‘Brothers After War’: An Interview With Gary Sinise & Jake Rademacher | 3.1.25
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What is 'Brothers After War' about?
Returning from war and reentering civilian life can be the hardest part of military service, particularly after wars mired in controversy like Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet that part of a soldier's story often goes untold. A new film produced by Gary Sinise and directed by Jake Rademacher takes an unflinching and personal look at the struggles and triumphs of U.S. soldiers returning home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
In this episode, we sit down with Sinise and Rademacher to discuss the making of their new film and how it folds into their larger mission of supporting and honoring America's bravest. I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Saturday, March 1st, and this is a weekend edition of Morning Wire. Joining us now to discuss their new film, Brothers After War, is executive producer Gary Sinise and director Jake Rademacher. First of all, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. Yeah, thank you, John. Good to be with you. You know, I wanted to say Georgia and I had a truly remarkable time at the premiere here in Nashville earlier this week, and we came away with a lot of questions we wanted to ask you. First, Jake, this is a sequel in effect for those who maybe haven't had the opportunity to see the film that preceded this one, Brothers at War.
You've been documenting this group of men, your brothers and more, for decades now. How did these documentaries come about?
How did Jake Rademacher start his journey with military documentaries?
You know, the first one came because my brothers, Joe and Isaac, told me that the truth was not coming home from Iraq. And this was 2004. They were with the 82nd Airborne. They were in combat. Joe was a sniper with the 82nd Airborne, 18 years old. Isaac was a captain, infantry officer doing civil relations. And as a family member, as a brother, that pissed me off. So I went back to my hometown. I raised some money and I got myself over to Iraq. and I embedded in Isaac's unit, and he let me film everything. I got out to the Syrian border with his guys. Eventually the film follows him home. He predicts his daughter won't recognize him. She doesn't. That's all in the first film and the second. And then I went back to Iraq a second time.
My youngest brother's kind of a hard-ass Joe, to put it bluntly. Gary's probably laughing. But he gives me a hard time when he's 19 and then 15 years later in Brothers After War. But he said, you didn't see enough. You don't know enough. So I went back to Iraq. I went to the Sunni Triangle. I embedded with the National Guard Infantry Company sniper team, the Iraqi Army, and Marine Advisors working with them. And I spent about six weeks over on that second trip. I I got into a decent amount of combat and saw the tougher, harder part of war. All of that became Brothers at War. I was asked to go to Iraq a third time to screen it for General Petraeus' public affairs folks. While I was over there, a Marine colonel, a really lovely lady, said with tears in her eyes, you have to share this with Gary Sinise. Now, I, as a first-time filmmaker who grew up in Chicago in the beginning of my career and always looked up and admired, Gary said, do you have a cell phone number? Because we're not all drinking at the same cantina back there in L.A.
And she said no, but I shared this story with a friend of ours, Michael Broderick, and and michael said i know gary and i think he'd love your film and one thing led to another and gary graciously created a couple hours on his schedule he was shooting csi new york and i went over to cbs two days before thanksgiving in 2007 and it was gary sinise myself and norman powell we watched brothers at war and i'll never forget it you know gary was very moved at the end of the film he just sat there like in silence for two or three minutes and i just let him sit in it And then he said, it's a very important film, Jake. It's a very important film. And then Gary, as Gary does, he kind of started telling me what to do. So it was all good ideas. And, you know, it's like one of your heroes giving you advice, you're going to take it. And so eventually we said, let's make this official. And I asked him to be executive producer of the film.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is 'Brothers After War' about?
0:03–1:28
2
How did Jake Rademacher start his journey with military documentaries?
1:28–9:02
3
How did Gary Sinise become involved with 'Brothers After War'?
9:02–14:02
4
What is the impact of the workshops on the film?
14:02–17:08
5
How does the film portray veterans' experiences?
17:08–22:35
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Morning Wire
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