ClandesTime

Life is like this sometimes: you wait ages for a movie to take corporate personhood and turn it into the... The post ClandesTime 255 – Cultural Capitalism: Air vs Tetris vs Blackberry first appeared on Spy Culture.

Reality Winner was an NSA contractor who leaked a single document to The Intercept, and received a five year prison... The post ClandesTime 254 – Reality first appeared on Spy Culture.

The Department of Justice’s office of public affairs is the nation’s hub for information on true crime. In this episode... The post Subscribercast #79 – How the Department of Justice Manipulates the News Media first appeared on Spy Culture.

Amazon have finally pulled the plug on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, going out with a smudged inkblot of a final... The post ClandesTime 253 – Jack Ryan Season Four (and Specials Ops: Lioness) first appeared on Spy Culture.

The Mafia. Hollywood starlets. Foreign leaders. Fake sex tapes. Illegal surveillance. Watergate. The CIA. And Howard Hughes. Robert Maheu’s life... The post ClandesTime 252 – Robert Maheu: The CIA’s Fixer in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.

You know how it goes: you wait years for a movie that reframes the war in Afghanistan as a Saving... The post ClandesTime 251 – Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant vs Kandahar first appeared on Spy Culture.

Did Joe Colombo approve the script for The Godfather? Was Dorothy Hunt murdered by the CIA as part of the... The post Subscribercast #78 – White House Plumbers vs The Offer first appeared on Spy Culture.

1996’s Independence Day is corny, schlocky, nationalistic and pro-nuclear weapons. So how did it end up being rejected by the... The post ClandesTime 250 – Independence Day vs The Pentagon first appeared on Spy Culture.

Desert Storm. A female Army Captain. Friendly fire killings. Mutiny. White Phosphorous. Lies and cover-ups. The story of the writing,... The post ClandesTime 249 – Courage Under Fire first appeared on Spy Culture.

In this subscribercast we examine how the season-long arc in The Shield is a metaphor for the legacy of Iran-Contra,... The post Subscribercast #77 – The Shield Season 3 first appeared on Spy Culture.

The CIA helps to make movies, but what does it think of them? In this episode we delve into how... The post ClandesTime 248 – The CIA on The CIA in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.

What does the Deputy Director of the CIA think about spy movies? And what about the founders of the first... The post Subscribercast #76 – More of the CIA on the CIA in Hollywood first appeared on Spy Culture.

When it comes to black operations during the Vietnam War, the Phoenix Program (and its parallels and predecessors) is legendary... The post ClandesTime 247 – Good Guys Wear Black vs Apocalypse Now first appeared on Spy Culture.

The public inquiry into the 2017 Manchester bombing recently published its full and final report. In this episode, we take... The post ClandesTime 246 – The Manchester Bombing Inquiry first appeared on Spy Culture.

The US military’s targeting of children goes back decades. In this episode we look at a classic of the children’s... The post ClandesTime 245 – Lassie vs the Pentagon first appeared on Spy Culture.

The Shield season two ups the stakes on season one in every way – political, societal, personal. In this month’s... The post Subscribercast #75 – The Shield Season Two first appeared on Spy Culture.

If a military supported romance drama with Twitter-level gender politics sounds like a terrible movie then you aren’t wrong. In... The post ClandesTime 244 – Purple Hearts first appeared on Spy Culture.

Short answer: yes, with an if. Long answer: no, with a but. In this subscribercast we look at two movies... The post Subscribercast #74 – Does Representation Matter? first appeared on Spy Culture.

Films about torture are often exploitative and sadistic, and even more so when they are state sponsored. In this episode... The post ClandesTime 243 – The Cinema of the Torture Program first appeared on Spy Culture.

In the first of several subscriber-only podcasts we look at season one of the unique and award-winning cop drama The... The post Subscribercast #73 – The Shield Season One first appeared on Spy Culture.

The CIA-sponsored streaming wars hit a new high recently, when Netflix premiered The Recruit and within days Amazon released the... The post ClandesTime 242 – Jack Ryan vs The Recruit first appeared on Spy Culture.

In this quick podcast I review the biographical moral drama Worth (2020) a.k.a. What is Life Worth?. It tells the... The post Subscribercast #72 – What is Life Worth? first appeared on Spy Culture.

In early 1977 a retired NATO general put together a team of elite military officers to write a report on... The post ClandesTime 241 – World War III first appeared on Spy Culture.

The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was America’s longest war. In this episode we take an overview of the war... The post ClandesTime 240 – The Cinema of the War in Afghanistan first appeared on Spy Culture.

The CIA recently launched a new outreach effort – its own podcast. In this subscribercast I review and analyse The... The post Subscribercast #71 – The Langley Files first appeared on Spy Culture.

