Bang-Bang Podcast

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...

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...

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...

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 ro...

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...

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...

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 h...

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 br...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com 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,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com 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...

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...

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 War s, joins us to talk about how all of that converges. You might not think of those...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com 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 finis...

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...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.bangbangpod.com “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 it...

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. Inclu...

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 s...

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. Bang-Bang is a patron-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider...

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 fi...

“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 l...

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 t...

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...

In 2011, the combat cameraman Miles Lagoze arrived in Helmand province, Afghanistan, tasked with manufacturing propaganda-friendly visuals and audio. In 2018, Lagoze released Combat Obscura , his documentary bringing together 70 minutes of recorded footage of his fellow marines, all originally left on the cutting room floor. The result was inconvenient enough for the U.S. government that it threat...

Welcome to Bang-Bang! A show about war movies, with an anti-imperialist twist. The hosts—Van Jackson and Lyle Jeremy Rubin—are military veterans, antiwar advocates, and lovers of film. In every episode, we grapple with the pain, humor, and contradictions of our war-addled culture. Our medium for that exploration happens to be war films we all know and love (and sometimes hate). This teaser from ou...