Unclear and Present Danger10 Jun 2023

Demolition man

In this week’s episode of Unclear and Present Danger, Jamelle and John watch the satirical sci-fi action thriller “Demolition Man,” starring Sylvester Stallone as “John Spartan,” a Los Angeles city police officer who is cryogenically frozen as punishment for a failed rescue attempt; Wesley Snipes as “Simon Phoenix,” his primary antagonist; Sandra Bullock as a cop in the sterile, Brave New World-esque future society in which the film takes place; and Nigel Hawthorne as the leader of that future society.

In addition to their usual look at the headlines and news of the day, Jamelle and John discuss “Demolition Man” as one of the quintessentially conservative blockbusters of the 1990s, with a critique of liberalism as both permissive — and thus prone to disorder — and highly restrictive, and thus antagonistic to traditional ideas of manhood and masculinity. They also look at what the movie says about the role of violence in society, and try to place the film within the “end of history” context of the immediate post-Cold War period.

Episodes come out every two weeks, so we’ll see you then with an episode on “The Net,” starring Sandra Bullock.

“The Net” is available to rent on iTunes and Amazon.

Connor Lynch produced this episode. Artwork by Rachel Eck.

John Ganz

Jamelle Bouie

UnclearPod

And join the Unclear and Present Patreon! For just $5 a month, patrons get access to a bonus show on the films of the Cold War, and much, much more. We are currently doing a mini-series on the films of the French-Greek director Costa-Gavras.

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