Bourne

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Recommended: Media as a social issue

Paul Greengrass’ critically acclaimed film, The Bourne Ultimatum is the third in a series of four films that center around CIA covert spy Jason Bourne, played by award winning actor Matt Damon. The Bourne Ultimatum features hard hitting action, state of the art film editing, and powerful controversiality. Among all things that stick out in Greengrass’ film, the powerful subject text resonates the most. Featuring a United States government and intelligence system than spies on, and often attempts to sabotage its own people, The Bourne Ultimatum portrays the government policies of The United States of America in very negative manner. This paper will focus on the aspects of The Bourne Ultimatum that represent the American public’s perception of the world they live in following the September 11th attacks on the United States of America. The Bourne Ultimatum shows how Americans’ lives are filled with fear, trauma, and distrust, because of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
The Bourne Ultimatum is extremely successful in connecting with its viewers, and communicating their messages and feelings of fear, trauma, and distrust. This is done because of the way the film is constructed and produced. By being crudely realistic in their depictions of American society, the film hits hard with its viewers both domestic and abroad. In “Gender, Geopolitics, and Geosurveillance in the Bourne Ultimatum,” Klaus Dodds, a professor of Geopolitics at Royal Holloway, University of London, quotes a film critic in his article by saying “what attracts me to Bourne’s world is that it is a real world and I think I’m most comfortable there” (Quoted Dodds 95). The world of Jason Bourne is modern and realistic. It is a world that the audience of Th...

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...in the Bourne Ultimatum."
Geographical Review 101.1 (2011): 88-105. Wiley Online Library. 26 March 2014.
Fernández, Antonio Baraybar. "Jason Bourne, ¿héroe o monstruo? El viaje existencial de un héroe contemporáneo/Jason Bourne: Hero or Monster? The Existential Journey of a Contemporary Hero." Area Abierta 34.2 (2013): 23. Proquest. 26 March
2014.
Gaine, Vincent M. "Remember Everything, Absolve Nothing: Working through Trauma in the Bourne Trilogy." Cinema Journal 51.1 (2011): 159-63. Project Muse. 26
March 2014.
Pope, Richard. "Doing Justice: A Ritual-Psychoanalytic Approach to Postmodern
Melodrama and a Certain Tendency of the Action Film." Cinema Journal 51.2
(2012): 113-36. Project Muse. 26 March 2014.
Quay, Sara E., and Amy M. Damico. September 11 in Popular Culture: A Guide. Santa
Barbara, Calif: Greenwood, 2010. Web. WRLC Catalog. 26 March 2014.

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