Kyle and I just finished watching the latest installment of the Jason Bourne series: The Bourne Ultimatum. I decided that this is my favorite cinematic trilogy. Now I know the Lord of the Rings fans have their pitchforks ready and the Star Wars freaks have their nooses ready as well, but I can take them on; I just got done watching Jason Bourne flee out of probably twenty-five scenes where he should’ve died (and keep in mind, no force or silly rings were needed to make these happen) so, I am ready to take on anything that moves!
Last Friday we prepared ourselves by watching Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy back to back. I must say, I am pretty pleased I did that because not only were there so many details that spawned from the first one that bled into the second one, but the third movie took on so many plot points from the first two; they were all fresh in my mind.
What is really interesting to note is the major differences between the films and the novels they are based on. Now, I know that many adaptations tend to become extremely altered where readers become absolutely disgusted by the movie. The screenwriters, from what I gathered, did their best to put the Jason Bourne character in a modern setting; a post Gulf War (I) scenario. The original trilogy, written by Robert Ludlum, had the protagonist living in Cambodia with a wife and two children; a fighter jet blazes through and bombs the village that he and his family live in. You can probably predict it, but the wife and children die; the protagonist wants revenge and signs up in some top secret US military project called Medusa and becomes a killer. Jason Bourne is another assassin who gets killed in action and the protagonist ends up taking his name. The rest of the story deals with Bourne finding out the clues to the village bombing, recovering from amnesia, taking on Carlos the Jackal, and other government paranoia induced situations. And, of course, all of this takes place in the 1980s.
Quite the difference, but I like the approach that the screenwriters took with Jason Bourne. They were very smart about how to put him in a post-9/11 world. The Bourne Identity (the first to be released) came out the summer after September 11, 2001, and the story did its best to not tread into that territory. As the rest of the trilogy unfolded, there wasn’t much holding back on current topics. The Bourne Ultimatum, they put it right out there that the CIA is out of control with their power and how they will not hold back at all in order to preserve American freedom (even if that means sacrificing American liberties… and American lives).
That’s what I have for now. Next movie stop: Superbad.
Last Friday we prepared ourselves by watching Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy back to back. I must say, I am pretty pleased I did that because not only were there so many details that spawned from the first one that bled into the second one, but the third movie took on so many plot points from the first two; they were all fresh in my mind.
What is really interesting to note is the major differences between the films and the novels they are based on. Now, I know that many adaptations tend to become extremely altered where readers become absolutely disgusted by the movie. The screenwriters, from what I gathered, did their best to put the Jason Bourne character in a modern setting; a post Gulf War (I) scenario. The original trilogy, written by Robert Ludlum, had the protagonist living in Cambodia with a wife and two children; a fighter jet blazes through and bombs the village that he and his family live in. You can probably predict it, but the wife and children die; the protagonist wants revenge and signs up in some top secret US military project called Medusa and becomes a killer. Jason Bourne is another assassin who gets killed in action and the protagonist ends up taking his name. The rest of the story deals with Bourne finding out the clues to the village bombing, recovering from amnesia, taking on Carlos the Jackal, and other government paranoia induced situations. And, of course, all of this takes place in the 1980s.
Quite the difference, but I like the approach that the screenwriters took with Jason Bourne. They were very smart about how to put him in a post-9/11 world. The Bourne Identity (the first to be released) came out the summer after September 11, 2001, and the story did its best to not tread into that territory. As the rest of the trilogy unfolded, there wasn’t much holding back on current topics. The Bourne Ultimatum, they put it right out there that the CIA is out of control with their power and how they will not hold back at all in order to preserve American freedom (even if that means sacrificing American liberties… and American lives).
That’s what I have for now. Next movie stop: Superbad.
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