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In this finale to our Andor series, Van and Lyle are joined by returning guest Paul Adlerstein and—making his first appearance on the pod—Matt Duss, former foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders and current executive vice president at the Center for International Policy.
The conversation spans the closing arc of Andor Season 2 and Rogue One, treating them as one long meditation on revolutionary grief, sacrifice, and strategy. We reflect on Kleya Marki’s backstory, Deedra Meero’s karmic consignment to the labor camps, and the quiet closure of Bix Caleen’s journey from warrior to survivor, cradling new life in a liberated field.
We also discuss Cassian’s confrontation with the rebel leadership and his scathing defense of Luthen Rael. Namely, his accusation that those who sit in safety have committed only a fraction of the sacrifice they demand of others. As well as Bail Organa’s (wink wink, nod nod) “May the Force be with you, captain,” sealing the fate of Cassian’s transition from hunted thief to selfless insurgent.
In our Rogue One discussion, we note the apocalyptic awe of Krennic’s “Oh, it’s beautiful” as he watches Jedha obliterated, a moment that recalls the real-world language of U.S. reporters and officials after Hiroshima.
Further Reading
Matt on Twitter
Center for International Policy
Matt’s other podcast (with Van)
Paul’s website
“Witnessing the A-Bomb, but Forbidden to File,” by David W. Dunlap
“Andor Is the Best Star Wars You Will Ever See,” by David Klion
Project Fulcrum: Nemik’s Weekly Manifesto
Teaser from the Episode
Andor Season 2 Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
This is Part III of our three-part series covering the Battle of Chile (itself a trilogy). Check out Part I and Part II!
Van and Lyle are joined by journalist and historian Jonathan M. Katz to discuss Patricio Guzmán’s seminal Battle of Chile trilogy—widely regarded as one of the greatest political documentaries ever made—alongside its 1997 epilogue, Obstinate Memory. Our conversation was recorded mostly in the weeks after Trump’s reelection but before his inauguration, and the urgency of that moment colors much of our analysis. At the heart of it: What can the Chilean road to socialism and its systematic destruction teach us about the slow corrosion of democratic institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere? And how might the fates of Salvador Allende, the Popular Unity coalition, and Chilean workers help illuminate the emerging dynamics of the global far right?
We dig into the paradoxes and possibilities of the Allende years: the failed balancing act between revolution and legality; the coordinated resistance from business owners, professionals, and the military; the question of whether a peaceful transition to socialism was ever possible. We examine how The Battle of Chile dissects the infrastructure of counterrevolution—economic pressure, street violence, parliamentary sabotage, and media warfare—and what it means to rewatch these films in our current moment. And we talk about the strength and tragedy of mass mobilization, the unarmed marches and factory occupations, and the fateful decision not to arm the people.
Further Reading
The Racket, Jonathan’s newsletter
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire, by Jonathan Katz
America, América: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin
“Defending Allende,” by Ariel Dorfman
Teaser from the Episode
Battle of Chile Trailer
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
This is Part II of our three-part series covering the Battle of Chile (itself a trilogy). Check out Part I!
Van and Lyle are joined by journalist and historian Jonathan M. Katz to discuss Patricio Guzmán’s seminal Battle of Chile trilogy—widely regarded as one of the greatest political documentaries ever made—alongside its 1997 epilogue, Obstinate Memory. Our conversation was recorded mostly in the weeks after Trump’s reelection but before his inauguration, and the urgency of that moment colors much of our analysis. At the heart of it: What can the Chilean road to socialism and its systematic destruction teach us about the slow corrosion of democratic institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere? And how might the fates of Salvador Allende, the Popular Unity coalition, and Chilean workers help illuminate the emerging dynamics of the global far right?
We dig into the paradoxes and possibilities of the Allende years: the failed balancing act between revolution and legality; the coordinated resistance from business owners, professionals, and the military; the question of whether a peaceful transition to socialism was ever possible. We examine how The Battle of Chile dissects the infrastructure of counterrevolution—economic pressure, street violence, parliamentary sabotage, and media warfare—and what it means to rewatch these films in our current moment. And we talk about the strength and tragedy of mass mobilization, the unarmed marches and factory occupations, and the fateful decision not to arm the people.
