In reading the various media opinion on the way the show “24” depicts torture I noticed that Jack Bauer is a romanticized character. The article that was published in 2007 titled “What would Jack Bauer Do?” highlights how throughout the American history the struggles America faced were symbolically depicted in various shows and movies, such as Rocky and Captain American fighting characters that symbolized communism. In reading the article I happened to realize how the current situations with fighting terrorism being a primary focus of the media.
The media tends to jump on the latest events that happen in the world and make a movie or a show after them which end up being successful in the media. I happen to notice for example that the movie “the Kingdom” which I though was horrible ended up in huge success mainly because it showed American FBI agents taking down terrorists in the Middle East, a scenario that most likely would never occur, where as the movie “The Siege” which was made in 1998 where terrorists attacked various parts of New York City resulted in minimum media buzz. Basically what Im trying to emphasize is how we still have the same desire for romanticized characters who carry the image of American and single handedly defeat our foe such as Buffalo Bill did with Indians.
Another aspect that provoked some thoughts was the debate of whether torture was right, in a sense of morals. Last night I read an article on Yahoo of where the military officer who was in charge of constructing the prison part of Guantanamo Bay stated that United States lost ground in the way that we approached the detaining of terror suspects. I happen to agree with him to a certain extent, however since 9/11 there hasn't been a single attack U.S. soil which indicates that the strategy worked. Continuing on that point though I think that some of the values that we possessed in the early day appear to have been washed away with the new age such as the proper treatment of human beings.
Overall I have only caught glimpses of 24 a few times while flipping channels and ironically every time I happen to turn to the show it was always someone being tortured followed by the ticking of the clock. I can connect the show to the film “High Noon” because both were directed in real time format therefore adding to the suspense. Specifically the time ticking throughout the various parts highlights how the main character doesn’t have much time. Overall I think that the show 24 provides its audience, the American public, with an escape into a world that they want it to be where a single hero comes and saves the day. Judging from what I read in the article I feel like some of the top politicians that supported the show at the time, mainly supported it to convey to the public that it portrayed reality. I don't want to be political about the show, but what is your opinion on why certain top officials who usually stay away from favoring certain media representations show a lot of support for 24?
Pasha,
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome to see you compare "24" to other forms of media such as the movies "The Kingdom" and "The Siege." This has been a big point of interest for me since we started discussing 24 in class. Like you noted between The Kingdom garnering public success due to its context of getting rid of terrorists in the Middle East and The Siege's lack of success probably attributed to terrorists getting the upper hand on us, I think this says a lot about the American mentality overall. Obviously it isn't some ultra wise point to make in saying that Americans will feel more amorous towards the home team than the visitors, but I think it can be carried too far. When Americans are hyper-critical of terrorist's shady tactics, but then supportive when we ourselves utilize the same, it becomes important to step back and look at the bigger picture.
I suspect that a big part of the argument revolves around the moral debate on "pre-emptive strikes." If we bomb a country to prevent being bombed ourselves, are we justified in doing so? And if so, why is the opposing country villified for their plans to bomb us while we are able to accept the fact that we bombed them? I think this relates heavily to the technique of torture and why the media is so willing to accept it when it's our tool and not theirs.