Alex Massie Alex Massie

James Bond vs. Jason Bourne

Peter Suderman and Isaac Chotiner each highlight an interview with Matt Damon (who is promoting the latest Jason Bourne thrilla, The Bourne Ultimatum). I like Damon. He’s an increasingly interesting actor and his excellent performance in The Good Shepherd last year was every bit as under-rated as the movie itself. Nevertheless, he’s also an ass. Evidence for the prosecution?

Matt Damon’s amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne shares initials with another notorious screen operative. But other than that, Damon doesn’t see any similarities between Bourne and James Bond. Bond is “an imperialist and he’s a misogynist. He kills people and laughs and sips martinis and wisecracks about it,” Damon, 36, told The Associated Press in an interview. “Bourne is this paranoid guy. He’s on the run. He’s not the government. The government is after him. He’s a serial monogamist who’s in love with his dead girlfriend and can’t stop thinking about her,” Damon said. “He’s the opposite of James Bond.”

Before we proceed, it’s only fair to ackowledge that Damon’s director, Paul Greengrass, is no better informed. According to the talented Mr Greengrass:

“[Bond]’s an insider. He likes being a secret agent. He worships at the altar of technology. He loves his gadgets. And he embodies this whole set of misogynistic values,” Greengrass said. “He likes violence. That’s part of the appeal of the character. He has no guilt. He’s essentially an imperial adventurer of a particularly English sort. “Personally, I spit on those values.”

Clearly neither of these gentlemen can have read any of Ian Fleming’s novels. Heck, it’s possible they’ve only seen the post George Lazenby Bond movies. As we shall see, almost every assumption they make in this interview is incorrect.

Where to begin? Well, perhaps by remembering that James Bond isn’t English. His mother was Swiss; his father Scots.

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