Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (no relation to Lyle) claims the first scene of Jacob’s Ladder was inspired by his own sense of being stuck in a rut, and the prevailing premonitions of doom that came of that. But the work itself comes off as something just as social as it is private, and even as a unique if at times blind-spotted meditation on U.S.-led violence and impunity. Van and Lyle explore the virtues and limitations of this genuinely anti-war film, as well as what the classic dark trip tells us about the American past and present.

Reading List

Jacob’s Ladder, Wiki Entry

The Stranger (1942), by Albert Camus

The Mersault Investigation (2015), by Kamel Daoud

Poisoner in Chief (2019), by Stephen Kinzer

The Deaths of Others (2011), by John Tirman

Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims (1979), Edward Said

Jacob’s Ladder Trailer

Video Teaser

Song credit: “Dumpster Fire,” by The Great Heights Band, feat. Rauli V.

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