SOUTHEAST STUDENT WITH INTEREST IN CIVIL WAR LANDS ROLES IN TWO MOVIES

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Jeff Shrader's interest in the Civil War has taken him far all the way to the set of two major motion pictures, including the recent box-office success "Dances With Wolves."

Shrader, of Cape Girardeau, played a confederate soldier in "Dances With Wolves," and a union and a confederate soldier in 1989's "Glory," another highly-praised film about the period.

But he's not just an actor. Shrader calls himself a living historian. He's a member of a nationwide group of Civil War reenactors and historians called the Mudsills. It was through this organization, made up of about 250 people, that he won parts as an extra in both films.

"Ray Herbeck, the associate producer of `Glory,' is a living history person," Shrader explained. "In the movie, they realized they could use living historians as the army, people who already had weapons and costumes, and knew how to use them."

The two films have been said to realistically depict the war like few films have before them. But Shrader said the general public sees the films much differently than he and other historians see them.

"With anything there's going to be flaws," he said. "There were several tactical errors made in "Glory," but it looked good on screen and that's what they were going for. They're not aiming the movie at us, they're aiming it at the general public."

But Shrader still has high praise for the films and their stars and directors.

He was on the set of "Dances With Wolves" for two weeks in late 1989. The film was shot on location in South Dakota. He appeared in the beginning of the film, when its star and director, Kevin Costner, makes what Shrader called a suicide attempt in front of enemy soldiers.

He met Costner several times, and said he will never forget working with the actor.

"You see all those interviews on TV and all the magazine articles where he's made to look like he's a great guy and just like the guy next door," Shrader said. "That's all true."

He said Costner is unintimidating. "He doesn't act like he's better than anybody else," he said. "You don't really feel in awe of him."

Working on the set of "Glory," Shrader worked with Matthew Broderick, who first became well-known for his role in the movie "Ferris Buehler's Day Off."

"I remember the first time I saw Matthew, it was a weird feeling walking up to him. But I soon saw him as a co-worker. He couldn't ride a horse to save his life and fell off it continually. That sort of helped to equalize everybody."

Shrader spent two months during 1987 on the set of "Glory," which was filmed in Georgia.

A junior at Southeast Missouri State University, Shrader is majoring in historic preservation. In fact, the Mendon, Ill., native left college in Quincy, Ill., in his freshman year, after he heard about Southeast's historical preservation program.

"Southeast Missouri State is one of only a handful of universities that offers a historic preservation program," he said. "In fact, I'm surprised the university doesn't flaunt it. It's a fantastic program, full of a close-knit family which is very dedicated. Their life goal is the preservation of material from the past."

Shrader said the Civil War is fascinating to many people, even today, because people can still identify with it.

"We can really feel this conflict still here at home," he said. "A lot of people here and out east live very close to where the fighting occurred, and it was a tremendous turning point in American history. The policies that war resolved are still with us today."

He said he's also not surprised at the number of movies made about the war over the years.

"It makes a terrific script, and you never run out of new topics to cover," he said.

"Before `Glory,' the black soldiers who fought in the Civil War had been ignored for a long time. And before "Dances With Wolves," the Indian tribes out west had also been ignored."

Shrader said there is a new feeling of responsibility in Hollywood to "tell the untold story" about the war.

"History is something that is constantly being interpreted," he said. "If you read a history book written in the early 1900s, it's going to present a different interpretation of the war than a book written in the 1980s would."

Shrader said he hopes that after graduation, he will be able to follow a career in historic site preservation. But he also hopes to continue working on the side as a movie extra.

"People are fascinated by it, but really, it's a job like any other job," he said, "except you get to meet Ferris Buehler."