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| wittenbergtrail.org |
It’s interesting to think that there was once a time where people were derided for claiming the government was spying on them. For decades these folks were called crazy or paranoid, but 2013 was the year that changed all of that. A young man named Edward Snowden, a contractor for the NSA, leaked documents revealing a massive surveillance program that keeps tabs on the American people without a warrant and collects their data. While people’s opinions on him and his actions may vary, the question of government surveillance and transparency has come back in a big way, and our entertainment has scrambled to figure out how to discuss it.
Jason Bourne is the latest film to incorporate elements of this debate into a story, with CIA director Robert Dewey seen trying to coerce a social media guru into giving the Agency backdoor access to his users’ accounts. The inciting incident of the film is when Nicky Parsons hacks Agency files to leak information on their black ops activities, an action that is literally described as “worse than Snowden.” It’s no surprise that this was discussed in a Bourne movie, which has put forward a less than trustworthy (and completely incompetent) vision of America’s favorite super secretive spy organization. But, as I stated in my review, it didn’t really work for a few reasons.
The first is entirely story-based, and something I’d like to expand on here from my original review. The plotline with the social media platform only seems to be in the movie to set up the final action sequence, to the point where it bears no real significance to the story in any real way. For all of Tommy Lee Jones’ grumbling, this rather important real life topic is reduced to some throwaway trope to show how evil the CIA is and why Jason Bourne has to stop them. It reduces this debate to a basic good vs. evil conflict, removing any and all nuance to the discussion and rendering it completely forgettable.
The second is that another spy series has also tried to tackle this issue and failed, which is Bourne’s fellow J.B. James Bond, in last year’s SPECTRE (ironically, the third J.B., Jack Bauer, spent his time battling drones, another topical storyline). That film made the same missteps as Jason Bourne, though it tried a little harder to make an actual debate out of it. Like the Bourne film, however, SPECTRE makes the mistake of undercutting the entire argument by turning the proponent of surveillance into a puppet for Blofeld. You would think that a rival film series would look at this and try to do better, but Jason Bourne instead makes the same mistake and further devolves it. It’s sad, really, because another film series has already addressed this debate and done a masterful job of it, and it’s not what you would expect.
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joblo.com
I'd say spoiler alert for SPECTRE, but if you really can't tell he's a villain then you're dumb. |
Loathe as I am to admit it, I have to give Marvel props here. Yes, I’m talking about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which took the fairly recent Snowden revelations and turned them into a major part of the film, with Steve Rogers fighting for his World War II-era ideals of total freedom against the more totalitarian views of HYDRA leader Alexander Pierce. One could argue that this makes the same mistake as SPECTRE, but I would disagree with that. Pierce is allowed to lay out his belief system, and the audience is never led to believe that he is lying about his conviction to them, despite being the villain of the film. There is fair representation of both sides, and audiences are able to leave the theater with this dichotomy in their minds, being thoroughly entertained and educated on a serious topic (this was the intention of the Russo brothers, as a matter of fact). So what does Captain America get right that two of the biggest superspies in the world get wrong?
It’s actually a simple answer, guys: the Russos took the issue seriously and actually put the time into making it fit into their film. While the main thrust of that story is the mystery of the Winter Soldier, the debate over surveillance never goes away and actually drives Captain America well into the third act. They realized that an issue like this just can’t be haphazardly thrown in and must be given the gravity it deserves. Who else is doing that now? I mean, Oliver Stone is doing a movie about Edward Snowden, but he’s a crazy person so I don’t count him. Why can’t more filmmakers be brave and honest enough to tackle this topic?
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mtv.com
Be real, Hollywood. It's the lack of Sam Jackson, isn't it? |
A few years ago, I remember watching an Oscars roundtable featuring some of the actors that were likely to get nominated. In this, George Clooney talked about how films tend to look back at major movements in society rather than being right in the middle of them (it’s ironic, since he had directed a film that year which was definitely a reaction to many Democrats’ frustrations with President Obama), and he has a good point. All The President’s Men, a film about Watergate, didn’t come out until four years after the event occurred. Recently we had Selma, which went in-depth into the Civil Rights movements in Alabama nearly fifty years after the marches. Oliver Stone, back when he was sane, released films about Vietnam during the 80’s and 90’s, his best being Platoon (which was released in 1986). There are examples of films released during the time of the event being discussed, like Dr. Strangelove, Fahrenheit 9/11, and this year’s excellent drone drama Eye in the Sky, but these are the outliers. Most of the time I find that movies do tend to take some time to really address an issue.
So I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m making such a big deal about all of this. After all, nobody went to see Jason Bourne, SPECTRE, or Winter Soldier to hear a big debate about government surveillance, right? You are correct there, hypothetical reader, but I think this discussion is too important for these movies to trivialize, and I think that Hollywood needs to either step it up or ignore the issue entirely. Listening to Edward Snowden discuss the real world implications of the surveillance debate (watch this interview with John Oliver. It’s quite eye-opening), it infuriates me that its being reduced to stupid plot points in generic action films already, rather than being given the proper attention that it deserves. We don’t need Matt Damon turning to the screen to preach at us about surveillance and liberty, but I think that Hollywood needs to stop treating the audience like we’re stupid and be a little bolder in giving us these stories. There is a real debate going on out there, and despite what Hollywood thinks the messages they put out do affect how we perceive reality. If we see the debate between security and liberty as the generic and boring plot point in a movie we won’t care much about it in real life, which I think is incredibly dangerous. Regardless of which side of the issue you fall on, this is a debate that must be had on a national level and discussed seriously. Jason Bourne is not helping on that front.
I was really looking forward to seeing how Jason Bourne discussed this topic, and was very disappointed in the result. I figured that the film series that started the boom of gritty, realistic spy movies would have a field day with the post-Snowden world the way it did with the world following 9/11, taking inspiration from real life ideas and attitudes to give us an exciting tale. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened, and I think that the overall debate is going to suffer for this mediocrity. It hasn’t been discussed as much since the media has been filled with Trump’s antics or Hillary Clinton’s scandals, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an issue that will be brought up on the campaign trail and that Americans should be informed about it. Since the serious side of Hollywood is probably going to take awhile to get around to discussing this, all we have are our action movies to carry this torch for us and keep the debate alive, and it’s time that Hollywood put a little effort into it. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s time to be more like Marvel, folks. Follow their lead and contribute to the conversation rather than bring it down with your laziness, or just don’t bring it up! Even though with the box office receipts from this summer, maybe people didn’t even see the dumbing down of this topic in Jason Bourne… Is that a sneak peek at next week’s article? I think so!
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filmschoolrejects.com
Ohhhhh noooooo |
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