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BROTHERS
ON THE LINE
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t he t ravel c linic
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BAND OF BROTHERS
The Reuther Brothers bring you the union
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BROTHERS ON THE LINE: Directed and written by Sasha Reuther. Cinematography, Joe Gabriel. Editor, Deborah
Peretz. Music, Michael Whalen. Porter Street Pictures, 2012. 80 minutes. 00001
762-1700 | 180 E. 5TH AVE
L
ike socialism, the words labor and union, have become dirty in today’s political
climate. But this wasn’t always so. These words have undergone a slow, steady
and deliberate connotation reassignment, now signifying fascism, communism,
redistribution of wealth and anti-democratic and anti-competitive practices, and
perhaps that’s why anyone born after 1980 is probably not familiar with the
Reuther family like they are with the Kennedys. The Reuther brothers — Walter,
Roy and Victor — who led the United Auto Workers (UAW) through its most successful
era, acquiring high wages, pensions and collective bargaining rights for generations of
autoworkers, setting the precedent for organized labor. The Reuther brothers marched with
Martin Luther King and stood united with Cesar Chavez and striking farm workers and
survived several assassination attempts. Filmmaker Sasha Reuther made Brothers On the
Line, a historically striking and fast-paced 80-minute documentary chronicling the rise of
the UAW, civil rights and the Reuther brothers because, he says, people either forgot or
they were never taught.
“The labor story was pulled out of the history books,” Sasha Reuther, grandson of
Victor Reuther, tells EW. “It’s a terrible shame. If you study that era — when you have a
strong labor movement — our country does well.”
The film opens in a time when one-fifth of Detroit’s population was employed by auto-
related industry and the only union that existed — the American Federation of Labor —
protected solely skilled workers, leaving 90 percent of laborers unprotected. Enter Walter
Reuther, eldest of the brothers, and as good as any protagonist that Hollywood could
conjure; he had boyish good looks, slicked back flaming red hair, political smarts and a
robust and relentless vision. In 1927 at the age of 20, Walter found his first job at the
Briggs Manufacturing Company, where working 13-hours nights was the norm and
fainting on the job was not unusual. Soon, his brothers joined him, and the charismatic trio
decided to organize, speaking with fellow laborers and demanding rights.
Brothers clips along, with the help of narrator Martin Sheen, through historical
milestones — the assassination of JFK and MLK, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam
War and the presidency of LBJ — chapters in history that most never knew were molded
in the hands of the Reuthers. Relying heavily on archival footage, Sasha Reuther creates a
black and white lens into the past that is just as vibrant as the interviews with the late
Victor Reuther and Ed Kennedy. Some of the film’s most powerful moments are still
images of Walter in freedom marches — the UAW financed marches in Detroit and
Washington, D.C.
Women, however, are mostly absent in this film, which is not representative of reality at
the time. In fact, early on in the film, a woman helped kick-start the union movement by
agreeing to fake fainting in the Kelsey Hayes Wheel Co. factory, throwing the spotlight on
the inhumane working conditions. Brothers also briefly touches on the roles of the Reuther
brothers’ wives in the movement, but only long enough to leave you asking why it was not
explored. Sasha Reuther wishes he could have delved further into the role of women in the
union movement, pointing to how many women joined the workforce during World War II.
“A lot of women UAW members brought [the union] back to their community,” he says.
Watching this film, I kept asking myself, “Why don’t I know about this?” Because, no
matter your politics, it’s a fascinating story. Unions did, after all, bring us the weekend, a
minimum wage, paid vacations, paid sick leave, child labor laws, safety standards, an
eight-hour workday, wrongful termination laws and unemployment benefits. Who can
argue with that?
Brothers On the Line is part of the Good Works Film Festival, which also features films
like Blue Collar Boys, a feature-length film about construction workers hit hard by the
recession. Brothers On the Line will screen, with free admission, Oct. 28 and 29, at Bijou
Art Cinemas. Filmmaker Sasha Reuther will do a Q&A Skype session with the audience
on Oct. 28. To make advance reservations, visit goodworksfilmfestival.org. ■
davidminortheater.com
THURS OCT 25 – WED OCT 31
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eugeneweekly.com • October 25, 2012
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