Further Reading
The Racket, Jonathan’s newsletter
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire, by Jonathan Katz
America, América: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin
“Defending Allende,” by Ariel Dorfman
Teaser from the Episode
Battle of Chile Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Van and Lyle are joined by journalist and historian Jonathan M. Katz to discuss Patricio Guzmán’s seminal Battle of Chile trilogy—widely regarded as one of the greatest political documentaries ever made—alongside its 1997 epilogue, Obstinate Memory. Our conversation was recorded mostly in the weeks after Trump’s reelection but before his inauguration, and the urgency of that moment colors much of our analysis. At the heart of it: What can the Chilean road to socialism and its systematic destruction teach us about the slow corrosion of democratic institutions in the U.S. and elsewhere? And how might the fates of Salvador Allende, the Popular Unity coalition, and Chilean workers help illuminate the emerging dynamics of the global far right?
We dig into the paradoxes and possibilities of the Allende years: the failed balancing act between revolution and legality; the coordinated resistance from business owners, professionals, and the military; the question of whether a peaceful transition to socialism was ever possible. We examine how The Battle of Chile dissects the infrastructure of counterrevolution—economic pressure, street violence, parliamentary sabotage, and media warfare—and what it means to rewatch these films in our current moment. And we talk about the strength and tragedy of mass mobilization, the unarmed marches and factory occupations, and the fateful decision not to arm the people.
Further Reading
The Racket, Jonathan’s newsletter
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America’s Empire, by Jonathan Katz
America, América: A New History of the New World, by Greg Grandin
“Defending Allende,” by Ariel Dorfman
Teaser from the Episode
Battle of Chile Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
The Death Star was born in blood well before it ever came into existence. In episodes 7-9 of Andor, we see just how much blood, and why. A false-flag operation to secure critical minerals. A French-resistance style sub-plot involving infiltration by an ambitious order muppet. Genocide of the Ghormans—an affluent middle-power planet. And a Galactic media that pretends to be the arbiter of truth while merely manufacturing consent for empire.
These are among the many thrills of a story whose politics evoke our own. You don’t want to miss Senator Mon Mothma’s daring, radical speech on the Senate floor, followed by Andor’s equally daring exfiltration of Mon Mothma to the Rebellion-held planet Yavin, where she comes home to herself.
Writer David Klion and historian David Austin Walsh rejoin the pod to discuss episodes 7-9 of Andor Season 2—the most-action packed and emotionally charged arc of not just Andor but perhaps any TV show.
Further Reading
David Austin Walsh on Twitter
David Klion on Twitter
“Andor Is the Best Star Wars You Will Ever See,” by David Klion
Project Fulcrum: Nemik’s Weekly Manifesto
The Romance of American Communism, by Vivian Gornick
Teaser from the Episode
Andor Season 2 Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
An occasional glimpse behind the curtain as Van (missing Lyle!) sits down with writer David Klion and historian David Austin Walsh. Their candid convo ranges from the politics of liberal Zionism to personal radicalization and the history of the United States as the world’s most successful (but ultimately failed?) settler-colonial project founded on genocide.
You can catch this chat wherever you listen to podcasts, and the full video version is included as an unlisted YouTube link, below.
Look for David and David as recurring guests on our Andor mini-series.
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Van and Lyle are joined by journalist David Klion and returning guest Paul Adlerstein to unpack Episodes 4 through 6 of Andor Season 2, when the slow-burn tension of the early arc erupts into full-fledged moral crisis.
They discuss how Ghorman—rendered with a kind of haute-bourgeois, French fusion aesthetic—is not only targeted by the Empire’s military clampdown, but also by its Fox News–style media wing, and fashion becomes a proxy for disloyalty. Meanwhile, Mothma’s effort to secure a de-escalation vote in defense of Ghorman is met with apathy or cowardice by her Senate colleagues, nominal liberals who fold in the face of imperial momentum.
The group also notes Bix’s PTSD, a trauma-riddled silence that now borders on suicidal despair, as well as Luthen and Saw’s parallel unraveling. One hides behind charm, the other behind mania, but both embody the same truth, that revolution is not for the sane.
“Do you think I’m crazy?” Saw asks. “Yes, I am. Revolution is not for the sane.” And Luthen proves it, growing impatient with Mothma’s delays and willing to let Ghorman burn to protect the long game.
