Extreme Ways Are Back Again
Heelloooo, iconspace~!
But anyway, I finally did something I should have done quite a while ago today. I finished reading The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum.
Being me, I have been constantly comparing book!Bourne with movie!Bourne. And I am compelled to tl;dr on the subject.
Now, to anyone who for some reason actually wants to read my thoughts on this, I want to make this very clear. I would like to think I would have come to these conclusions anyway, but I am coming at this as a person very emotionally invested in movie!Bourne. There's no way that's not tainting my judgement somehow.
I will try to stick to facts as much as I can. But some of the things that interest me aren't really factual.
Oh, and if you haven't seen all three movies and/or read the first book, I'm going to spoil stuff.
Also, this definitely turned out on the long side.
First, the extreme differences in backstory have to be made clear. (Listing movie!Bourne first because that's what I really know. >.>)
Movie!Bourne was a captain in an unspecified branch of the U.S. military. Given that he was born in 1970, it's quite probable that he served in the first Gulf War, but that is conjecture on my part. We know at some point he became part of the CIA operations Treadstone and Blackbriar. We are told that he volunteered for these programs, but given the source this statement cannot entirely be trusted. It is probably safe to say that the CIA did some sort of general recruitment of him before he entered these programs, and probably very safe to say that he did not know exactly what these programs entailed until he was at a point in training where he could not really turn back. In any case, as a result of the "training" he became a perfect weapon for the CIA, killing both foreign and American targets who were thought to be able to damage the U.S. and/or the CIA. This state continued for some years, until he found himself unable to shoot Wombosi due to the circumstances, and was shot in the back and fell into the Mediterranean near Marseilles where he was picked up by a fishing boat and found he had no memory.
Book!Bourne was a rising star in the foreign service in southeast Asia. He was in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and a bomber that no country ever claimed responsibility for was responsible for the death of his Thai wife and their two small children, a boy and a girl. After this he volunteered to become part of the black ops program Medusa, the main purpose of which was to end the war at any cost. There he became legendary for his skill. After some time where he taught at a college in New Hampshire, people from several agencies, led by Abbott, approached him to become the heart of their Treadstone operation. The purpose of this was to create a fictional highly successful assassin, in order to lure out and capture the notorious actual assassin Carlos. He worked under this cover for three years, until an event near Marseilles led to him being extremely injured and floating in the Mediterranean. He was picked up by a fishing boat and brought to a doctor on a small island, where he found he had no memory.
There the background differences end and the proper plot differences begin, which is the subject for another post entirely.
So. Differences.
1. I believe it is safe to assume that book!Bourne is older than movie!Bourne.
2. Their fields of expertise are very different. Book!Bourne develops a decent bit of knowledge about Europe in order to take on Carlos, but his true field of expertise remains Asia. He is weaker in Europe. Movie!Bourne's main field of expertise is definitely Europe, though from the beginning of Supremacy one would think that he can get by decently at least in India. When speaking foreign languages shortly after/during their initial recoveries, book!Bourne reverts to an Asian language, movie!Bourne to French and German. There are also matters such as the fact that book!Bourne cannot speak Russian, movie!Bourne can.
3. Their methods are also different. Book!Bourne seems to have been much more reliant on networks. However, this is really just an extension of their different jobs. As a sort of bait, book!Bourne had to make himself known in some ways. Movie!Bourne, as an actual assassin, needed more secrecy.
4. Speech patterns. While in many cases they do react to situations in essentially the same way, they vocalize that differently. Book!Bourne talks more. He will not just state his conclusion, but the reasoning behind it. Also, book!Bourne is more ready, in the presence of someone he is comfortable with, to actually say what he's feeling. Movie!Bourne is less inclined to give anything away. When he does speak, he is usually, well, less eloquent and more blunt. Movie!Bourne is also just more socially awkward when he is not pretending to be someone else.
5. Class and education. Here we get into something I can't really back up. From book!Bourne, I get a sort of patrician vibe, and there are a few indications that he may well be at least from upper-middle class origins. Considering his background, he probably at least went to graduate school. It seems likely he went to very nice schools. In book!Bourne I, at least, got the sense of someone who was very used to the world of the elite. Movie!Bourne, however, gives me a feeling of someone of a more actual middle class background, someone who is very intelligent but is quite unlikely to have anything more than a bachelor's degree from either a good or a more middle-of-the-road school, and while he has become accustomed to dealing with the elite, he is not at home in that world.
