series with The Bourne Ultimatum, and once more, smiled wryly to see Jason Bourne's dog tags. Ah, the greatest assassin in the world is a Catholic; how cool is that!

Of course, 'not really' is the answer. Being an assassin is decidedly uncool: that's the whole point of the Bourne films. 

If you haven't seen the films, you might be a little confused. After all, the dog tags belong to someone called David Webb. This is Bourne's real name. As we learn in The Bourne Ultimatum, he is renamed Jason Bourne after joining Treadstone, the CIA's black ops programme. As part of his training, he is effectively brainwashed. His renaming marks the effective death of David Webb the Catholic and the birth of Jason Bourne, the machine-like killer.

We only see the machine-like version of Bourne in flashback for the trilogy is about the third phase of his life: his search for himself. The Bourne Identity opens with Bourne afloat in the sea. When he is rescued by fisherman he wakes up to discover that he has lost his memory. The film covers his quest to work out what caused this to happen (1).

It is hard not to see the shot of Bourne in the water as a kind of baptism. For while this one doesn't wash away his sins, it does wash away his memory, giving him the mental space he needs to find out who he really is. 

Bourne's search reminds me in part of the Prodigal Son. As you'll recall, the Prodigal takes his inheritance and fritters it away on drink, girls, etc. When a famine comes, he loses everything and is forced to feed pigs for a living. Realising how far he has fallen, the Prodigal returns home to his father, who welcomes him with open arms.  

How does this relate to Jason Bourne? David Webb is a Catholic. By joining the Treadstone programme he implicitly or explicitly rejects his faith (and embraces in a very literal way a culture of death). From now on, Conklin et al will be his God. In time, however, famine will strike: Treadstone lets him down: it will demand that he kill a man in front of his children, something that even the ice cold Bourne isn't prepared to do. Bourne, of course, doesn't know who he really is, so can't leave Treadstone and return home. After being rescued from the sea, however, he does the next best thing: once he discovers his profession, he rejects it and sets up a new home with Marie. He loves her deeply. You could say that despite not knowing who he is, Bourne still has a Marian devotion. 

Now, here, I should acknowledge that I am making some big assumptions about David Webb. He is a Catholic but does he practice his faith? We don't know. We are never told. I am just choosing to believe that he does. 

I mentioned above Bourne's 'baptism' at the start of The Bourne Identity. The scene of him in the water is repeated at the end of The Bourne Ultimatum. After finding out the full truth about himself in New York. Bourne flees the CIA operatives and jumps into the Hudson river. He is shot at but this time escapes unharmed. Unharmed and, you could say, regenerated. Very Catholic. The man who will emerge from he water in a few minutes is not Jason Bourne but David Webb.

Finally, the image of Matt Damon as Jason Bourne below is one of my favourite. The use of black and white and shadow with Bourne being lit by a shaft of light makes it look as though he is wearing a dog collar. The gun, however, is probably less common for men of the cloth - though maybe that is not the case in countries where gun ownership is allowed?

(2) Bourne discovers more information about himself in The Bourne Supremacy and then, as indicated above, the full story in The Bourne Ultimatum