Afleveringen
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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 Insprector 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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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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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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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.
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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 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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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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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
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Few war films feel as sensuous, fractured, and unsettlingly beautiful as The Thin Red Line. Released the same year as Saving Private Ryan but standing in stark contrast to Spielberg’s unabashed Americanism, Terrence Malick’s adaptation of James Jones’ novel turns war into a meditation on nature, destruction, cosmos, self. Van and Lyle welcome Andrew Cov…
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This is Part II of our coverage of Three Kings. Check out Part I here, or wherever you get podcasts.
A madcap collage of American Berserk—that’s one way to describe David O. Russell’s Three Kings, and it’s exactly how Van, Lyle, and screenwriter Kevin Fox dive into it.
This two-part episode (the second installment drops shortly) unpacks the film’s wild genre mash-up: comic book absurdities collide with nods to Star Wars and Apocalypse Now, all while a grim commentary on U.S. militarism and society simmers underneath. The group digs into how the film disorients viewers with slapstick humor and sudden, brutal violence—like Mark Wahlberg’s character, whose torture by an Iraqi soldier (grieving the loss of his son to an American bombing) flips the script on American power. When Wahlberg’s character feebly defends U.S. actions as “maintaining stability in the Middle East,” the soldier shoves a CD-ROM in his mouth—a searing metaphor for the imposition of U.S. hegemony.
From cartoonish “United States of Freedom” patriotism to cow guts and milk truck explosions, Three Kings might not be the perfect vehicle for telling Americans—and all the privileged in the Global North—what they need to hear. But at times, it sure comes close.
Further Reading
Kevin’s Website
“The Class of 1999: ‘Three Kings’,” by Matthew Goldenberg
“Three Kings: neocolonial Arab representation,” by Lila Kitaeff
“The Gulf War, Iraq and Western Liberalism,” by Peter Gowan
“The Gulf War’s Afterlife: Dilemmas, Missed Opportunities, and the Post-Cold War Order Undone,” by Samuel Helfont
Three Kings Trailer
Teaser from the Episode
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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com
A madcap collage of American Berserk—that’s one way to describe David O. Russell’s Three Kings, and it’s exactly how Van, Lyle, and screenwriter Kevin Fox dive into it.
This two-part episode (the second installment drops shortly) unpacks the film’s wild genre mash-up: comic book absurdities collide with nods to Star Wars and Apocalypse Now, all while a grim commentary on U.S. militarism and society simmers underneath. The group digs into how the film disorients viewers with slapstick humor and sudden, brutal violence—like Mark Wahlberg’s character, whose torture by an Iraqi soldier (grieving the loss of his son to an American bombing) flips the script on American power. When Wahlberg’s character feebly defends U.S. actions as “maintaining stability in the Middle East,” the soldier shoves a CD-ROM in his mouth—a searing metaphor for the imposition of U.S. hegemony.
From cartoonish “United States of Freedom” patriotism to cow guts and milk truck explosions, Three Kings might not be the perfect vehicle for telling Americans—and all the privileged in the Global North—what they need to hear. But at times, it sure comes close.
Further Reading
Kevin’s Website
“The Class of 1999: ‘Three Kings’,” by Matthew Goldenberg
“Three Kings: neocolonial Arab representation,” by Lila Kitaeff
“The Gulf War, Iraq and Western Liberalism,” by Peter Gowan
“The Gulf War’s Afterlife: Dilemmas, Missed Opportunities, and the Post-Cold War Order Undone,” by Samuel Helfont
Three Kings Trailer
Teaser from the Episode
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Free bonus episode!
If you’re like us, many terrible things have been front of mind lately: California wildfires, overdevelopment in unsuitable locales, billionaire corruption, and the climate crisis to name a few. Lucky for us that Rowan Wernham, the co-writer and director of a 2024 documentary called Pistachio Wars, joins us to talk about how all of that converges.
You might not think of those issues as constituting war in the traditional sense, but they sure do amount to a class war, from above. And as we discuss in the episode, California’s favorite agricultural oligarchs actually do play a role in American militarism, especially toward Iran!
Enjoy this special live crossover episode with The Un-Diplomatic Podcast and the Bang-Bang Podcast.
