MovieChat Forums > Le professionnel (1981) Discussion > Was The Bourne Identity heavily based on...

Was The Bourne Identity heavily based on this?

posted 16 years ago by tifrap
7 replies | jump to latest

Watching this film again, I was struck by the similarity of the story to the Bourne Identity. As the film progressed I realised that it is not just a feint resemblance - Bourne Identity IS a remake of this film. I was going to list the plot similarities, but realised it would save server space to list the differences.

1 Jason Bourne has lost his memory, Joselin Beaumont hasn't.
2 The Hollywood offering has a happy ending. what else would you expect.

Anybody agree with me?

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] cookyboy 16 years ago

Le Professionel was also based on a book. The book was called Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal written in 1976 by Patrick Alexander (who happened to be my great-uncle, which is the main reason I happened to watch this film in the first place...)

The novel of the Bourne Identity was written in 1980. I haven't read the novel but when I watched the film I was also struck by similarities to Le Professionel - African dictator needs to be assasinated... top hitman stitched up by his own side is back from the dead to complete the job. Mind you, the rogue male hunt is a fairly popular theme in epsionage/military thrillers.

Death of a Thin-Skinned Animal is set in England and it's a pretty good read if you can get your hands on it although it's been out of print for years.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] herve-15 16 years ago

I haven't read the "Bourne Identity", but "XIII" see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIII_(comic)>; for more details.
When I watched The Bourne Identity movie, I was struck by the resemblance with XIII's story line. The Wikipedia article confirms XIII was inspired by the book, and I can tell you they kept the name of the main protagonist as well (Jason Bourne is one of the numerous identities of XIII)...
IMHO the movie is also inferior to the comics... What a great book it must be! I'll put that on my wish list for Xmas ;-) Thank you HybridMoments.
Cheers

[–] alex-dumortier 15 years ago

'Jason Bourne' is not an alias of XIII, it's 'Jason Fly'.

[–] Dambala 16 years ago

There are some similarities no doubt, but not enough to call it a remake.

[–] parknourie 8 years ago

There's definitely similarities.
Too much to just call it coincidence but hey, that happens.

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