I just watched The Bourne Identity Monday night. Pretty good movie, IMHO. Not the best I’ve ever seen, but not the worst. Anyway, a couple of quick questions:
What was with the word “Threadstone” that kept being bandied about? I gather that Bourne was a member of some sort of project named Threadstone, but the movie failed to adequately explain it.
Also, was Bourne supposed to have like implants or genetic modification or something? One of the assassins sent to kill him mentions headaches, but the gist of that scene must have gone over my head. Also, Bourne’s boss at one time mentions Bourne being “a 30 million dollar weapon that’s malfunctioning.” I just assumed that meant the CIA had spend $30 million training him.
“Treadstone 71” was the code name of the project – about Bourne – that met in the DC brownstone.
I don’t believe there were implants or anything, but the guy (Bourne) did have some pretty serious amnesia. I don’t remember much detail from either the movie or the book, but that could explain the headaches. I agree that the “$30 million dollar weapon that’s malfunctioning” line probably refers to the amount they spent training and supporting Webb/Bourne.
I just started reading The Bourne Supremacy, and luckily it recaps/explains the Identity history.
It’s my impression that Bourne has been through an extensive process of psychological conditioning, going far beyond what one would ordinarily consider “training”. He’s conditioned to the point that his reactions are (or at least, are supposed to be) automatic, mechanical, predictable to anyone who knows his “programming”. I think the 30 megabucks pricetag is supposed to just be the price for that special conditioning, over and beyond any normal training.
Treadstone is the name of the government project that trained Bourne and the others like him. They were conditioned to be assassins and infiltrators and that conditioning probably has something to do with the headaches and such.
I thought that the movie was much better than the book. I tried reading the Bourne Identity and I just couldn’t get through it. Soooo drawn out and boring. I’m about 3/4 of the way through and I don’t know that I can force myself to finish the book!
Wow, I’m shocked. I’m guessing that, having seen the movie, you’re hoping the book would fill in the details. And/or that given the pace of the movie, you would figure the book to do the same. But I can’t imagine anyone describing the book as “drawn out and boring”. It has been some years since I read it, but it was the ultimate page-turner for me. I remember that I cranked through it in like 3 days. I know one aspect that contributed to the experience for me: I was in europe while I was reading it. Nothing like reading Ludlum in europe !
I enjoyed the movie, and was very impressed that a recent action movie didn’t have so many of the cliche action stuff in it (cars did not flip over each other and explode upon impact). What I was disappointed with in the movie is that they DIDN’T follow the book more closely. I think they did such a great job with the story they chose, that they could have done an outstanding job with the story Ludlum wrote. I can only guess that they thought it might be too complicated for the audience to follow. But the whole Kane/Carlos aspect would have been awesome.
The other thing that may take away from the book is purely its timing. That is, the movie was updated to current time. Yet the book was written around the early 80’s (I think), and “current technology” at that time was far more limited. I think it added a whole extra dimension to the story. In the book, the people back at Treadstone aren’t really sure if Bourne’s gone bonkers. And they can only go by these eye witness accounts to try to determine what’s going on. But in the movie they actually have video feeds and what not to observe. I think the limitations of the technology gave you more an appreciation for what the Treadstone people were going through.
I was very disappointed they left that out. I mean, that was a HUGE part of the book and would have been very cool to see onscreen. I thought the movie was decent, but I enjoyed the book much, much more. It was a real page-turner for me, too. I haven’t read any of the sequels though–maybe I’ll wait until after the next movie.
I was disappointed with “Bourne Supremacy” (movie coming out shortly). The whole thing with “Identity” was him finding out just who/what he really was. But having figured that out, “Supremacy” kind of just becomes another super-spy story.
I was so disappointed in “Supremacy” that I only listened to “Ultimatum” as an (abridged) book-on-tape. Again, just another spy story using the name/character.
To be honest, I’ve been disappointed in Ludlum’s latter works. If you want some recommendations on earlier works, though, I’d highly recommend “The Parsifal Mosiac” and “The Matarese Circle”.
The pacing isn’t as good in these as in “Bourne Identity”, but really great stories with good twists and action. “Parsifal” in particular is my favorite Ludlum.
