Danger Close

Join a Marine Veteran, a film critic, and a theater director as they laugh, argue, and explore the history of humanity's triumphs and tragedies through war films old and new. War is Hell. People make films about it. And we love to talk about them.

Episodes

Paths of Glory (1957)

January 7, 2025 • 107 mins

Half stoic war epic and half frustrating courtroom melodrama, this early Kubrick film proved unassumingly controversial upon its release in comparison with the auteur’s later works. Banned at one time or another in France, Switzerland, Fascist Spain, and US Military bases, and mostly overshadowed by The Bridge on the River Kwai from the same year, Paths of Glory was not a big hit with audiences and was completely ignored by the Ac...

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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

October 5, 2024 • 136 mins

Well, this one hardly needs an introduction and is as epic and sweeping as it gets. This is a film we have been wanting to cover for over two years, and finally the stars aligned. It is on just about every cinephile and film industry professional’s top ten greatest films of all time, often filling the number one spot. If you haven’t seen it, it is well worth watching in the highest quality and biggest screen you can. The 4K restora...

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Platoon (1986)

August 10, 2024 • 110 mins

A lot can (and has) been said about this film. It's one of the very few that might actually achieve the status of "anti-war" film, or at least refrains from glamorizing it. It can't be accused of inaccuracy or overt messaging, because it is admittedly a picture of writer-director Oliver Stone's own experiences volunteering for the American War in Vietnam, fictionalized for the screen, but based on events he saw first hand. While it...

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Mulan (1998)

July 19, 2024 • 104 mins

Buckle up, Danger Close fans! We went way off the usual list this time and chose a Disney renaissance film that is also decidedly a war film. From the training scenes, to the battles, to a glorious last minute rescue of the emperor, Mulan fits most of the tropes for a war film. It's also for kids and embraces that 90's Girl Power movement that was so prevalent at the time. You will get to hear us dish about our childhood Disney f...

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BONUS INTERVIEW - Pulled the Handle! Just Not Very Hard. Part 2 of 2

July 13, 2024 • 82 mins

Here’s part two of Dan’s interview with Fig and RePete from the podcast So There I Was! This half we talk movies a little, with some cool details about the harrier jets in True Lies, and get some personal “oh shit!”flying stories from the guys. If you want to hear more from Fig and RePete, here is their True Lies ep, where they interview their squadron mates who actually flew in the film, and links to the rest of their show. Enjoy...

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BONUS INTERVIEW - We're Not Ready, You Idiot! Part 1 of 2

June 24, 2024 • 113 mins

This week on Danger Close, a Veteran interview with yours truly, Dan! I sat down with two former Marine aviators and we talked about our experiences in the Corps, traded aviation stories, and I even played them a special recording that has not gone public until now! This is part One where Dan mostly talks about his career in the Marines and in aviation, in part Two we will get Fig and RePete’s stories from flying harriers and talk ...

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FRIGHT PUB / DANGER CLOSE CROSSOVER: Overlord (2018)

June 4, 2024 • 131 mins

For the first time ever, the Fright Pub crew and the Danger Close team get together in person to record a podcast. In Pittsburgh!! If this film is where the Venn diagram of horror films and war films meet, then I guess Liam is where the Venn diagram of our two shows come together! He's...the glue? The central spoke in the wheel? I don't know, this analogy is not working. Anyway, we all had a blast having plenty of drinks in the Fri...

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BONUS EPISODE: Inception (2010)

May 1, 2024 • 141 mins

We’re back! The show returns with a brand new DCE episode that we decided to release free to everyone. We want to thank our generous Patrons for sticking with us during our much needed break as we caught up with our schedule and got a bunch of recordings done. We have six episodes in the bag that we are editing and will be releasing over the next few months. Back in 2010, Christopher Nolan directed his most ambitious title at the t...

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Black Hawk Down (2001)

January 12, 2024 • 132 mins

Another good example of a modern war film produced before September 11th, this one puts us in the helicopters and humvees of Task Force Ranger during the humanitarian crisis in Somalia in 1993. Dispensing with most of the geo-political complexities that led to US forces deploying to East Africa, the focus here is mostly on the Rangers and Delta Force on the ground, who dropped into a hostile district with all the confidence of over...

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Reports from the Front: Fourteen Hours in Husaybah

November 18, 2023 • 136 mins

Dan sits down with former Marine infantry Sergeant Rich Cervantes. Rich enlisted in the USMC in 2001, and trained as a TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank gunner. In this exclusive interview, he tells the story of why he joined, his training, and his experience in Iraq over several deployments with the First Marine Division. He was awarded a Purple Heart, a NAM (Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal), a...