Further Reading
Paul’s website
David on Twitter
“Andor Is the Best Star Wars You Will Ever See,” by David Klion
Project Fulcrum: Nemik’s Weekly Manifesto
The Romance of American Communism, by Vivian Gornick
Teaser from the Episode:
Andor Season 2 Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Slate culture editor Jenny G. Zhang returns to the pod for our initial foray into the first block of Andor Season 2.
Van and Jenny discuss the all-too-familiar labor exploitation on the agricultural planet Mina Rau, and how it relies on illegal immigration to remain profitable; the way that the Galactic Empire offers license to the patriarchal impulse of some to dominate others; and the secretive, elitist logic that leads agents of empire into committing genocide in order to secure critical minerals…and we are of course referring to Ghorman and the Empire’s need to extract it for the Death Star.
Plus: Senator Mon Mothma’s performance of desperation at her daughter’s wedding—dancing like no one’s watching with a face that can’t hide agony…totally the vibe of 2025.
Catch Up on Our Season 1 Coverage
Andor Season 2 Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Otto Preminger’s Exodus isn’t just a sweeping Hollywood epic but a foundational text of the postwar Zionist imagination. Van and Lyle are joined by journalist David Meir Grossman to dissect the 1960 film and its enduring legacy. Together, they parse the film’s aesthetics and ideology, its thinly veiled apologetics for settler colonialism, and its staging of Jewish suffering as license for state power.
From the very first scene, where a tour guide on Cyprus rattles off its many conquerors with oblivious irony, the film makes clear that it sees empire not as problem but backdrop. The British are cast as bureaucratic brutes, the Arabs as angry fanatics, and the Jews as righteous protagonists caught between. But this story collapses under its own contradictions: The hunger strike led by Jewish detainees mirrors tactics long used by Palestinians; mothers proclaim they would rather die with their children than be deported, a form of resistance the film treats with reverence. Yet when Palestinians make similar claims decades later, they are cast as monstrous, even suicidal.
The conversation also revisits the film’s iconic characters. Paul Newman’s Ari Ben-Canaan embodies the Zionist hero as charismatic, haunted, and certain that Jewish liberation can be achieved without reckoning with anyone else’s. Then there’s Kitty Fremont, the well-meaning American nurse whose imperious naïveté mirrors the U.S.’s own posture toward the region.
David, Van, and Lyle trace how Exodus anticipates not only the mythologies of the Israeli state but also the moral blind spots of its liberal defenders. They explore the film’s revealing attempts at nuance—such as the friendship between Ari and the Palestinian character Taha (played by the white American heartthrob John Derek)—and why those gestures fall flat in the face of the larger narrative. If Exodus helped consecrate Israel’s founding story for American audiences, this episode tries to read between its frames.
Further Reading
David on Twitter
The Question of Zion (2005), by Jacqueline Rose
“Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims” (1979), by Edward Said
Diaspora Boy: Comics on Crisis in America and Israel (2017), by Eli Valley
On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements (2017), by Ella Shohat
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (2019), by Noura Erakat
Teaser from the Episode
Exodus Trailer
The full video episode for our coverage of Exodus is available as an unlisted link on YouTube, just for paid subscribers, below:
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Van (minus Lyle) is joined by historian David Austin Walsh to explore episodes 10-12 of Andor’s first-season finale. Their conversation focuses on Andor’s embrace of revolution and the surprising political realism of the show’s portrayal of labor exploitation and social uprisings. Van and David also discuss liberalism’s failure to inspire meaningful change in the real world—why has no electoral politician in our lifetime ever roused our souls like Marva did in episode’s 12’s revolt on the planet Ferrix? What might that say about the rise of fascism in the 2020s?
Further Reading
David Austin Walsh on Twitter
Taking America Back: The Conservative Movement and the Far Right, by David Austin Walsh
“Luthen Rael Embodies Andor’s Gray Side,” by Roxana Hadadi
“A Tale of Miners and Prisoners,” by RK Upadhya
Teaser
Andor Season 1 Trailer
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An occasional glimpse behind the curtain as Van (missing Lyle!) sits down with historian David Austin Walsh to gossip a bit about the conservative movement, far-right politics, and how Van ended up unwittingly studying at a paleocon university.
