Director’s Statement
Captain Jim “Rabbit” Hare won the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service in Vietnam with the Death Rattlers. His deeds were epic; he became legend.
He was my father. He gave me life, and he gave me a command from which I could not escape: Semper Fidelis.
I was destined to follow his footsteps to the U.S. Naval Academy, then to the U.S. Marine Corps and combat in Operation Desert Storm. Later I became a filmmaker and artist. My father never forgave me for that.
In 1998, Jim died from agent orange related prostate cancer. Today, his ashes sit in my grandmother’s basement in a cardboard box.
Death Rattler is the story of my search to reclaim my father’s legacy and to put his remains to rest.
Death Rattler is a film by artists who are warriors and warriors who are artists, for whom Semper Fidelis is a sacred vow; making Death Rattler unlike any military documentary ever made.