Football is the world’s biggest sport, and perhaps the most state-sponsored sport. In this episode we take a critical look... The post ClandesTime Special – State Sponsored Football and the Qatar World Cup first appeared on Spy Culture.

Imagine a world where secret government agencies used deep fakes to create evidence of events that never happened, and used... The post Subscribercast #70 – Deep Fakes and The Capture first appeared on Spy Culture.

Somehow, in the midst of all the identity politics and culture war noise, the fact that Captain Marvel was the... The post ClandesTime 239 – Captain Marvel and Space Force first appeared on Spy Culture.

The Rampart Scandal has been called the worst police corruption story in the history of Los Angeles, and altered a... The post ClandesTime 238 – The Cultural Impact of the Rampart Scandal first appeared on Spy Culture.

The 2012 attacks on a US diplomatic outpost and a nearby CIA base in Benghazi caused enormous controversy and political... The post ClandesTime 237 – 13 Hours and the Benghazi Scandal first appeared on Spy Culture.

Mujahideen. False Flags. US interference in the peace process. Ethnic cleansing. The United Nations’ peacekeepers. All this and more as... The post Subscribercast #69 – Black Ops and Geopolitics in the War in Bosnia first appeared on Spy Culture.

The Leopold and Loeb case was one of ‘crimes of the century’, and inspired many books, plays and movies. On... The post Subscribercast #68 – Compulsion vs Rope first appeared on Spy Culture.

Amazon Prime are making the most expensive TV show of all time. Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power... The post ClandesTime 236 – Culture Ministries and The Rings of Power first appeared on Spy Culture.

Obviously, I’m a movie addict but many of my favourites are low-budget features or belong to tiny sub-genres. In this... The post ClandesTime 235 – These are a Few of My Favourite Films first appeared on Spy Culture.

As youtube has become a centre for emerging pop culture brands, it has also become the target of the US... The post ClandesTime 234 – Dude Perfect and the US Navy first appeared on Spy Culture.

Pam and Tommy tells the story of the stolen Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sextape. Minx tells the story of a 1970s... The post Subscribercast 67 – Pam and Tommy vs Minx first appeared on Spy Culture.

The 1998 asteroid disaster film Armageddon is often mocked, but rarely taken seriously despite its cultural relevance and impact. While... The post ClandesTime 233 – Armageddon first appeared on Spy Culture.

In 2018, the US Air Force ran its annual Hollywood ‘industry leader tour’, this time to Air Force Special Operations... The post ClandesTime 232 – Hollywood Goes to Special Operations Command first appeared on Spy Culture.

When it comes to British intelligence, there are three rules: (1) Trust no one, (2) Trust nothing that they say... The post Subscribercast #66 – The Undeclared War vs Slow Horses first appeared on Spy Culture.

When it comes to fondly remembered cult 80s action movies, Commando has near-legendary status. In this episode we take a... The post ClandesTime 231 – Commando first appeared on Spy Culture.

Imagine a world where Nicholas Cage plays himself and is recruited by the CIA to spy on a drug kingpin,... The post Subscribercast #65 – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent first appeared on Spy Culture.

Over a hundred governments across the world have a culture ministry – though they often go by other names. These... The post ClandesTime 230 – The Ministries of Culture first appeared on Spy Culture.

Well, it’s here. The least-needed film in cinematic history, and therefore likely the box office smash of 2022. In this... The post ClandesTime Special – Top Gun: Maverick first appeared on Spy Culture.

In the summer of 2020 a former CIA officer published a book with the overt aim of countering the tide... The post Subscribercast #64 – The CIA and Fake News first appeared on Spy Culture.

Black operations make the world go round, and have become the subject of major movies and TV, from Jack Ryan... The post ClandesTime 229 – Black Operations and the Entertainment Liaison Offices first appeared on Spy Culture.

Can you make an environmentalist movie with the help of the Pentagon? In this episode we answer this and other... The post ClandesTime 228 – Don’t Look Up first appeared on Spy Culture.

Moonfall is the latest Roland Emmerich disaster movie, and while it isn’t as bad as Don’t Look Up, it isn’t... The post Subscribercast #63 – Moonfall first appeared on Spy Culture.

Roger Ailes founded and ran Fox News for the first 20 years of its existence, making it the highest rated... The post ClandesTime 227 – The Loudest Voice first appeared on Spy Culture.

The invasion of Iraq has been called the greatest intelligence failure of all time. This is – of course –... The post ClandesTime 226 – In the Loop vs Shock and Awe first appeared on Spy Culture.

Perhaps unavoidably, in this month’s subscriber-only podcast we discuss the war in Ukraine – what led up to this point,... The post Subscribercast #62 – Cultural Warfare Over Ukraine, and the Polandistan Option first appeared on Spy Culture.