6. Their treatment of people differs. I found book!Bourne to be rather more careless in regards to using people. For example, say there is a situation in which the visible cooperation of another is necessary. Movie!Bourne would shove the other person against a wall and threaten them. Book!Bourne is willing to slap them. This seems less professional to me. A slap is more likely to show. Also, if a situation which will result in gunfire arises while in a taxi, book!Bourne is perfectly willing to shoot while the driver is in the taxi. As for movie!Bourne, forcing the driver out and hijacking the taxi to shoot from is more his style. Book!Bourne is also more willing to use people in general than movie!Bourne is.
7. Sense of humor. Both have an ironic, sarcastic sense of humor, but it's not very evident in movie!Bourne, while it is extremely evident in book!Bourne. (Of course, part of this may relate back to how much each talks. But really, I think movie!Bourne is a little more srs bsns.)
8. Temper. I found book!Bourne to loose his temper more often than movie!Bourne. (And this may relate back to movie!Bourne's tendency to bottle more things up.)
9. Alcohol. We never see movie!Bourne drink. We see him feign it in order to steal a car, but he never actually consumes alcohol. Book!Bourne is perfectly willing to have a drink after all his stress. [There is something of a bias in me noticing this at all, since I have made it a point in my headcanon that movie!Bourne doesn't drink.]
And I think my brain's dying, so I'll stop there. Any more I think of will be added later.
EDIT:
10. Family. If movie!Bourne has any living familial connections, they are not discovered (and I think we can fairly say that Pam Landy would have mentioned it if there were any). Book!Bourne does at least start out with a familial connection back to the "real world." Of course, the guy is killed before book!Bourne can even remember him, but the point stands? I would say this also ties in with the different natures of their jobs. In movie!Conklin's words, movie!Bourne doesn't exist. That's easier to manage if someone has no living family. As a deep cover agent, having some sort of home to return to could help keep book!Bourne grounded.
Coming soon: Why I Prefer The Movies. (Not that you care, I just feel you should have fair warning.)
But anyway, I finally did something I should have done quite a while ago today. I finished reading The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum.
Being me, I have been constantly comparing book!Bourne with movie!Bourne. And I am compelled to tl;dr on the subject.
Now, to anyone who for some reason actually wants to read my thoughts on this, I want to make this very clear. I would like to think I would have come to these conclusions anyway, but I am coming at this as a person very emotionally invested in movie!Bourne. There's no way that's not tainting my judgement somehow.
I will try to stick to facts as much as I can. But some of the things that interest me aren't really factual.
Oh, and if you haven't seen all three movies and/or read the first book, I'm going to spoil stuff.
Also, this definitely turned out on the long side.
First, the extreme differences in backstory have to be made clear. (Listing movie!Bourne first because that's what I really know. >.>)
Movie!Bourne was a captain in an unspecified branch of the U.S. military. Given that he was born in 1970, it's quite probable that he served in the first Gulf War, but that is conjecture on my part. We know at some point he became part of the CIA operations Treadstone and Blackbriar. We are told that he volunteered for these programs, but given the source this statement cannot entirely be trusted. It is probably safe to say that the CIA did some sort of general recruitment of him before he entered these programs, and probably very safe to say that he did not know exactly what these programs entailed until he was at a point in training where he could not really turn back. In any case, as a result of the "training" he became a perfect weapon for the CIA, killing both foreign and American targets who were thought to be able to damage the U.S. and/or the CIA. This state continued for some years, until he found himself unable to shoot Wombosi due to the circumstances, and was shot in the back and fell into the Mediterranean near Marseilles where he was picked up by a fishing boat and found he had no memory.
Book!Bourne was a rising star in the foreign service in southeast Asia. He was in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, and a bomber that no country ever claimed responsibility for was responsible for the death of his Thai wife and their two small children, a boy and a girl. After this he volunteered to become part of the black ops program Medusa, the main purpose of which was to end the war at any cost. There he became legendary for his skill. After some time where he taught at a college in New Hampshire, people from several agencies, led by Abbott, approached him to become the heart of their Treadstone operation. The purpose of this was to create a fictional highly successful assassin, in order to lure out and capture the notorious actual assassin Carlos. He worked under this cover for three years, until an event near Marseilles led to him being extremely injured and floating in the Mediterranean. He was picked up by a fishing boat and brought to a doctor on a small island, where he found he had no memory.
