Combat Obscura (2018) | Bang-Bang’s Debut

Wanted to quickly share the inaugural free episode of Bang-Bang—a show about war movies, with an anti-imperialist twist.¹

For our first episode, we chose a film near and dear to Lyle’s heart—Combat Obscura.

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 threatened (but ultimately abandoned) legal action. Lyle and I discuss the film’s most endearing and vicious moments, as well as everything in between. We also reflect on our own roles in the war machine around the same time. 

To catch the full episode, grab the episode’s reading list, and subscribe, head over to:

1. I wrote briefly about our theory of the show here.