Movie review-The Bourne Trilogy

The Bourne Trilogy

A certain Madam Revamp of the Chicago Random House had commissioned me to write the review of The Bourne Ultimatum but the same wasn't possible without refreshing my memory of the first movie of the series and having actually seen the second one. (For the cinematically challenged it ought to be clarified that The Bourne Identity was released in 2002 followed by The Bourne Supremacy in 2004 and the latest, The Bourne Ultimatum in the current year). Now I had missed the 2 nd one when it was released in Chandigarh and the 3rd one hasn't been released here yet. So I committed the cyber crime of downloading both the movies from a P2P network and watched them in succession.

Each movie can be seen in isolation and enjoyed which good moviemakers aspire to achieve. The action is high voltage, relentless and breathtaking. The 2 nd & 3rd are however similar and at times repetitive in this respect. At times it looks more like the action director's baby than anything else. Its made to look believable so can be enjoyed by all movie buffs. Now this is where the purist in me starts flapping his wings. Apart from the opening sequence of Jason Bourne's retrieval from the sea in a shot up, half dead state the story doesn't even bear a passing resemblance to the book series. So guys like me who read the Robert Ludlum classics in their college days have a problem. The emotional trauma of an amnesic who suspects that he is an assassin is missing. The hero of the books is constantly at war with what he doesn't want to be and what he instinctively is. I still remember the Korean war cry "Che Saw" which JB utters in the first unarmed combat.

The books carried the romance of the world of espionage in the era of cold war. "Carlos The Jackal" evoked awe and inspired guys like Ludlum to weave spellbinding stories around him. But Gorbochov played spoilsport and broke up The Evil Empire. Illych Ramírez Sánchez aka Carlos lost his steam and got arrested by the French. Therefore it's understandable that in the current context the original story may not receive cinematic acceptance by the audience. The motives of Carlos and the importance of his capture would simply be lost on the MTV generation. So instead of unraveling the intricacies of global espionage of the 70s, now it's a greedy Russian oil billionaire who is to be neutralized.

The love story of Bourne and Marie St Jacques also never really takes off. They are constantly on the run in the first two movies and the lady is conveniently bumped off in the beginning of the third. No titillating scenes which is good but no emotional development of the love interest which is disappointing. Just raw, heart thumping action. Great to watch but I will not remember the movies after sometime.

TRIVIA

The Bourne Identity was rated as the second greatest spy novel.
Two of the greatest fictional undercover agents James Bond and Jason Bourne share the same initials. Coincidence??
The 1987 Tamil movie Vetri Vizha starring Kamal Haasan is a loose adaptation of the Bourne Identity.

A recommended watch is "The Assignment" featuring Aidan Quinn and Donald Sutherland (one of my favorite actors). It's about the mission of a CIA operative trained to capture Carlos. Watch it for all the things I missed in the Bourne series.