Movies: With Book Tie-Ins

The Bourne Identity

 

A man (Matt Damon) fished out of the Mediterranean Sea awakens from an unconscious state, to discover he has been shot several times in the back, and has microfilm implanted in his left hip.  But he has no idea who he is because he has a severe cause of amnesia.  He soon becomes the target of international terrorists, and the only person who can help him figure out the answers to his true identity is a woman (Franka Potente) who knows his past.  

 

Basic Stats

 

Starring: Matt Damon, Franka Potente,            Release Date: June 14, 2002

Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen, 

Judy Parfitt, Gabriel Mann                              DVD/Video Release Date: January 21, 2003 

 

Director: Doug Liman                                    MPAA Rating: PG-13 - for violence and some language

 

Screenwriters: Tony Gilroy,                            Genre: Spy, Thriller

W. Blake Herron

                                                                  Running Time: 113 minutes

Story Sources: Based on the novel

by Robert Ludlum: The Bourne Identity           Country: United States of America

 

Studio: Universal                                

 

Production Company: 

Kennedy/Marshall-Hypnotic                                                                

 

Recommendations

The book and the movie, The Bourne Identity, are two very different subjects.  The book contains more action, and more thrills then the movie will ever supply.  Although I must admit that Matt Damon did an excellent job portraying Jason Bourne.  The book is fairly different then the movie, the plots are entirely different but deal with almost the same characters.  Some of the characters bearings and statuses are altered slightly, for example Marie in the book is a well-known economist with a doctorate degree, she lives in Ottawa, CA, but is in Zurich, Germany for a conference.  In the movie Marie is in Zurich, Germany on a student-visa and is in bad need of money, she doesn't have a doctorate degree, nor is there any mention of her being an economist.  Apart from the differences in the plot and the slight change of a couple characters, the movie and book were both excellent over-all.  Although I might go so far as to say that the book was a bit better then the movie.

 

Sequels or Trilogies:

The Bourne Supremacy

By: Robert Ludlum

 

The Bourne Ultimatum 

By: Robert Ludlum

 

(The books up above are the sequel 

and the trilogy to The Bourne Identity.)

 

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