A Soldier's Decision to Join the Marines, His Death and a Documentary

The late , a Park Slope resident, was not your typical Marine.

Before he enlisted in May 2007, he was a working actor, a triathlon athlete and a carpenter for The Martha Stewart Show. Now, after his death at the age of 25, he has become the subject of a documentary. 

“Julian,” directed by Bao Nguyen, Brennan’s childhood friend and an award-winning photographer, explores the motivations why the young soldier marched into the Marine Corps and how his decision to join the War on Terror and his death impacted his family.

“Julian felt that he had to respond to 9/11,” Bill Brennan said of his son while he lifted his boy’s old Yankees hat off his head and fingered the letters J-U-L-I-A-N, which were embroidered on the back of the cap. “He also felt inspired to join because his grandfather was a war hero at Iwo Jima. But there was also a push for social justice.”

Bill explained that his father, Julian's grandfather, was awarded the Navy Cross for his bravery during the battle in Iwo Jima during World War II. He was buried in 2005 at Arlington National Cemetery, where “two bus loads of Marines” saluted his casket and a “35-piece marching band” played in his honor.

Julian also felt that it was wrong that “mostly poor and uneducated men” were sent to the front lines “to die,” says Brennan. So instead of becoming an officer with his college degree, he signed up to be “a four-year grunt.”

“There is not one reason he made his decision. I think his grandfather was the obvious decision, growing up and being told his history of valor and he wanted to live up to it,” Nguyen said over the phone. “His parents always taught him to be passionate and follow his gut. I think he always wanted to do this so to challenge himself.”

Brennan joined the Marines in May 2007. He was a pure physical specimen. In boot camp he ranked number two out of 680 men. His only weakness was marksmanship, due to his poor eyesight. He was trained to drive big heavy trucks and soon he made it up the ranks to LCpl.

In Afghanistan’s Farah Province, on January 24, 2009, he was driving a Humvee in a caravan of six heavily armored trucks when his ran over a roadside bomb on a notoriously dangerous road. He died instantly. Brennan was the first soldier to die in combat in Afghanistan after President Barak Obama took office. 

Nguyen, who recently received his MFA in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts, took a class called “Visionary Journalism.” They were assigned to make a five-minute profile on a fallen soldier. A couple days went by and he realized Julian’s parents still lived in Brooklyn, so it was the perfect local story. Soon that five-minute profile turned into his graduate thesis, and then into an hour-long documentary-- with help from Julian.

After Julian made his decision to join the Marines, he started to keep a video diary to document his decision. He would hold the camera up to his face and talk into it. Being a trained actor, the results were remarkably good. Half of Nguyen’s documentary uses this footage, while the other half is composed of old home videos of Julian as a kid and interviews Nguyen had with each member of Julian’s family to document their loss.

“Julian was very aware of himself on camera, it is eerie to watch his video diary footage because he seems to know exactly what is going on and he seems to be talking to someone,” Nguyen explained while he was on a train to Washington D.C. to interview Julian’s sister. “When you talk straight into a camera for a diary, you think it is just between you and the camera, but he seems very keen on it being his audience as well.”

Julian is very animated and reveals intimate moments in his video diary. But he is not acting. He is simply speaking to himself. However, the quality of the “performance” begs the question—was this meant for others to see?

“At a certain point you ask yourself are these scenes theatrical? Is he a good actor?” Nguyen explained. “You would want to think that he is being genuine because no one is there. Who is the audience, right?”

Ultimately, Nguyen leaves it up to his audience to decide. But he still wonders himself.

“Is Julian doing a grand performance or is it just a kid in a very media-savvy world who just wanted to document his decision?” Nguyen asks.

But the point of this documentary is not to dissect whether or not Julian is acting, but to find out why a talented kid with so many other options in life, chose to be a grunt in the Marine Corps.

“This film is really about what paths in our lives lead us to a very life-changing decision," says Nguyen. "And what happens to the people around us when this decision impacts their lives.” 

“Julian” (50min RT) will be shown privately for its debut SOLD OUT screening on September 17 at 4:20 p.m. at the SVA MFA SocDoc Thesis Showcase located at 333 West 23rd Street, 
New York, NY 10011. Stay tuned for more details about a screening next spring in New York.