thedrifter
03-21-09, 06:37 AM
My brothers, the warriors
A filmmaker tells of his siblings' experience in the war in Iraq
By Martha Quillin, Staff Writer
Jake Rademacher's poor eyesight kept him from going to West Point, but his vision as a filmmaker took him into battle anyway.
Rademacher's documentary, "Brothers at War," features the war experiences of siblings Isaac and Joe Rademacher, including rare footage of the fighting in Iraq as well as intimate moments between soldiers and their families between deployments.
"I tried to show the truth," said Jake Rademacher, who was in Fayetteville last weekend for several showings of the film.
Maj. Isaac Rademacher is an operations officer in the 38th Cavalry Regiment, 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade at Fort Bragg. Staff Sgt. Joe Rademacher is an instructor at the sniper school at Fort Benning, Ga.
The two brothers have been on seven combat deployments between them. Jake Rademacher went to Iraq twice in 2005 and 2006 to better understand what they and their colleagues were going through.
Hearing the good stuff
Rademacher said the film came about because he had been following the news from Iraq and thought he knew what the military was up to there. Then he sat down with his soldier-brothers after they got back from Fallujah and asked them, "What are you guys doing over there, because it looks like you're ripping the place apart."
Isaac tallied up some of the good he and his troops had been doing: schools and health clinics they had helped build, city councils they helped form.
"I said, 'Wow. Why didn't I hear about this stuff?'" Jake Rademacher said.
For the next couple of months, he continued to think about the difference between what the U.S. was doing in Iraq and what its citizens were being told about it. He decided to go see it for himself and bring the story back.
He embedded with his brothers' units and went out on dozens of missions, spending time with soldiers, Marines and members of the Iraqi army until they became comfortable with him. He and a small film crew wore the same body armor as the soldiers, ate the same food, endured the same heat. They got bored along with the soldiers when nothing was happening and got shot at alongside them in an ambush.
When it came time to edit the 400 hours' of footage into a cohesive film, Rademacher said he had the story of two brothers and their comrades at war and the way the experience affected them and their families. And all of it, Rademacher said, without the slant of politics in favor of or against the war and without the artifice of experts talking about something happening thousands of miles away.
"There's nobody talking about the war," he said. "They're just living it."
Isaac Rademacher said that when his brother told him of his plans to make the film, he thought it was a nice idea that would never happen. Limited money, limited access.
"It'll never work out," Isaac Rade macher thought at the time.
Bringing it home
But when his older brother was ready to start filming, he welcomed him to Iraq and sent him out on missions with his men.
What Jake produced, Isaac said, is something the American public deserves a chance to see.
"I don't think it's something they need to know as much as they want to know," Isaac Rademacher said.
"The American public will stand at a rally and say, 'I support our soldiers,' regardless of their feelings on the war. But they really don't know what it means to be a soldier. It's like, 'I support him, but I don't want to get too close to him.' They really can't relate."
Isaac Rademacher said the audience response to the movie is powerful; soldiers say it's the most realistic portrayal they've seen, and their families say it gives them a window into a world they didn't even know how to ask questions about.
He said he was pleased with the way he came off in the film, because it was accurate, down to the pain of coming home to a child who didn't recognize him.
"The film gives soldiers and Marines across the nation a different character to relate to and say, 'Yeah, I'm kind of like that,'" he said.
martha.quillin@newsobserver.com or 919-829-8989
To see the film
"Brothers at War" is now showing at the Carmike 12 theater in the Westwood Shopping Center in Fayetteville. Trailers of the film can be seen at the Web site brothersatwarmovie.com. The site also has instructions on how veterans groups and others can arrange to bring the movie to a local theater.
Ellie
A filmmaker tells of his siblings' experience in the war in Iraq
By Martha Quillin, Staff Writer
Jake Rademacher's poor eyesight kept him from going to West Point, but his vision as a filmmaker took him into battle anyway.
Rademacher's documentary, "Brothers at War," features the war experiences of siblings Isaac and Joe Rademacher, including rare footage of the fighting in Iraq as well as intimate moments between soldiers and their families between deployments.
"I tried to show the truth," said Jake Rademacher, who was in Fayetteville last weekend for several showings of the film.
Maj. Isaac Rademacher is an operations officer in the 38th Cavalry Regiment, 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade at Fort Bragg. Staff Sgt. Joe Rademacher is an instructor at the sniper school at Fort Benning, Ga.
The two brothers have been on seven combat deployments between them. Jake Rademacher went to Iraq twice in 2005 and 2006 to better understand what they and their colleagues were going through.
Hearing the good stuff
Rademacher said the film came about because he had been following the news from Iraq and thought he knew what the military was up to there. Then he sat down with his soldier-brothers after they got back from Fallujah and asked them, "What are you guys doing over there, because it looks like you're ripping the place apart."
Isaac tallied up some of the good he and his troops had been doing: schools and health clinics they had helped build, city councils they helped form.
"I said, 'Wow. Why didn't I hear about this stuff?'" Jake Rademacher said.
For the next couple of months, he continued to think about the difference between what the U.S. was doing in Iraq and what its citizens were being told about it. He decided to go see it for himself and bring the story back.
He embedded with his brothers' units and went out on dozens of missions, spending time with soldiers, Marines and members of the Iraqi army until they became comfortable with him. He and a small film crew wore the same body armor as the soldiers, ate the same food, endured the same heat. They got bored along with the soldiers when nothing was happening and got shot at alongside them in an ambush.
When it came time to edit the 400 hours' of footage into a cohesive film, Rademacher said he had the story of two brothers and their comrades at war and the way the experience affected them and their families. And all of it, Rademacher said, without the slant of politics in favor of or against the war and without the artifice of experts talking about something happening thousands of miles away.
"There's nobody talking about the war," he said. "They're just living it."
Isaac Rademacher said that when his brother told him of his plans to make the film, he thought it was a nice idea that would never happen. Limited money, limited access.
"It'll never work out," Isaac Rade macher thought at the time.
Bringing it home
But when his older brother was ready to start filming, he welcomed him to Iraq and sent him out on missions with his men.
What Jake produced, Isaac said, is something the American public deserves a chance to see.
"I don't think it's something they need to know as much as they want to know," Isaac Rademacher said.
"The American public will stand at a rally and say, 'I support our soldiers,' regardless of their feelings on the war. But they really don't know what it means to be a soldier. It's like, 'I support him, but I don't want to get too close to him.' They really can't relate."
Isaac Rademacher said the audience response to the movie is powerful; soldiers say it's the most realistic portrayal they've seen, and their families say it gives them a window into a world they didn't even know how to ask questions about.
He said he was pleased with the way he came off in the film, because it was accurate, down to the pain of coming home to a child who didn't recognize him.
"The film gives soldiers and Marines across the nation a different character to relate to and say, 'Yeah, I'm kind of like that,'" he said.
martha.quillin@newsobserver.com or 919-829-8989
To see the film
"Brothers at War" is now showing at the Carmike 12 theater in the Westwood Shopping Center in Fayetteville. Trailers of the film can be seen at the Web site brothersatwarmovie.com. The site also has instructions on how veterans groups and others can arrange to bring the movie to a local theater.
Ellie