"How could I forget about you? You're the only person I know."

I think Jason Bourne is one of the coolest characters to come out of Hollywood in a long time. My wife, Shauna, is going to have fits about this blog because of her strong feelings towards this movie. She was sorely disappointed to see the many differences between the Robert Ludlum book and the film. I think she needs to go back and read the High Fidelity blog, specifically the part about never criticising a good movie simply because it doesn’t exactly follow the book. I read the novel after already seeing the film and I will admit that there are drastic differences between the two, but that doesn’t change the fact that the movie is a great flick and a lot of fun.

After watching it last night with my history-teacher friend, Dave, he mentioned that the film raises some interesting questions. Are we judged, as a person, for the things we have done in the past or for the things we choose to do in the future? This is an important question for Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). Bourne has amnesia and cannot remember anything about his life before being hauled out of the Mediterranean Sea with two bullets in his back. However, he quickly realizes that he has the skills and knowledge that your average person doesn’t – skills and knowledge that seem to indicate only one reasonable explanation; he’s a highly trained CIA assassin.

Despite this fact, Bourne chooses to turn his back on his former life and instead opts to lead a life that doesn’t involve murder and violence. The question is, can he? Certainly his former employers will stop at nothing to get him back or eliminate him. You can compare Jason Bourne to a nuclear weapon – if the government lost one, do you think they would just let it go? From a moral standpoint, however, Jason must wonder if his actions in his pre-amnesia life will have any bearing on his character now that he has given up that life.

Can Jason Bourne be absolved of his deeds as an assassin simply because he has forgotten that he ever was an assassin?

I’m not sure what the answer to that question is, but I do know that The Bourne Identity is one kick-butt movie. I think it’s the fact that Bourne doesn’t want to be an assassin, but still has the skills of one, which makes him so cool. For the audience, it’s all the excitement of being a highly trained operative without any of the ethical drawbacks of being a professional killer. Sign me up!

For some reason Universal decided to release an ‘Explosive Extended Edition’ of The Bourne Identify to follow the original DVD release. The extended bits are actually not very explosive at all. And given the fact that the newer version excludes the DTS track that was available on the original, I think Universal should be added to Treadstone’s list of problems that need “solving”. Fortunately my roommate has a copy of the DTS version and since he never reads this blog I think I’ll just switch the discs and not tell him. Shhh…

Highly trained trivia for ‘The Bourne Identity’.