'Brothers at War'

I saw this movie about a month ago - had to schlep all the way over to Dayton, to the movie theater closest to the Air Force Base, to find it. It was definitely worth it. I'm glad to see that Kyle Smith rates it a "good to go" as well. 

Smith mentions how the film has some real "psychological complexity," both in regards to the soldiers and in terms of the Rademacher brothers' family dynamics.  Smith comments on a scene in which a bunch of "trained death dealers" return from a 5-day surveillance trip on the Syrian border - and unwind by watching The OC. 

One section of the movie follows an American soldier who is in charge of training a group of Iraqi policemen (or maybe they were with the Iraqi army? I wasn't sure.). Anyway, it sure looked like one of the most frustrating jobs out there. But what really impressed me was not just the difficulty of the job, but how the U.S. soldiers gave it their all, were proud of the Iraqis for any bit of progress, and truly believed in them. It showed some serious heart and dedication.

The opening sequence nicely captures Rademacher's personality and the way that following these impressive servicemen and women can give one's perspective a necessary tweak. Jake (the filmmaker) is talking to a U.S. soldier and says, "Yeah, see, a bad day for me is like, there's no cream cheese for the bagels out on the craft services table..."

Later in the movie you get the rest of that conversation. The same U.S. soldier finds a dead Iraqi citizen in the middle of the road, where the Iraqi policemen/army was supposed to have been patrolling. He says, "Yeah, see, what's your worst day like? This is my everyday...." (I'm obviously paraphrasing and trying to remember from a month ago). 

Go see it, if it's playing near you.