David joined the Bang-Bang Podcast to discuss Star Wars’ Andor (episode forthcoming) and we were able to get some great convo before recording.
Bang-Bang is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Van and Lyle are joined once again by historian Paul Adlerstein to delve into episodes 8 through 10 of Andor. The conversation traces the jarring split between the dystopian labor camps of Narkina 5 and the sterile dinner parties of Coruscant’s elite, two poles of the same imperial order. They examine the moral complexities faced by characters like Mon Mothma, who grapples with the potential betrothal of her daughter to secure rebel funding, and how sectarianism and hard strategy collide in the rebel underground.
The trio also discusses the depiction of solidarity among prisoners, the moral dilemmas of resistance, and the show's not so subtle allusion to historical markers like the Spanish Civil War. And then there’s Luthen Rael—coldblooded handler, ghost of revolutions past—who delivers one of the most unforgettable monologues in the history of the franchise. What does it mean to sacrifice everything for a dream you’ll never see? Or to damn yourself in the name of liberation? And what are we to make of Andor, helping to build the very weapon that will later kill him?
Further Reading
Paul’s website
Project Fulcrum: Nemik’s Weekly Manifesto
"Ali's Theme" – The Battle of Algiers Soundtrack
“Luthen Rael Embodies Andor’s Gray Side,” by Roxana Hadadi
“A Tale of Miners and Prisoners,” by RK Upadhya
Teaser
Andor Season 1 Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
The pod returns to Andor with Slate culture editor Jenny G. Zhang and, for the first time, the historian Paul Adlerstein. This second installment covers the Aldhani arc, Coruscant as pristine imperial metropole, and metropolitan contempt for the indigenous periphery—writ large in their treatment of the Aldhani tribes.
They discuss the protagonist's mirroring of Ali’s radicalization in The Battle of Algiers, how Ali’s theme song from that film makes a near-identical appearance in Andor’s own opening music, and how the heist sequence was inspired by Simon Montefiore’s Young Stalin—too perfect given Montefiore’s latest turn as apologist for America’s most murderous outpost.
Special attention is also lent to Mon Mothma, the electoral progressive forced to test her own commitments; Dedra Meero, the rising star of the surveillance state; and Syril Karn, the corporate rent-a-cop turned humiliated bureaucrat whose debacle paves the way for direct imperial control.
Arvel Skeen, too, the treacherous militant whose final and fateful words to Cass also mark a life-changing challenge:
I knew when you first came into camp. We were both born in the hole and all we know is how to climb over others to get out.
Further Reading
Jenny’s website
Jenny on Bluesky
Jenny on Twitter
Paul’s website
Project Fulcrum: Nemik’s Weekly Manifesto
"Ali's Theme" – The Battle of Algiers Soundtrack
“The Andor Dilemma: Pop Culture’s Place in Leftist Strategy,” by Van Jackson
The Battle of Algiers Episode
Teaser from the Episode
Andor Season 1 Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
This is the second half of our conversation on 1998’s The Siege, starring Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Annette Benning, and many more. Be sure to check out Part I, as well as our back catalog!
Long before the Patriot Act, long before “See Something, Say Something,” long before 9/11—there was The Siege. Released in 1998, this Bruce Willis–Denzel Washington vehicle depicts a post–terror attack New York placed under martial law. The city is bombed, neighborhoods are surveilled, and Arab and Muslim men are rounded up en masse, held indefinitely in cages under the Brooklyn Bridge. And yet, in perhaps the most jarring twist of all, the whole thing was co-written by Lawrence Wright, the celebrated journalist behind the GWOT-era classic, The Looming Tower.
In this episode, Van and Lyle are joined once again by screenwriter Kevin Fox to revisit The Siege, not just as an artifact of pre-9/11 paranoia, but as an uncanny rehearsal for everything that would come after. Together they break down the film’s oscillation between prescience and myopia, from Bruce Willis as cartoonish generalissimo to Denzel Washington as constitutionalist good cop. The story’s themes of blowback, anti-Muslim hysteria, and civil-military overreach may come off as heavy-handed or superficial, but there are so many moments that still hit disturbingly close to home.