Stream the film at home: https://www.pistachiowars.com
Livestream of Our Episode:
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Van and Lyle kick off their first of many Kubrick features with a splendid and superb discussion of the auteur’s WW1-era classic, Paths of Glory. And in case you’re wondering why we describe the discussion in these terms, that’s because such language—in all its freakish loftiness—infuses the film from start to finish. French generals in chateaus sacrifice their men in the trenches while boasting about how they love “to create a pleasant atmosphere in which to work.” Frontline tours are peppered with patronizing commands to “be good to your rifle so that your rifle will be good to you,” just as this same high-level brass demean their troops as contaminants and scum. It isn’t long before the viewer realizes they’re watching a class war just as much as any other kind of war, and we bring on longtime antiwar critic Daniel Larison to make sense of the tension…as well as the not so understated satire that ensues.
Further Reading
Eunomia, Daniel’s newsletter
Crashing the War Party, yet another newsletter and podcast hosted by Daniel and Kelley Vlahos
“Paths of Glory: ‘We Have Met the Enemy…’ ,” by James Naremore
The Casualty Gap, by Douglas Kriner and Francis Shen
Paths of Glory Trailer
Teaser From the Episode
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The pod has finally found a woman to join Van and Lyle in their Dudes Rock Extravaganza. And she is the wife of Lyle. Or perhaps more in keeping with a recurring theme in this episode, Lyle is the husband of the far more successful and accomplished author, Colette Shade. And Colette has much to say about the epic, late Y2K-era stink bomb, Private Valentine: Blonde & Dangerous (aka Major Movie Star). A movie so awful that despite it being released at the height of Jessica Simpson’s fame, it went straight to DVD—granted, after a brief theatrical debut in Russia and Bulgaria. Why, you might ask, do we find this forgettable cultural artifact worthy of our attention in 2025? Because why not. Because it’s our show. And because, against all odds, worthwhile insights about class, gender, and our securitized political economy can still be salvaged from the cinematic wreckage.
Further Reading
Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was) (Audible edition), by Colette Shade
Colette’s Website with tour schedule
“Retrospective Review: ‘Private Benjamin’ at 40,” by Valerie Kalfrin
Private Valentine Trailer
Full Private Valentine Episode
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“When I understand my enemy well enough to defeat him, then in that moment, I also love him.” So begins the 2013 film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s classic sci-fi novel Ender’s Game. Neither achieving box office nor critical success, the movie still evokes a wide range of reactions. Especially when it comes to its ambiguous relationship to the origin…
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Auteur Sam Peckinpah is most famous for The Wild Bunch, his blistering take on the Western. Few outside the aficionados bother to mention Cross of Iron, Peckinpah’s foray into the Good War, and one that earned him pans upon its initial release. Yet despite its rough start and later relegation to mass cultural obscurity, the work has rightfully garnered a committed if dwindling following. Including some of the most accomplished filmmakers of our time. Van and Lyle welcome author and combat vet Adrian Bonenberger onto the show to make sense of the glorious, no-holds-barred mess. And why it still haunts us with its cackle.
Further Reading
“All Loud on the Eastern Front: Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron Revisited,” by Andrew Stimpson
The Road Ahead, edited by Adrian Bonenberger and Brian Castner
The Disappointed Soldier, by Adrian Bonenberger
Afghan Post, by Adrian Bonenberger
The Wrath-Bearing Tree
Cross of Iron Trailer
Teaser from the Episode
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Scottish filmmaker Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, a satire about the lead-up to the Iraq War, never achieved the household success of Veep (Iannucci’s later HBO series). Yet, D.C. staffers have come to see it as a cult classic, and there is much to be gleaned from the black comedy beyond the predictable, Beltway absurdities. Van and Lyle have the acclaimed journalist Spencer Ackerman on the show to discuss his own role in the film’s creation, as all three exchange biting laughs and commentary along the way. Especially about the rotting tooth that is Washington.
Bonus: In addition to dissecting the film, the first 30 minutes of this episode are an oral history of Spencer Ackerman’s experience with the making of In The Loop.
Further Reading
“How to succeed in Hollywood without really trying” (2009), by Spencer Ackerman
“That’s Me and Him From The Sopranos” (2009), by Armando Iannucci
Reign of Terror (2022), by Spencer Ackerman
Iron Man Vol. 1 (2025), by Spencer Ackerman and Julius Ohta
Forever Wars Newsletter, by Spencer Ackerman
Perils of Dominance, by Gareth Porter
In The Loop Trailer
Teasers from the Episode
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Van and Lyle jumped on the mic to record some stuff for Bang-Bang, but started off just musing about what just happened in the presidential election. This is their wide-ranging conversation, which explores why Kamala Harris lost, American fascism, India-China rivalry, and where Democrats go from here.
