The Bourne Legacy And Manila’s Militaristic Mapping

By Guest Contributor Bryan Ziadie

I’ve heard a few friends’ opinions so far about The Bourne Legacy, the latest installment in the Bourne film franchise. The last set of sequences in the film got particular attention. Those scenes take place in Manila. It seems to be the case here in the Philippines that people, at least those I know, managed to stay immersed in the film up until that point. After this, a feeling of strange misrecognition of the landscape took over. This may be because what we’re shown through the camera work in the Manila scenes suggests a perception of the Philippines not unfamiliar to a militarized American pop-culture industry that’s easy to identify with it until you find that familiar spaces have become the focus of the camera’s lens.

Rooftop-Hopping

One thing that I’ve noticed about First World action sequences that take place in Third World settings is the position of the camera. You often find it hovering above, looking down on metal, shanty-town rooftops as protagonists run across, leaping from one roof to the next either in pursuit of, or escape from, the enemy. A couple examples that come to mind can be found in Edward Norton’s Incredible Hulk and, in Inception, the scene that takes place in Mombasa. I can’t actually remember the movie Quantum of Solace very well, but the video game features a shanty-town, rooftop-hopping stage.

(Don’t watch the whole video, it’s actually pretty boring)

But, to say on track, here’s an illustrative scene from Bourne.

(Watch the whole video. It’s actually pretty badass.)

SPOILER ALERT FOR THE BOURNE LEGACY

But, as I left the theater after seeing Bourne, I found myself wondering where the badassedness came from.  In thinking through this, it seems important to note that one reason the camera tends to look down on the Third World might be that in a lot of spaces, where movie crews film, there really just isn’t a whole lot of space. Homes are packed tightly together, and there’s often no distinction between the street and the sidewalk. And in an action sequence, the geography is an important part of the visual language. In fact, that may be a large part of the excitement in such sequences: the conquering of space or manipulating it in your favor and using it against the enemy.

For an action sequence, these impoverished spaces offer something uniquely thrilling: the chance to demonstrate macho-mastery by controlling a space that possesses something of a hazardous quality, making it seem less controllable. As Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner) leaps across rooftops, there’s a risk that the structures might be unable to support his acrobatics and come crashing down, as they do in the Total Recall trailer, which, though it takes place in a futuristic setting, still draws upon the visual signs associated with contemporary slums. There are assorted slum signifiers throughout the trailer, but track to about 1:40 to see some rooftop-crashing:

Bringing our attention back to the film: Because the view, as well as physical mobility, from the street is restricted, the only way to visually portray this setting is by transcending it. From the standpoint of a blockbuster action-film director, the view from the street simply does not offer enough freedom. It produces the feeling of being closely connected to the environment, which is the opposite of what’s desired by the audience and the protagonist whose goal is movement without the restrictions imposed by concrete spaces, the necessity of living and working in a one place, or the US government against whom they battle to escape.

Automatons

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