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To Be or Not to Be (1942)

November 7, 2023 • 90 mins

This isn’t the first WWII film we have covered to be filmed and released while the war was still ongoing, but it is our first comedy that fits those parameters. It often pops up on lists of best comedies ever, and for good reason. The Nazis have invaded Warsaw and a German spy has just landed with damning information about the Polish resistance. It’s up to famed stage actress Maria Tura, her would-be lover, her jealous husband, an...

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Oppenheimer (2023)

September 20, 2023 • 151 mins

If you only saw one movie in the summer of 2023… statistically speaking it was probably Barbie. But if you saw two movies in the summer of 2023… okay, statistically it's fairly likely they were both Barbie. But if you saw two movies on the same day in the summer of 2023, there is technically a non-zero chance that today's film wasn’t one of them, but it probably was. Sweeping into the zeitgeist and on its way to grossing over one b...

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Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

September 1, 2023 • 129 mins

We've talked Nazis before. And we have covered WWII in several films which varied in style and subject manner, but this is our first time dealing with the Holocaust, so we figured we should start with an old classic that is famous for the way it handled its difficult subject matter. Premiering in West Berlin in 1961, Judgment at Nuremberg was met with mostly silence by its German audiences, praise by many critics, and criticism by ...

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The Woman King (2022)

July 31, 2023 • 120 mins

First conceived in 2015 and released in 2022, The Woman King had a long, turbulent road to the box office. An historical action epic starring and driven by a cast of black women, it was a tough sell to studios until the overwhelming success of Black Panther proved beyond a doubt that there was not only an audience for films with this kind of representation, but a hungry market as well. The green light and positive reviews did not...

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Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

June 15, 2023 • 73 mins

Released in November of 2001, Behind Enemy Lines came out in a totally different time in history. 9/11 had just happened, and tensions were high all over the world, especially in the U.S. This movie is a little dose of “rah-rah NATO” rescuing an American navigator from…Yugoslavians? No, Serbs. But there are Bosnians there too, and Croats? What _exactly _was going on over there? Don’t worry, this movie doesn’t really cover that, an...

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Reports from the Front: The End Goal Is to Make It Home Alive

May 21, 2023 • 105 mins

Dan sits down with good friend and former Marine Sergeant Tyler Funk. Tyler enlisted in the USMC as an Air Traffic Controller in 2003. After some initial training, he volunteered for deployment, and later was selected for the MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit), and an MMT (Marine Air Traffic Control Mobile Team), a small enlisted team trained to be dropped off by helicopter in the middle of nowhere, set up a dirt airstrip, and have ai...

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Top Gun (1986)

April 17, 2023 • 134 mins

Last episode, we talked about a military aviation film. It had some pretty great aerial scenes, the best Cessna vs motorcycle race we have ever seen, and a fun soundtrack! But not nearly as good as the one for the film we are covering today (although apparently some in the audience will debate this point). This movie was released the same year as Iron Eagle, was WAY more successful, and ironically spawned fewer sequels. We are of ...

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Iron Eagle (1986)

March 24, 2023 • 109 mins

1986 was a landmark year for military aviation in cinema. Top Gun came out in May, the very start of the Summer blockbuster season, and immediately boosted Navy recruitment by 10 bajillion percent. That’s not an approximation, those are the official figures from the Navy. 10 bajillion percent. People flocked to this movie, and who could blame them? It was the perfect synthesis of Cool, Sex, Militarism, and Cinema. In Reagan Era Ame...

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Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

February 11, 2023 • 116 mins

One of the most famous and most successful retellings of one of the most infamous and highly mythologized incidents in the history of the British Navy, this 1935 adaptation of the novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Newton Hall might be a little old-fashioned for most modern audiences, both in its acting styles and in its special effects. But it was a force to be reckoned with at the 9th annual Academy Awards, winning Best Picture...

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The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

January 13, 2023 • 143 mins

One of Michael Mann’s most beloved films, this is the most recent and most enduring of ELEVEN screen adaptations of the historical fiction novel by James Fenimore Cooper, and it takes us to a war we seldom see depicted elsewhere in cinema: The French and Indian War in North America. It follows the journey of the last members of the vanishing Mohican people as they venture through the breathtaking forests and mountains of Northeaste...

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Danger Close

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Paths of Glory (1957)

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Platoon (1986)

Mulan (1998)

BONUS INTERVIEW - Pulled the Handle! Just Not Very Hard. Part 2 of 2

BONUS INTERVIEW - We're Not Ready, You Idiot! Part 1 of 2

FRIGHT PUB / DANGER CLOSE CROSSOVER: Overlord (2018)

BONUS EPISODE: Inception (2010)

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Reports from the Front: Fourteen Hours in Husaybah

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Oppenheimer (2023)

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

The Woman King (2022)

Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

Reports from the Front: The End Goal Is to Make It Home Alive

Top Gun (1986)

Iron Eagle (1986)

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Popular Podcasts

Paths of Glory (1957)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)