Saturday, July 30, 2016

The Bourne Bad Guys



The "bad guys" in the Bourne franchise pretty much do what Obama has now made blase', when it used to be considered downright criminal if his predecessors did the same things. In that sense, the Bourne movies are out of date, out of touch with the times. Killing American citizens without trial, mass spying, black ops, assasination, regime change...these are programs in the Bourne movies that the antagonists -- the bad guys, the CIA characters Conklin, Abbott, Vosen, Dewey -- attempt time and again to kill our main character over. They'll kill swaths of Bourne's allies over who threaten to leak the programs. But they usually get arrested in the end, they get their comeuppance, when the docs are leaked to the press. Yes, I guess these are just movies, because when Obama kills people and spies on everyone, he or his admin doesn't get arrested. No ones cares. The next Bourne movie should have the president and the CIA as the protagonists, presented as "the good guys". And, I'm totally being sarcastic, btw. Because what motivates the "fictional" CIA characters to do what they secretly do, is to keep America "safe," that leaks of their programs "endangered lives." Yet, this couldn't be further from the truth. No evidence supports this rhetoric. It just exposes what they shouldn't be doing in the first place. If they're not doing anything wrong, why do they worry? Wanton destruction "Team America" style, that does more harm than good, is their policy. And, you could expect mafia-style hits, or career damaging hits, of any leakers of secret programs, instead of praise for keeping America accountable. The heroes know this. Bourne finds allies in Nicky, Landy, and in the new one, Lee, in a sorta gray area, but I won't give away the ending. Bourne fights for his freedom, liberty, and American moral values, instead of the cycle of killing, as he says, "I'm trying to find another way".