Van, Lyle, and Kevin ask: What can a work like The Siege tell us about liberal complicity in the War on Terror? What happens when a film simultaneously warns of repression while making its own contribution to the atmosphere of fear? And what’s with the horny thermal cam surveillance scene?
Further Reading
Kevin’s Website
“The Film That Taught Me About Blowback As a Kid,” by Van Jackson
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright
The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict, by William T. Cavanaugh
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, by Mahmood Mamdani
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, by Deepa Kumar
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, by Chalmers Johnson
Teaser from the Episode
The Siege Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Van and Lyle kick off their Andor series with Slate culture editor Jenny G. Zhang, diving into the show’s slow-burn opening arc where imperial bootlickers, jealous love interests, and rebels in the making collide on the Outer Rim. They discuss what makes Andor—a property of the Star Wars universe—feel different than its franchise kin, from its social realism to its psychological bite. If The Battle of Algiers looms large, so does Parable of the Sower, especially the show’s landscape of authoritarian company towns and the simmering hints of a revolutionary break.
They talk about the Preox-Morlana security force as East India Company meets Blackwater, and Deputy Inspector Syril Karn as the story’s omnipresent archetype—the insecure man desperate to matter. Just like the pathetic rent-a-cops Andor is forced to kill, and the equally envious Timm Karlo, another tragic loser who dies trying to make up for his fateful angst.
History appears to turn not so much on generals and emperors, but on the choices and contradictions of broken men. Men stuck in systems they didn’t build, and whose real breaking is yet to come.
Further Reading
Jenny’s website
Jenny on Bluesky
Jenny on Twitter
“The Andor Dilemma: Pop Culture’s Place in Leftist Strategy,” by Van Jackson
“Introducing Andor Analysed, Part 1,” by Jamie Woodcock
The Battle of Algiers Episode
Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, by Rashid Khalidi
Teaser from the Episode
Andor Season 1 Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Long before the Patriot Act, long before “See Something, Say Something,” long before 9/11—there was The Siege. Released in 1998, this Bruce Willis–Denzel Washington vehicle depicts a post–terror attack New York placed under martial law. The city is bombed, neighborhoods are surveilled, and Arab and Muslim men are rounded up en masse, held indefinitely in cages under the Brooklyn Bridge. And yet, in perhaps the most jarring twist of all, the whole thing was co-written by Lawrence Wright, the celebrated journalist behind the GWOT-era classic, The Looming Tower.
In this episode, Van and Lyle are joined once again by screenwriter Kevin Fox to revisit The Siege, not just as an artifact of pre-9/11 paranoia, but as an uncanny rehearsal for everything that would come after. Together they break down the film’s oscillation between prescience and myopia, from Bruce Willis as cartoonish generalissimo to Denzel Washington as constitutionalist good cop. The story’s themes of blowback, anti-Muslim hysteria, and civil-military overreach may come off as heavy-handed or superficial, but there are so many moments that still hit disturbingly close to home.
Van, Lyle, and Kevin ask: What can a work like The Siege tell us about liberal complicity in the War on Terror? What happens when a film simultaneously warns of repression while making its own contribution to the atmosphere of fear? And what’s with the horny thermal cam surveillance scene?
Further Reading
Kevin’s Website
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright
The Myth of Religious Violence: Secular Ideology and the Roots of Modern Conflict, by William T. Cavanaugh
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, by Mahmood Mamdani
Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, by Deepa Kumar
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, by Chalmers Johnson
Teaser from the Episode
The Siege Trailer
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Something special for paid subscribers: A rare glimpse behind the curtain as Van, Lyle, and guest Noah Hurowitz talk about life and politics prior to recording a forthcoming episode of the pod. The full episode that followed from this conversation won’t be out for a while (covering the award-winning mini-series Carlos, from 2010). But there was so much good convo apart from Carlos that we wanted to share this part as a standalone behind-the-scenes episode where we’re just shooting the s**t.
Their excessively candid discussion includes:
* How Noah got laid off when his workplace unionized;
* How he turned screwing off to Peru during Trump 1.0 into a career-making gig;
* Covering the trials of El Chapo for Rolling Stone;
* Who really benefited from the “War on Drugs”;
* How the left should view Mexico and its president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.bangbangpod.com/subscribe -
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Van and Lyle are joined by scholar-organizer Tobita Chow as they take on Akira Kurosawa’s classic adaptation of King Lear. They dig into the film’s depiction of friendly fire, not just as cinematic spectacle, but as a stark commentary on the self-defeating logic of war. They also follow Hidetora’s descent from absolute ruler to ghost-like shell, wandering through the desolation of his past crimes.
