The Bourne Identity Ever since the first trailers appeared for this, I thought it looked cool, with a nifty twist on the spy thriller. A bit later on, when Cuvarack told me it was based on a book by Robert Ludlum, I borrowed it and read it (slowly I'll admit), finishing it not long before the movie was out. I heard that they did the movie "in the spirit of the book, so I was a bit worried :) Caution: some plot is discussed, with spoilers hidden, but read with caution! I have very rarely seen a good book->movie translation, much less it come out a good movie. I'll talk about the differences between the book and movie, as well as the movie itself.

First of all, the movie is not bad if you don't mind a mindless and relatively predictable spy romp. A cheap-night movie I think. The movie is full of cool chases (the fantastic car chase is very exciting, and almost an advertisement for the Austin Mini (recently re-done and on sale... conspiracy anyone?). There are plenty of explosions, fighting (brutal and non-stylized as someone noted, which was cool to see), and nifty spy stuff.

Both Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and Franka Potente (of Run Lola Run) as Marie, were good, and played their parts, mostly well.

See, here's where my bitch comes in. Having read the book, I know the history of the characters, and felt they were completely cardboard and two dimensional compared to how they could have been. That's a bias on my part, however. Some things were just un-realistic. We all know Bourne is a killer or agent of some sort, yet he seems oddly compassionate, and quick to fall hard for a complete stranger. Wouldn't someone in his position be more used to being emotionless, or at least, able to use people when they are needed more easily? What others around me who had not read the book noted was that it was a bit too simple a story, even for the context of a movie. The ending was just a bit to abrupt, and left a sour taste coming out of the movie.

Now I'm going to discuss why I felt things were too simple, easy, and two dimensional, by comparing the book to the movie, citing specific examples. The text will be white on white however, so if you wish to read highlight the big blank areas with your mouse. If you want to be surprised, or really don't care what I have to say, don't :)

In the book, the plot involving just who Jason Bourne was is a far more complicated affair than in the movie, and I felt that even if they had just grabbed a bit of that, they'd have made the movie characters more realistic and given them some much needed depth. In the movie, he was not an assassin, but someone who can sneak in, do a job, and sneak out undetected. Somewhere along the way, he grew a conscience, and couldn't kill a target, and got his ass shot because of it. He doesn't report in, or follow procedure, and his department ("Treadstone") decides (rather quickly) to take him out.

They try, and fail on more than one occasion, and in the end, he basically says "I don't want to do this any more," and walks away (after killing a few other agents coming after him of course).

It's that, disappointingly simple.

In the novel it's a much more delicious affair. Jason Bourne was a member of an elite squad who are trained killers. He is "Delta", the guy in front of him, Charlie goes freelance and turns into "Carlos", a killer for hire. In an attempt to draw out Carlos, Delta (Bourne) becomes "Cain", another killer for hire, rampaging across Europe, taking jobs left right and center, killing people almost indiscriminantly, and seriously infringing on Carlos' turf. Only thing is, he's not really taking the jobs. His department (in the book it is "Treadstone 71") has infiltrated and compromised all sorts of intelligence in Europe and is feeding false information to people, making it look like Cain (Bourne) is taking all these jobs. As the things he has supposed to have done must have the illusion of firsthand knowledge, Bourne has been drilled with this information, and when he loses his memory, this information remains, making it seem like he could have done these things.

His meeting with Marie is also far less boring than "I'll give you $20k to take me to Paris." He takes her hostage to escape from a rather bad situation, and keeps her until he can get what he wants, and that is, to escape to Paris. At one point he is faced with the decision to either leave her to be attacked and raped by a Bad Guy who is part of the group looking for him, or leave her. He chooses to rescue her. This does a couple of things. One it, tells her he's not that bad a guy. Second, it keeps them together a bit longer, and starts what turns into love and romance. Third, it tells her that he is not the brutal killer that he thinks himself to be, when faced with the realization that he must be the assassin Cain.

Even just making it so that in the movie Bourne was not really a killer, but a fake killer planted to draw out a real one would have added some nice depth to the character, and allow for some of his decidedly non-super-spy actions.

One of the other bitches I had with Bourne in the movie was he really didn't seem like a cold hard killer, or super-spy. In the book he was almost always in control, and knew what was best all the time. If he got Marie to go into a bank and do [X], and then call him at an exact time, relay information and then do [Y], there's a damn good reason for it, and there are consequences if it is not done properly. Also, part of his role of super-spy in the book was his ability to, even though his memory was blank, adapt instantaineously to a situation and socially engineer people, or assume a plausible role, attitude, or just know what to say to someone to get what he wanted. Matt Damon's character didn't have this as strongly as I would have liked, probably due to the adapation and writing more than his characterization. He seemed pretty much himself, the Matt Damon persona, and the Matt Damon persona doesn't fit the role of super-spy.

So what does that all add up to? A fun romp, but in the end unfulfilling. Best to wait on this one, or better yet, read the book.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/Title?0258463
Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente
Website: http://www.thebourneidentity.com