Action Verite

The excellent and surprisingly dark Bourne Supremacy contains some impressive--if polarizing--set pieces. Excerpts from the editor's take:

"One of the things that struck me about the initial footage was that impression of: You're driving down the 405 (freeway in Los Angeles), and in the oncoming lane you see something happen out of the corner of your eye," says Pearson, who cut the scene. "You go, 'Oh s---!' And it's that very kind of caught, haphazard action. It's never 15 angles with a beautiful crane shot that shows in slow motion the car arching through the air. It's one of those, 'Oh god! That looked horrible.'"

[snip]

As a result of the propulsive editing style and aggressive lensing, Rouse notes, public reaction to the film tends to divide into two camps.

"The positive response is that people feel that they're in the midst of this experience," he says. "Other people want to see the film presented to them in a prosceniumlike fashion and watch a piece of entertainment unfold from a distance. Paul and everyone involved wanted it to be immersive so that we'd be thrown in the middle of it."

Pearson adds: "It was a brave style for everybody to invest in. Everybody above the line knew when they made the film there were going to be risks involved. The studio probably could have made safer choices, but to their credit they didn't."

Agreed. Mission accomplished!