Directed by: Doug Liman
Written by: Tony Gilroy & W. Blake Herron
Stars: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper
Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne, a man suffering from amnesia who was rescued by fishermen on the Italian sea. The fishermen find 2 bullets in the back of his chest and a mini laser device on his hip, which reveal a Swiss bank account number. In Zurich, Bourne finds a bank vault, where he discovers a bunch of passports, his identity, and a huge pile of cash along with a gun. After being trailed by security, he finds a friend and love interest in Marie (Franka Potente), and finds out that someone wants to kill him. Bourne also discovers that he has martial arts skills and scours through Paris trying to uncover parts of his past life, while avoiding assassins.
Originally, The Bourne Identity is a 1980 spy fiction thriller by Robert Ludlum that tells the story of Jason Bourne, a man with remarkable survival abilities who has retrograde amnesia, and must seek to discover his true identity. In the process, he must also reason out why several shadowy groups, a professional assassin, and the CIA want him dead. The original story takes readers on a twisted and dangerous journey into a world of deceptions and conspiracies, offering a psychological portrait of Bourne, and giving them the chance to experience from his point of view the life-or-death decisions he makes as he seeks to piece together the dangerous puzzle of his missing past.
Director Doug Liman has said that he had been a fan of the source novel by Robert Ludlum since he read it in high school. Near the end of production of Liman's previous film Swingers, Liman decided to develop a film adaptation of the novel. After more than two years of securing rights to the book from Warner Bros. and a further year of screenplay development with screenwriter Tony Gilroy, the film went through two years of production. Universal Pictures acquired the film rights to Ludlum's books in the hopes of starting a new film franchise. William Blake Herron was brought in to rewrite the script in 1999.
Of particular inspiration were Liman's father, Arthur Liman's memoirs regarding his involvement in the investigation of the Iran–Contra affair. Many aspects of the Alexander Conklin character were based on his father's recollections of Oliver North. Liman admitted that he jettisoned much of the content of the novel beyond the central premise, in order to modernize the material and to conform it to his own beliefs regarding United States foreign policy. However, Liman was careful not to cram his political views down "the audience's throat". There were initial concerns regarding the film's possible obsolescence and overall reception in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, but these concerns proved groundless. Liman found that Damon understood and appreciated that, though The Bourne Identity would have its share of action, the focus was primarily on character and plot.
Liman approached a wide range of actors for the role of Bourne, including Brad Pitt, as well as Russell Crowe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone, before he eventually cast Damon. Damon, who had never played such a physically demanding role, insisted on performing many of the stunts himself. With stunt choreographer Nick Powell, he underwent three months of extensive training in stunt work, the use of weapons, boxing, and eskrima. He eventually performed a significant number of the film's stunts himself, including hand-to-hand combat and climbing the safe house walls near the film's conclusion
I liked The Bourne Identity. I thought Matt Damon was a good choice for the role of Jason Bourne. The film has some pretty nice action sequences. I was interested by the plot of a spy with no memory being tracked. The film has a good car chase scene throughout the city. The hand-to-hand combat scenes are really impressive. The film also has a nice final shootout scene. Overall, a good film.
7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment