<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wag the Dog&lt;/strong&gt; tells the story of a scandal-ridden president whose chief spin doctor, Conrad Brean (De Niro), decides to distract the public with a fictional war with Albania. To pull this off, he hires Stanley Motss (Hoffman), a prominent Hollywood producer who throws himself into orchestrating an imaginary war, complete with fake footage, fake war heroes and a popular theme song. The hoax is successful, but it soon comes with a host of complications which require Brean and Motss to take quick action to further deceive the public. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;In their conversation, Jamelle and John discuss the cynicism, shallowness and laziness of Levinson and Mamet’s depiction of Washington politics, as well as a few real-life examples of manufactured wars, and why most Hollywood political satire just doesn’t work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;The tagline for &lt;strong&gt;Wag the Dog&lt;/strong&gt; was “A comedy about truth, justice and other special effects.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;You can find &lt;strong&gt;Wag the Dog &lt;/strong&gt; to rent or buy on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Episodes come out every two weeks so stay-tuned for our upcoming episode on &lt;strong&gt;Murder at 1600&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;And don’t forget our Patreon, where we cover the political thrillers of the Cold War and we offer weekly political commentary. You can subscribe for just $5 at &lt;a href="http://patreon.com/unclearpod"&gt;patreon.com/unclearpod&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Our producer is Connor Lynch and our artwork is by Rachel Eck.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched the 1997 comedy Wag the Dog.

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched the 1997 comedy Wag the Dog, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Anne Heche, Dennis Leary, Willie Nelson, Andrea Martin and Kirsten Dunst, with a screenplay by David Mamet and cinematography by Robert Richardson.

Wag the Dog

<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Every week, we do a political discussion show over at the Patreon. We wanted to offer you a preview of that show in the form of a full episode, which happens to be our most recent episode, on the Graham Platner affair in Maine. If you like our discussion, sign up for the Patreon to get an episode very week at patreon.com/unclearpod.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched Tomorrow Never Dies, the 1997 action thriller, the eighteenth film in the James Bond series.

Unclear and Present Politics [PATREON PREVIEW]

<description>&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched &lt;strong&gt;Tomorrow Never Dies&lt;/strong&gt;, the 1997 action thriller, the eighteenth film in the James Bond series and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, it follows Bond in his effort to stop the media mogul Elliot Carver, played by Jonathan Pryce, from starting World War III in order to expand his reach over the world’s information environment.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Is &lt;strong&gt;Tomorrow Never Dies&lt;/strong&gt; the superior film to &lt;strong&gt;Goldeneye&lt;/strong&gt;? Is the power-mad media mogul a more relevant villain in 2025 than it was in 1997? How different is our media landscape, really, from that of an earlier age of American life? How much fun do you think Jonathan Pryce was having on set?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tomorrow Never Dies&lt;/strong&gt; stars Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Teri Hatcher, Götz Otto, Ricky Jay, Joe Don Baker, Vincent Schiavelli, Judi Dench and Desmond Llewelyn.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;The tagline for the film is “The Man. The Number. The License...are all back.”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;You can find &lt;strong&gt;Tomorrow Never Dies&lt;/strong&gt; to rent or stream on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Episodes come out roughly every two weeks (we’re working on it) and our next episode will be on Barry Levinson’s &lt;strong&gt;Wag the Dog&lt;/strong&gt;. And over on the Patreon, we’re celebrating spooky season with &lt;strong&gt;The Thing From Another World&lt;/strong&gt;. Come and join the fun at &lt;a href="http://patreon.com/unclearpod"&gt;patreon.com/unclearpod&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Our producer is Connor Lynch and our artwork is by Rachel Eck.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched Tomorrow Never Dies, the 1997 action thriller, the eighteenth film in the James Bond series and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, it follows Bond in his effort to stop the media mogul Elliot Carver, played by Jonathan Pryce, from starting World War III in order to expand his reach over the world’s information environment.