There the background differences end and the proper plot differences begin, which is the subject for another post entirely.
So. Differences.
1. I believe it is safe to assume that book!Bourne is older than movie!Bourne.
2. Their fields of expertise are very different. Book!Bourne develops a decent bit of knowledge about Europe in order to take on Carlos, but his true field of expertise remains Asia. He is weaker in Europe. Movie!Bourne's main field of expertise is definitely Europe, though from the beginning of Supremacy one would think that he can get by decently at least in India. When speaking foreign languages shortly after/during their initial recoveries, book!Bourne reverts to an Asian language, movie!Bourne to French and German. There are also matters such as the fact that book!Bourne cannot speak Russian, movie!Bourne can.
3. Their methods are also different. Book!Bourne seems to have been much more reliant on networks. However, this is really just an extension of their different jobs. As a sort of bait, book!Bourne had to make himself known in some ways. Movie!Bourne, as an actual assassin, needed more secrecy.
4. Speech patterns. While in many cases they do react to situations in essentially the same way, they vocalize that differently. Book!Bourne talks more. He will not just state his conclusion, but the reasoning behind it. Also, book!Bourne is more ready, in the presence of someone he is comfortable with, to actually say what he's feeling. Movie!Bourne is less inclined to give anything away. When he does speak, he is usually, well, less eloquent and more blunt. Movie!Bourne is also just more socially awkward when he is not pretending to be someone else.
5. Class and education. Here we get into something I can't really back up. From book!Bourne, I get a sort of patrician vibe, and there are a few indications that he may well be at least from upper-middle class origins. Considering his background, he probably at least went to graduate school. It seems likely he went to very nice schools. In book!Bourne I, at least, got the sense of someone who was very used to the world of the elite. Movie!Bourne, however, gives me a feeling of someone of a more actual middle class background, someone who is very intelligent but is quite unlikely to have anything more than a bachelor's degree from either a good or a more middle-of-the-road school, and while he has become accustomed to dealing with the elite, he is not at home in that world.
6. Their treatment of people differs. I found book!Bourne to be rather more careless in regards to using people. For example, say there is a situation in which the visible cooperation of another is necessary. Movie!Bourne would shove the other person against a wall and threaten them. Book!Bourne is willing to slap them. This seems less professional to me. A slap is more likely to show. Also, if a situation which will result in gunfire arises while in a taxi, book!Bourne is perfectly willing to shoot while the driver is in the taxi. As for movie!Bourne, forcing the driver out and hijacking the taxi to shoot from is more his style. Book!Bourne is also more willing to use people in general than movie!Bourne is.
7. Sense of humor. Both have an ironic, sarcastic sense of humor, but it's not very evident in movie!Bourne, while it is extremely evident in book!Bourne. (Of course, part of this may relate back to how much each talks. But really, I think movie!Bourne is a little more srs bsns.)
8. Temper. I found book!Bourne to loose his temper more often than movie!Bourne. (And this may relate back to movie!Bourne's tendency to bottle more things up.)
9. Alcohol. We never see movie!Bourne drink. We see him feign it in order to steal a car, but he never actually consumes alcohol. Book!Bourne is perfectly willing to have a drink after all his stress. [There is something of a bias in me noticing this at all, since I have made it a point in my headcanon that movie!Bourne doesn't drink.]
And I think my brain's dying, so I'll stop there. Any more I think of will be added later.
EDIT:
10. Family. If movie!Bourne has any living familial connections, they are not discovered (and I think we can fairly say that Pam Landy would have mentioned it if there were any). Book!Bourne does at least start out with a familial connection back to the "real world." Of course, the guy is killed before book!Bourne can even remember him, but the point stands? I would say this also ties in with the different natures of their jobs. In movie!Conklin's words, movie!Bourne doesn't exist. That's easier to manage if someone has no living family. As a deep cover agent, having some sort of home to return to could help keep book!Bourne grounded.
Coming soon: Why I Prefer The Movies. (Not that you care, I just feel you should have fair warning.)