1.15.2007

Bond or Bauer

Bond or Bauer? (NO GIVEAWAYS I PROMISE-JUST TEASERS!)

I recently watched the new Bond flick. Good movie. Entertaining.

Not long after walking out of the cinema I wondered Bond or Bauer. Jack Bauer for those unfamiliar with L.A. CTU super agent. Obviously this is a question rooted in a fictional reality. So this is a fictional argument.

I was torn until tonight.

The beginning of another of day of 24. A four-hour, 2-night premiere.

I pick...

Bauer.

Jack Bauer.

The man escaped by bitting one of his captors in the neck and not letting go until the bad guy wasn’t getting any fresh blood to his brain.

Jack spit the carotid artery out when it was over.

I know Bond’s jewels got banged with a mooring line and he didn’t lose his sense of humor – “scratch my balls” was a clever conversation. Bond is a legend and now we get to see Daniel Craig establish the making of a legend. A fresh new start.

Back to Bauer. He is reckless and less physically impressive than the classic bond. He sure ain’t pretty. Day six seems hopeless as the potential for carnage is anywhere and everywhere. Exponential deaths are not happening all at once but an exponential body count is racking up all over the country. It is a weak time for America and a faint Jack Bauer. A shell of the Jack he once was.

Bond is royal.

Bauer is noble.

Bond is metro.

Bauer is macho.

Bond is smooth.

Bauer is forceful.

Bond is cunning.

Bauer is resourceful…

I cannot pick the winner in a hand fight or a shoot out. Both are incredibly lucky when running under fire. Bond has incredible gadgets and Bauer is able to draw the maximum potential out of resources and populace. Bond smooth talks and Bauer inspires. Both face battles within western paradigm and the worldview of the extreme. Bond represents class and Bauer is character.

Bauer flanks Bond.

Bond gets the job done and there is always some sort of personal payoff at the end wether it is payback or pleasure.

Bauer gets the job done and has less and less at the end of the day.

Bond will live forever but it takes how many guys to be him?

Bauer will burn out but endure.

6 comments:

amy said...

i was thinking maybe i would watch this season with phil....so there we are sitting on the couch, sweet little jackson asleep in phils arms - and BAM - jack bites that guy in the neck.....YUCK!!! so i think maybe i will have to pass on this show!

M@rk said...

understood

that was one of the more intense things to happen on the show

hope you give the show another chance

once you settle into the pace and nature of the story the intense things make a little more sense

i think 24 spaces out the craziness so that the viewer doesn't get numb to things thus increasing the shock value

Anonymous said...

the things you mentioned about bond are true, in his former (future?) self, i agree. i think from roger moore through pierce brosnan bond was a bit of a pretty boy who always had the answers. what i love about daniel craig's bond is the rawness of him. he doesn't seem to have all the answers, he's brash and he's a bit headstrong. he seemed a lot tougher in the the new movie and as much as a metro. he still dressed well, but he got very dirty, which you never see bond do. or at least you didn't.

i would have totally agreed with the bauer feel against bond up until the new one. now i'm torn. both are very intense and save the world but do it in a dirty and gritty way. i like that you never know who will survive in 24 and i'm hoping bond has a bit of that as well.

they should team up and kick butt all over the world. that's really as far as i can go on comparing them.

word.

post script- when daniel craig rolls up on the bad guy and the theme starts playing, that's just about as warm and cuddly as you could get. boo-yah.

M@rk said...

Ed- do you think Daniel Craig had Bauer in mind when he began as Bond?

Jack Bauer is the mold for the black and white agent battling between the lines of gray.

Wish I could go off about 24. Insanity on that show right now. It is taking years off of my life. Insanity I tell you!

Anonymous said...

Just finished up the first two hours of 24. I think I'm hooked again.

Bond or Bauer? Definitely Bauer. Bond is pretentious, snobbish, lives and plays in a world I've never known.

Bauer is real, ordinary guy I can relate to. It just so happens he finds himself in crazy places and somehow always finds a way out. (Will anyone ever figure out that Jack is always right? I swear no one ever believes him).

Mark I think you said this season Jack's different. Loved the scene where he stopped questioning the guy who betrayed Assad. The look on his face, the comment "I don't think I can do this anymore".

Can't wait to finish up the next 2 hours tomorrow.

Jesse said...

bond is money, but bauer trumps all, wins the hand.

rich - yeah, sure is funny how bauer gets resistance from everyone, all the time, despite saving the world day after day. at first that almost made me quit this seaon, but have come to the realization that nearly every character in the show is simply a foil for bauer. every twist and turn simply sheds new light on bauer. every unrealisticly one sided opinion from an unrealisticly single faceted character is expressed to reveal another facet of bauer. every bad decision by an otherwise competent leader is made in order to call more out of bauer.

jack bauer. shoot the moon.