Tomorrow Never Dies

<description>&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched the (rightfully) forgotten thriller &lt;strong&gt;The Jackal&lt;/strong&gt;, a loose adaptation of &lt;strong&gt;The Day of the Jackal&lt;/strong&gt; directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;In &lt;strong&gt;The Jackal&lt;/strong&gt;, Willis plays the titular assassin, a feared hitman who has been hired by Russian mobsters to assassinate the director of the FBI, in retaliation for American activity in Russia. As the Jackal makes his arrangements, FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston (Poitier) and Russian Police Major Valentina Koslova (Venora) scour their sources for leads in a search that leads to imprisoned IRA sniper Declan Mulqueen (Gere). Mulqueen knows the Jackal and will help the FBI find him —&amp;nbsp;if he gets his freedom in return. What follows is a chase across the world, as Carter, Koslova and Mulqueen race to stop the Jackal, whose ultimate target is the First Lady of the United States.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;The tagline for &lt;strong&gt;The Jackal&lt;/strong&gt; was “How do you stop an assassin who has no identity?”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;You can find &lt;strong&gt;The Jackal&lt;/strong&gt; to rent or purchase on Apple TV or Amazon Prime.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Episodes come out roughly every two weeks, so we’ll see you then with an episode on &lt;strong&gt;Tomorrow Never Dies&lt;/strong&gt;, the second entry in Pierce Brosnan’s run as James Bond.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Over on Patreon, we have an episode on the first Mobile Suit Gundam compliation film. We’re also doing a weekly politics show on the news of the day. Joining us by heading over to &lt;a href="http://patreon.com/unclearpod"&gt;patreon.com/unclearpod&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Our producer is Connor Lynch and our artwork is by Rachel Eck.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched the (rightfully) forgotten thriller The Jackal, a loose adaptation of The Day of the Jackal directed by Michael Caton-Jones and starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora.

In The Jackal, Willis plays the titular assassin, a feared hitman who has been hired by Russian mobsters to assassinate the director of the FBI, in retaliation for American activity in Russia. As the Jackal makes his arrangements, FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston (Poitier) and Russian Police Major Valentina Koslova (Venora) scour their sources for leads in a search that leads to imprisoned IRA sniper Declan Mulqueen (Gere). Mulqueen knows the Jackal and will help the FBI find him — if he gets his freedom in return. What follows is a chase across the world, as Carter, Koslova and Mulqueen race to stop the Jackal, whose ultimate target is the First Lady of the United States.

The Jackal

<description>&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 science-fiction action thriller &lt;strong&gt;Starship Troopers&lt;/strong&gt;, starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyers, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown. An adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel of the same title, Verhoeven’s film takes a satirical pass on the material, turning a fascistic coming-of-age tale into an unusual piece of meta-propaganda.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Starship Troopers&lt;/strong&gt; takes place in a future, fascist society, where democracy and universal suffrage have been overthrown, and a military government leads humanity, with full citizenship reserved for those who serve in the armed services. Casper Van Dien plays Johnny Rico, an eager young recruit in the Mobile Infantry, who is sent to the frontlines of a war against the Arachnids, a supposedly hostile race of alien insectoids. The film tells the story of Rico’s training, his experience in battle, and his eventual rise to command. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;It is the kind of triumphant narrative that the fascist government of the story would want to broadcast to a skeptical citizenry, which gets to what this movie is trying to do as a film. We talk about this and more, so tune in!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;You can find a video version of this episode at &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/@jamelle-bouie"&gt;Jamelle’s YouTube page.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Episodes come out roughly every two weeks, so join us then with an episode on &lt;strong&gt;The Jackal&lt;/strong&gt;, a basically forgotten thriller starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Over at the Patreon, we discussed &lt;strong&gt;The Baader-Meinhof Complex&lt;/strong&gt;. We’re also debuting a new weekly politics discussion show, only available for subscribers! Join at patreon.com/unclearpod.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class="" data-rte-preserve-empty="true" style="white-space:pre-wrap;"&gt;Our producer is Connor Lynch and our artwork is by Rachel Eck.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 science-fiction action thriller Starship Troopers.

On this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watched Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 science-fiction action thriller Starship Troopers, starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyers, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside and Clancy Brown. An adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel of the same title, Verhoeven’s film takes a satirical pass on the material, turning a fascistic coming-of-age tale into an unusual piece of meta-propaganda.

Starship Troopers takes place in a future, fascist society, where democracy and universal suffrage have been overthrown, and a military government leads humanity, with full citizenship reserved for those who serve in the armed services. Casper Van Dien plays Johnny Rico, an eager young recruit in the Mobile Infantry, who is sent to the frontlines of a war against the Arachnids, a supposedly hostile race of alien insectoids. The film tells the story of Rico’s training, his experience in battle, and his eventual rise to command. 

Starship Troopers

<p>New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie and freelance writer John Ganz delve into the world of 90s post-Cold War thrillers with Unclear and Present Danger, a podcast that explores America in an age of transition to lone superpower, at once triumphant and unsure of its role in the world.</p>

Unclear and Present Danger

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