Review: The Bourne Legacy

The Bourne Legacy:  It’s More Fun In The Philippines?

By Randy Renier I. Espinoza

Chase scene on the streets of Manila

I am no fan of Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series and I couldn’t care less about the first three installments of the film franchise, that’s why I don’t have a vague idea of what the series is all about. But I had to see the fourth movie, The Bourne Legacy, because it features Manila and El Nido, Palawan, one of the most dazzling beaches in the Philippines. After all, it is only the second Hollywood movie which shot substantial portions of its scenes in the country. Apocalypse Now, a 1979 epic war film starring the great Marlon Brando, was shot in the Philippines, which subbed as Vietnam. It was in the award-winning film that Pagsanjan Falls was showcased as site for some of the movie’s memorable scenes.

The Bourne Legacy was shot in a number of locations, but all I’m interested in were the scenes that involved the Philippines. Okay. Yes, the movie was a typical Hollywood action-suspense flick with enough action and chase scenes to delight the audience. Jeremy Renner turns out to be a better lead than Matt Damon (although, again, I didn’t watch his installments) and has the physicality to play the part convincingly, and he manages to come off as cute in some scenes. Rachel Weisz is a darling, pulled the emotional scenes off quite well.

The sci-fi thing is interesting, the meds and stuff, but what I just don’t particularly get is the rationale for the genetic modification program and the coldblooded nonchalance of the CIA in exterminating its assets and everybody remotely related to, or involved in, the program. Perhaps that’s just the human in me talking, or perhaps it’s just a product of being a Third World citizen of the world, who is not exposed to the ins and outs of such clandestine operations and high-tech stuff.

I’m also perplexed as to how America can just so easily track fugitives and ask other governments and police organizations to search for people on their behalf. Specifically, the movie shows how frantically Manila police officers go after the two fugitives, as soon as they receive orders from the U.S. Is it just that the scriptwriter is exaggerating, or is it really that the U.S. actually, really, and still, has the commanding presence and dominance over all state-nations? Can Vietnam request the same from the Philippine police and get the same extraordinarily quick response? On the other hand, the way the two fugitives outwit and outrun the CIA and eventually the Thai “supersoldier” and literally a whole police department is, well, an exaggeration that’s all meant to serve the box-office aspirations of the flick, and the happy ending is just a fitting finale to an action -packed theatrical production.

On a Manila street with the famed Philippine jeepney in the background

And finally, to a Filipino like me, who always takes pride in anything that the Filipino achieves in the global arena, does Bourne make me feel proud? Well, yes and no. No, because the movie features the dark side of the metropolis, it exposes its underbelly for everyone to see and dissect. It zooms in on the slums, the seedy city alleys, the lower-class city denizens, the unsophisticated city establishments. And I don’t want that, of course. That would be a generalized view, a misrepresentation of the progress that the government is hyping about. I want the world to know that the country also has sophisticated and beautiful city scapes

Yes, I also feel proud to a certain extent, because finally a major Hollywood production (Let’s face it, America still lords it over the whole world) has again featured the country and a handful of our actors, who played bit parts. Never mind that the Pinoy security guards (prominently John Arcilla) speak English with a twang (which is, of course, a little weird, because most Filipino security guards don’t speak good English, much less with passable accent) and the meds seller, talking to a white foreigner, speaks to her in the vernacular (which is, again, laughable because a typical Filipino, no matter how little education she had, talking to a Caucasian will try very hard to converse in English). No matter how small the parts or the scenes are, or no matter how squalid the depiction is, it’s still exposure, isn’t it?

I shake my head as I see the familiar sights, but I can’t help thinking, well, that’s really Manila that I’m seeing. That’s reality; that represents a greater majority of the metropolis. And come to think of it, no matter how ugly the setting is, the cinematography makes it look even less ugly. So why should I cry foul at something that’s an honest, realistic representation of the city? After all, there’s a saving grace in the final frames, where the movie shows the beautiful El Nido, although one can say that the beauty is just the tip of the iceberg.

If there’s something I like about The Bourne Legacy, it did a better job at promoting the Philippines more than the Department of Tourism and President PNoy himself. And the promotion is stripped of overhyping and exaggerations. Just the plain, honest truth. The beaches are beautiful, but Manila needs improvement. And the government should be concerned and take action if it were to revive Manila and to improve the lot of the general population.

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