One’s a secret agent with a “00” rating and a license to kill, the other is a star advertising executive living under an assumed name.
One drinks vodka martinis, chilled, shaken not stirred; the other likes Kentucky whiskey, neat.
Both exemplify early 60s hedonism, both look great in a suit, and…most importantly of all, both are amazingly adept at scoring with hot, hot, HOT babes…lot of 'em!
So which one of them is the smoothest, slickest, most tail-chasin’-est operater? Who do you like, would like to be like (or perhaps with) better?
p.s. - My username of course gives away my preference, but in real life I’m probably a lot more like Sal Romano than Don Draper (except that I’m not in the closet.)
I’ll pick 007, because he’s a cartoon in a world of cartoons. He’s organically part of his world of supervillians, torpedoes, brave agents and damsels-in-distress.
Draper is trying to be a cartoon in a world of much more realistic women. They love him because of the front, until they find out the front. But the supply of such women is limitless. That is depressing.
Draper is an insecure, guilt-ridden lothario who seeks what he doesn’t (think he can) get at home from other women, and seems to feel minimal compunction at cheating on his wife. Bond is, as said already, a cartoonish figure. He can seduce without any deep thinking as to why (at least until the more recent films; can’t remember whether the books establish any more detail). Bond is definitely the smoother ladies man, but that’s because he’s portrayed as the more unrealistic two-dimensional character, which makes it a lot easier.
I don’t get the impression that it’s supposed to be sexy. The Daniel Craig Bond comes off as emotionally broken, prone to unnecessarily extreme violence fueled by rage.
And that’s also not the Bond that was portrayed by Sean Connery in the early 1960s. He wasn’t fueled by rage. He was cool, and suave, and not emotionally broken.
The Craig version seems to me an attempt to put Bond the character in a somewhat less fantastic context.
Seeing who posted this thread made me crack up–I love imagining Don Draper alone in his office posting this thread to the SDMB.
Anyway, I vote Don. I enjoy watching Bond, and I accept that he has to get the wimmin because that’s how the story goes, but he doesn’t ooze sex appeal in the way Draper does.
That may be a function of who is playing him. I’ve heard women in public life say that they had to leave the room when Sean Connery was around because of the effect he had on them.
Fair enough: I found Connery’s Bond to be very unappealing, but then I’m not his target audience, so to speak. But I’d almost put Bond’s many actors asa point against him: he lacks clear definition.
Clearly Bond. Draper is inhibited by the fact that, deep down, he knows he’s a horrible person. Bond is in fact considerably more horrible, but he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care.
(Full disclosure: Brat the Rhymer, incensed by my admission that I’d only seen two Bond flicks, forced me into a Bond Marathon not long ago, and I’m still filled with hatred for him.)
By smoothest, do you mean who is the cornier cornball? Because every time Bonds opens his mouth, I just want to laugh out loud. He gets women looking like that? I am always expecting the scene to cut to a 13-year-old boy waking up from his daydreams in the middle of a dull algebra lesson.
I’ll take Don Draper any day, he’s a screwed up guy under his facade, but at least he’s human, and a fine specimen. James Bond is also screwed up, but he’s a Playboy era cartoon who appeals to men. And Sean Connery is repulsive.
I’d want Draper as my wingman. Oysters, gimlets, and secretaries for lunch, then nights in the village smoking grass with proto-hippie chicks, or stay midtown and hit up the swanky joints. Hell, he even got Sal Romano a stewardess without even trying.
Don Draper just seems - oily?
I donno…something about him makes me think his hair and body are all slippery, and he probably smells like a vat of Aqua Velva…