“In a mad world,” says the Shakespearean fool, “only the mad are sane.” Madness may initially protect the fallen king, but seeing the truth for the first time comes to haunt. Hidetora is confronted by a hermit boy once orphaned and blinded at the master’s command. The erstwhile victim now plays an accusatory, soul-indicting flute to his victimizer. The monarch manqué goes on to collapse in the ruins of a castle he once destroyed, proclaiming the man-made wasteland his private “hell.”
Yet Hidetora’s ultimate collapse only arrives after his most loyal son is killed escorting his father on horseback. In the fool’s final telling, the gods have seen men killing each other since the very beginning. Men worship murder, not peace. Domination, not solidarity. And so the gods (along with Kurosawa, perhaps) have given us—once again—what we want.
Further Reading
Justice is Global
“Kurosawa’s Ran (1986) and King Lear: Towards a Conversation on Historical Responsibility,” by Joan Pong Linton
Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema, by Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto
Teaser from the Episode
Ran Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
Van and Lyle are joined by Combat Obscura filmmakers Miles Lagoze and Eric Schuman—whose documentary launched Bang-Bang—to unpack what may be the greatest war film ever made.
They revisit Parris Island’s brutal choreography, where cruelty becomes a kind of moral training. They discuss the infamous towel party, the haunting arc of Private Pyle, and the eerie echoes between his final scene and the female sniper’s death in the film’s second half. They track Joker’s evolution from ironic observer to hollowed-out participant, and how the movie dares us to see no difference between the two. Also: animal grunts, John Wayne impressions, Stars and Stripes propaganda, and the Mickey Mouse Club as a funeral dirge for the American century.
As with Combat Obscura, Kubrick’s film lingers not just on war’s self-conscious, self-satirical aesthetics, but on complicity, spectacle, and what it truly means to be "in a world of s**t."
Further Reading
Combat Obscura
Eric’s Website
Whistles From The Graveyard: My Time Behind the Camera on War, Rage, and Restless Youth in Afghanistan, by Miles Lagoze
The Short-Timers, by Gustav Hasford
Dispatches, by Michael Herr
“Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals,” by Carol Cohn
Working-Class War, by Christian Appy
Teaser from the Episode
Full Metal Jacket Trailer
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
In this episode, Van and Lyle are joined by writer Max Read to dissect The Sum of All Fears, the 2002 film adaptation of Tom Clancy’s novel. The film thrusts CIA analyst Jack Ryan, portrayed by Ben Affleck, into a high-stakes scenario where a nuclear bomb detonates in Baltimore, pushing the U.S. and Russia to the brink of war. The movie’s release shortly after 9/11 adds a layer of poignancy to its themes of terrorism and national insecurity.
The discussion delves into the portrayal of neo-Nazi antagonists manipulating global powers, a narrative choice that, while admirably distancing from the novel’s Middle Eastern villains, also anticipates our terrifying present. The trio likewise examines the character of Russian President Nemerov, a Vladimir Putin stand-in who, putting aside his central role in anti-Chechen violence, comes off as way too sympathetic in 2025. The narrative’s sanitized depiction of nuclear devastation, particularly the aftermath of the Baltimore explosion, earn well-deserved chuckles. Most of all, Max brings his media expertise on the “‘90s Dad Thriller” to the conversation, further offering stark relief to a current moment when such innocent and fun-loving thrills have been rendered quaint—perhaps even impossible.
Further Reading
Max Read’s Substack
“‘90s Dad Thrillers: a List,” by Max Read
The Spook Who Sat By The Door, by Sam Greenlee
"Trump dreams of a Maga empire – but he’s more likely to leave us a nuclear hellscape," by Alexander Hurst
The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, by Daniel Ellsberg
Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, by Eric Schlossser
“The Man Who Knew Too Much,” by Lyle Jeremy Rubin
The Hunt for Tom Clancy Substack, by Matt Farwell
The Sum of All Fears Trailer
Teaser from The Episode
- Visa fler
