El Burro Volador

I recently finished Washington Irving’s Sketchbook, and have begun digging into the Bourne Ultimatum.  It will be the last Bourne novel for me; though I understand that the character was franchised out to veteran hack Eric Van Lustbader in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the movies, I have no interest in going beyond the original three books.

As I begin this latest Bourne book, I find myself musing about, of all things, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.  It has always been a reflex to compare the two, ever since they emerged from the relative obscurity of playing bit parts in early Kevin Smith movies to be illuminated by the same lightning bolt of genius, Good Will Hunting, which they starred in and co-wrote.

Since then, both of their careers have gone in different directions.  Damon has accrued a series of increasingly impressive roles as a “serious” dramatic actor, and Affleck has…well, continued to act in various movies while being connected romantically to a number of famous beauties.  You can pick your own winner, I suppose.

Ultimately, though, their careers converged again in 2002 when each played a secret agent of literary fame – Affleck portraying Jack Ryan in Sum of All Fears, and Damon as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity.  In this particular comparison, there can be no doubt who fared better.

Affleck got the chance to play perhaps the most famous secret agent in American fiction, but he had to fill the shoes of recent predecessors in the role Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin, both of whom excel him in charm and acting ability.  Moreover, his costar, Morgan Freeman, likewise overshadows him, which is never good.  Throw in a lousy script and you have the kind of bomb that can kill off one of the more successful book-to-film franchises in history.

Damon took on the role of a famous agent in Jason Bourne, but did not have any previous theatrical releases to contend with.  He was able to show a surprising degree of sincerity in playing a black operative stricken with amnesia – really an implausible role, but one which he was able to make real enough for moviegoers with his convincing performance.  His vehicle was filled out with very good actors as well, like Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, and Clive Owen, but they were used more appropriately as foils and villains, and never overshadowed Damon’s protagonist.

The end result is that Affleck wound up looking like a third-rate version of Alec Baldwin (a niche previously filled by William Baldwin), while Damon created the most memorable secret agent since Connery’s Bond.