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Arguably the most successful revolutionary film of all time, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers boasts many legacies. For film buffs, its import derives from its landmark status in the pantheon of Italian neorealism and political cinema. For anti-imperialists, its value comes from its hardnosed but sympathetic depictions of armed struggle. And for imperialists or right-wing strongmen, the film has been deployed as a realistic guidebook for counterinsurgency. Van and Lyle relate these competing readings to the War on Terror and the latest debates around Gaza, Palestine, and liberation.
A Savage War of Peace (1977), by Alistair Horne
Discourse on Colonialism (1955), by Aimé Césaire
The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Franz Fanon
“Negroes are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White” (1967), by James Baldwin
“Open Letter to the Born Again” (1979), by James Baldwin
On Violence (1970), by Hannah Arendt
“No regrets from an ex-Algerian rebel immortalized in film” (2007), Interview with Saadi Yacef
“The Communists and the Colonized” (2016), Interview with Selim Nadi
Hamas Contained (2018), by Tareq Baconi
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (2020), by Rashid Khalidi
Battle of Algiers Trailer
Teaser from the Episode
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“We tortured some folks.” Katherine Bigelow and Mark Boal’s blockbuster on the leadup to Bin Laden’s assassination was alternately ballyhooed and panned upon its release. Fans praised its purported cinematic achievements while critics lamented its alleged militarism or pro-torture sympathies. What’s remarkable today is the attention it received in all directions, perhaps a universal attention no longer possible in a society so fragmented and lost. Van and Lyle try to make sense of the movie as a contested event, and what its ambiguous ending might tell us about what came next. They also recall where they were when Obama ordered Seal Team Six to pull that trigger.
Further Reading
Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, Wiki Entry
Michael Scheuer, Wiki Entry
Imperial Hubris (2004), by Michael Scheuer
“Fake CIA Vaccine Campaign” (2014), by Todd Summers and J. Stephen Morrison
Reign of Terror (2021), by Spencer Ackerman
Subtle Tools (2021), by Karen Greenberg
Homeland (2024), by Richard Beck
Zero Dark Thirty Trailer
Teaser from the Episode
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Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (no relation to Lyle) claims the first scene of Jacob’s Ladder was inspired by his own sense of being stuck in a rut, and the prevailing premonitions of doom that came of that. But the work itself comes off as something just as social as it is private, and even as a unique if at times blind-spotted meditation on U.S.-led violence and impunity. Van and Lyle explore the virtues and limitations of this genuinely anti-war film, as well as what the classic dark trip tells us about the American past and present.
Reading List
Jacob’s Ladder, Wiki Entry
The Stranger (1942), by Albert Camus
The Mersault Investigation (2015), by Kamel Daoud
Poisoner in Chief (2019), by Stephen Kinzer
The Deaths of Others (2011), by John Tirman
Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims (1979), Edward Said
Jacob’s Ladder Trailer
Video Teaser
Song credit: “Dumpster Fire,” by The Great Heights Band, feat. Rauli V.
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Lyle had been serving as a marine officer in and around the Helmand province for about five months before Rolling Stone published “The Runaway General” (June 2010), the explosive profile of General Stanley McChrystal and his entourage. Michael Hasting’s account led to the general’s immediate ouster as NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) commander in Afghanistan, and in 2012—about a year before the journalist’s own mysterious death—Hastings published The Operators, his book-length version of the same story. War Machine is the darkly satirical rendition of that book, and Van and Lyle have much to say about the movie’s didactic critique of counterinsurgency and implied critique of empire.
Reading List
The Operators (2012), by Michael Hastings
“The Runaway General” (2010), by Michael Hastings
“Who Killed Michael Hastings?” (2013), by Benjamin Wallace
American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the U.S. Tragedy in Afghanistan (2019), by Matt Farwell and Michael Ames
The Afghanistan Papers (2021), by Craig Whitlock
Human and Budgetary Costs of the U.S. War in Afghanistan (2022), Watson Institute
“Democracy Doesn’t Come in a Box” (2019), by Lyle Jeremy Rubin, et al.
War Machine Trailer
Video teaser from the episode:
Song credit: “Dumpster Fire,” by The Great Heights Band, feat. Rauli V.
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