Podcast where I watch PREDATOR for the first time

Nick Nadel invited me to watch PREDATOR for his podcast MOVIES MY FRIENDS HAVE NEVER SEEN. (Each episode Nick watches a well-known film with someone who's seeing it for the first time.) 

I won't spoil the movie (which, y'know, came out over 30 years ago) but I will spoil the podcast by telling you that I saw PREDATOR as a movie about Vietnam. 

Click HERE to listen for yourself. 

These are some of the trading cards I mention in the episode. (Thanks DinosaurDracula.com for the image.) 



***RELATED LINKS***

Podcast: Watching BATMAN RETURNS for MOVIES MY FRIENDS HAVE NEVER SEEN

IFC essay: 6 Movies that Are Secretly About Vietnam

Short list piece: NIXON Figures of my youth

Video from my old AMC series: 

THE BAD NEWS BEARS & 5 MORE MOVIES THAT ARE SECRETLY ABOUT VIETNAM

I wrote a piece at IFC.com, originally titled "Holy shit, six movies I hadn't realized are totally about VIETNAM." They changed the title, but it's still pretty good. You can read it here. It's "smart", in a Cracked.com sort of way. 

Interestingly (well, interesting to no one but me) -- my college thesis was about Vietnam in popular memory, so this essay was a return to that. I barely graduated college because of my non-traditional thesis-lecture-show. So writing this essay about Vietnam movies felt very Rambo; but instead of returning to Vietnam I was going back to the treacherous landscape of media studies. "Do I get to win this time?" 

Lastly: I would make a case that GHOSTBUSTERS is about Reagan not dealing with the ghosts of Viet Nam. But I don't want to risk "ruining" someone's childhood with that theory. 

RELATED: 

My STAR WARS personal essay. (Don't worry, I don't argue that STAR WARS is the first pro-war film since John Wayne's THE GREEN BERETS.) 

The RICHARD NIXON figures of my youth