The theme of “The Bourne Identity” is far beyond the simple opposition between good and evil in the action movies of the same period, and moves towards deeper thinking about the existence of society and individuals. Jason Byrne’s motivation in the entire trilogy is to retrieve memories and complete atonement, not to save the world and maintain justice as usual in Hollywood blockbusters in the 1990s. Because of this, the audience can find sympathy and empathy with Jason Bourne, who has lost his heroic aura. What we see is an ordinary person with scars, not a hero who is omnipotent and never fails. Such a journey of atonement seemed so different at the time. Similarly, in the setting of the villain, the trilogy of Bourne is also different from the previous Hollywood action blockbusters. Previously, many action movie villains were always the generals of a former Soviet Union country in Eastern Europe who always wanted to detonate bombs and called them legitimate reasons for not believing them. However, the enemy of the Bourne trilogy comes from the United States, from the CIA, which protects national security. Behind it is the worry about the violation of personal freedom and power. This movie also discusses the contradiction between subjects, which is the contradiction between the subject dominated by the national consciousness and the subject dominated by the individual consciousness.
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A good attempt in analysing The Bourne Identity, it would benefit even more with closer reference to Harris’ text – which of her arguments are you specifically responding to? The discussion on villains can be extended further with regards to the politics at the time – portrayals of villains / spies from Russia / Soviet Union was a reflection of the Cold War; while the “enemy” in Bourne perhaps is responding to the skepticism and conspiracies on the US intelligence agencies.