Bourne Supremacy

 

The Bourne Supremacy: (John Powell) The film adaptation of the Jason Bourne road to self-discovery does well what it intends to do: show one ingenious character avoid death countless times, in situations that defy every reasonable boundary of logic. Bourne does this in many similar technically gifted ways as James Bond does, and with the success of both The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy on film, the smell of the franchise’s future is fresh indeed. While the plotlines of the Jason Bourne films are –once again, like the Bond films– ridiculous in their relentless attempts to produce convincing assassination scenarios.

 

 The Bourne Supremacy in particular has played its hand quite well with critics and audiences. We may still not know the truth about the title character or why everyone in the known universe is trying to kill him, but he is at least consistently presented to the audience with enough precision by Matt Damon to elevate the film to the higher regions of its own genre.  
Along with much of the crew and cast, composer John Powell was re-hired to extend his services for the franchise, and he was likely asked to extend the general action and suspense material from the first film into the second. Despite the first film’s success, Powell’s score for The Bourne Identity alone did not break much new musical ground, often degenerating into mindless noise when accompanying one of the film’s many action sequences. Much of the score’s content seemed like leftover scraps and samples that had fallen under the table at a Media Venture feast, featuring little intriguing material to identify with the character’s emotional plight. The second film, The Bourne Supremacy, offers up a second chance for Powell to further develop his music for the character, and he does so with impressive revision. Interestingly, both the character development and concentration on suspense have largely overtaken the brash keyboard-rendered action hits, and it’s much easier to hear Powell’s thought process as the score for The Bourne Supremacy progresses.
A larger orchestral ensemble is heard in The Bourne Supremacy, with a nearly full brass section accompanying the strings, electronics, and solo bassoon (once again performed by Michael O’Donovan). A band-oriented percussion section is similarly offered as well, but the most emphasis of any section in The Bourne Supremacy is strongly placed on the strings. Powell had created a choppy string motif to represent Bourne’s endeavors in the first film, along with a staggered and non-heroic string theme over the top of that rhythm, but much of that material was overpowered by other elements in the first score. Powell does not make the same mistake in The Bourne Supremacy, allowing the strings to really put forth the sophisticated side of Bourne’s capabilities; they are strictly business in a rhythmic sense, never making light of Bourne’s theme, and never extending themselves to romanticism outside of, perhaps, the final, apologetic score cue. The solo bassoon is a curious sound to serve as the identity for Bourne’s internal dilemma, but Powell does faithfully present it at moderate volumes in the more reflective cues (such as “New Memories”). The full-blown action music is surprisingly minimal in The Bourne Supremacy, resorting only twice to crashing electronic mayhem and instead marching with precision in cues such as “Berlin Foot Chase,” which adds a sharp piano to the Bourne action motif. The electric guitar causes the score to devolve slightly in “Bim Bam Smash,” although Powell decently avoids the temptation to present Bourne in a “cool” fashion, only dabbling on the edge of heroism or “coolness” in the slower rhythmic sections. Both the guitar performances on the Indian beach in “Goa” (a neat twist on the title theme) and the aforementioned rhythms in “Nach Deutschland” are a pleasant turn of events for Powell’s development in the Bourne franchise. On album, Powell’s music is more enjoyable in its clarity, and the final score cue (“Atonement”) begins to show a more varied and interesting side of both the film and its music. The Moby song at the end (unrelated to Powell’s score) is a good fit with the attitude of score… slightly pained but adequately determined in tone. While Powell’s The Bourne Supremacy may not have any exquisite moments, it has more focus and sophistication than its predecessor, and it suits both the film and its album well enough to match the title character’s continuing development. ***