The Bourne Identity Resources

The site's got reviews, videos, links, and news. Much of it focuses on recent novels (not by Ludlum) published in series Ludlum began (like the Bourne series).

Massive online archive with articles about every aspect of the Cold War, from the U-2 crisis to Vietnam.

A television movie starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith. It's hard to say much about this film, largely because it is not easily available through the usual sources and we lacked the web-fu necessary to track down a copy. It appears to be more faithful than the 2002 version, which isn't necessarily saying all that much.

The 2002 film starring Matt Damon is based on the book only very loosely. In this version, Bourne is also actually an assassin—but not a kidnapper. Marie St. Jacques isn't an economist, either. Treadstone is still incompetent, but in a more malevolent, don't-trust-the-government kind of way. In fact, Treadstone is the bad guy; Carlos doesn't even exist. Basically, the only thing left from the book is the amnesia. And the microfilm in the hip. Which were totally the best parts, anyway.

Ludlum's obituary in The New York Times.

Ludlum's obituary in The Economist.

Extracts focused on writing advice from a Robert Ludlum interview.

A brief profile of the real-life terrorist Carlos the Jackal, on whom Ludlum's Carlos is (very loosely) based.

A news article explains that the CIA has had real trouble setting up assassination programs.

A brief interview with Robert Ludlum.

A documentary about Algeria's war for independence from France. It gives a sense of why the Algerian War was so important to General Villiers, and to France in general.

A 24-minute interview from 1984 in which Ludlum discusses his life and writing, and his early acting career.

Bourne meets d'Anjou outside the Louvre in chapter 30, and this is what it looks like. Bourne would not have seen the pyramid, though—that was not built until 1989, nine years after the book was written.