The Bourne Identity

Since the release of the 2003 theatrical version starring Matt Damon, this mini series version of "The Bourne Identity" has been much maligned, primarily by people who have never seen it. While it is a little dumbed down from Ludlum's book, and has some soap opera elements inherent to being a Richard Chamberlain mini series, it's also infinitely more faithful to the book than the Damon version, and considerably less dumbed down. If you want to see some great action scenes, check out the movie. If you want a good story, try the mini series (or even better, read the book).

Superficially the 2002 Matt Damon movie is better as far as action and pacing goes and I almost passed this by seeing that Richard Chamberlain (not my favourite actor) is in it. But this is a very well made and watchable version (though slow paced). What I found most striking was that the lead characters are played by adults and it was obviously made with that audience in mind. It's supposedly truer to the original book as well. It's not quite a classic but better than I expected and a reminder of how movies (even those made for tv) used to have substance - as opposed to just being a series of strung together action sequences.

I have just finished watching this Movie and felt very complelled to come and write a review on here.

Where to start??! A good compliament of "The Bourne Identity" is simply that the 3 hours went by very quickly, never dragged on. It would have been perfect I imagine when first screened, over two evenings and the end of the first part is an excellent cliff hanger!

I loved the way clues, plot pieces unraveled as the Movie went along. The micro chip... finding out Bourne's name?... various clues forced out of people...

Richard Chamberlain, was good, likeable. He tackled the role very well and was, in the most part, very sucessful. Jaclyn Smith, I suppose, was the reason I watched this Movie. I am a fan of hers, initially from Charlie's Angels of course, and this was the 8th Movie featuring her I have collected. Because it's the most recent one I have seen I would be inclined to say it is my favourite but I honestly think it is! Far too often her Movies are family dramas and this is a Spy Thriller!! Yay! Marie (Jaclyn's character) develops a great deal through the Movie, her preconceptions alter, she falls in love, she becomes stronger.

I get the impression the 2002 version won't spend as much time focussing on the relationship between Bourne and Marie but I think that is just as important as the action. I certainly imagine the action scenes are better. There are no major complaints I can make about the action in this 1988 version except perhaps the "fat villain" may not have been very good at it, not too convincing. To mention one other slight down side to the film (there must be + and -) the opening scene didn't look great, of the ship, looked a bit model-ly.

But that is simply because there was no huge budget, afterall it is a TV Movie, and an excellent one at that! A good cast, Paris was an inspired choice for the main location of the movie and overall this is a Movie with a fantastic plot and main cast.

If you have read the Robert Ludlum books then you have no doubt been disappointed by the way the story has been handled in the movies.

This TV mini series keeps much closer to the book than the film.

If that were the only good part about this, I would not be writing a review.

It does not have the action of the films but it has the tension of the book. It is gripping!!

Obviously it still cuts some part from the book but it does have so much more than the films.

The acting is good, to be expected from the great cast.

I am so glad that I watched this. I was so disappointed by the films until I gave up and disconnected them from the books.

Brilliant stuff and well worth watching!!!

Well, finally I saw the old Bourne movie/miniseries with Richard Chamberlain as Bourne. And I have to say i pretty much LOVED it. Chamberlain's Bourne was much closer to the one in the books than Matt Dammon ever was. Okay, Dammon is a better fighter, and he plays much better than I had thought before seeing his Bourne movies. But these movies are just about totally ignoring the plot of the books, which annoyed me greatly.

In Chamberlains Bourne movie they mostly stuck to the book, with few variations. I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I could follow the plot from the books from point to point. Especially I liked the way Marie St. Jaques were portrayed by Jaclyn Smith. Okay it got a bit overly mushy on both her and Chamberlines side, but all in all they both did a fair job. Franka Potente were a LOUSY Marie in the new movies. Partly also because of the infuriating way her character were written in the script.

The only complains I have, the before mentioned overly romantic air over the movie, and that I always had the feeling I was watching a seventies movie instead of one made in 1988. The col ours, the clipping and the way the movie progressed, it was so incredibly seventies spy movie.So therefore i give this one a 7. Otherwise it would have been a sure 8maybe more.