Gunner Palace (2005)

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

'Gunner Palace' shows the kind of stories that should be on the nightly news. These stories shouldn't be a surprise, but they are. These soldiers, many uneducated and trained to do little more than get from point A to point B without dying, find themselves in a middle eastern city where they have to act as police officers, social workers, political advisers, security guards, probation officers, prison wardens, hospital orderlies, while all the while getting shot at and stoned by the people they are trying to help. Whether you believe in the war or not becomes irrelevant as you realize that these soldiers have been put in an impossible situation. They know it. The viewer knows it. The only person who doesn't seem to know it is Donald Rumsfeld, whose patronizing encouragement drones incessantly from armed forces radio in the background.The film takes place after the war, when the majority of casualties are the result of insurgent bombings, not legitimate warfare. Though we never see the results of such attacks, the effects are clear. The film also makes clear the incredible risks that Iraqis take in trying to create a peaceful democracy for themselves, and the price that many of them pay. Liberal complaints about the lack of violence, scenes of death, and wounded Iraqi civilians are unfounded, and are exposed as the childish and naive fantasies that they are. A flawed documentary that fails to create any real connection or empathy for the individuals involved, but a rare and compelling glimpse onto the streets of Baghdad, nonetheless.

An interesting, if somewhat aimless, first hand view of American troops in Baghdad. Using what appears to be a hand held digital video camera, we're plopped in the middle of Baghdad at "Gunner Palace," a former Saddam Hussein mansion. It's now HQ for 400 soldiers on daily thrill rides through the streets of Baghdad.The endless scenes of raids, patrols, and arrests are interspersed with rap and chat with the troops. Rapping (some of not too bad, all of it heavy on obscenity) is obviously a stress reliever for kids in a combat zone. The commentary from the soldiers is sometimes funny, and sometimes tragic. I'm not sure how they got to make this film. I thought all the journalists were confined to the safety of the Green Zone. This crew is on the scene, in the humvees, and on patrol with soldiers. It's fascinating footage...even if it seems like a lot of the patrols are pointless.If you want to get a sense of what it's like to live in fear 24/7, to wonder whether a bag left on the curb is going to blow you up, and whether you'll be forgotten by the people back home, this is your flick. At 1 hour, 26 minutes, it's not a big time commitment. But if you want something with a plot, that teaches you about life, or that has a happy ending, don't bother. War doesn't have any of those things.

I ended up liking this quite a bit, although paradoxically the movie's greatest strength (an unwillingness to get wrapped up in the political arguments pro/con on the Iraq war, a willingness more or less to keep the vision down to the grunt's level) is also the movie's big weakness, as it often seems one or two steps removed from raw footage (in fact there's two false endings here, until finally the movie makers concede that they don't know how to end the thing....and then end it). The movie makers start the film suggesting this stuff should be on television and I agree; this really should be a very special "Primetime Live" or something.That said, the footage is superb, the sense of a grunt's life very well evoked, with individual personalities nicely delineated. For what it is, essentially journalism in documentary film fancy-dress, it's very well done. The movie makers took some real risk; one only wishes more journalists would do the same. I also liked the melange of hip-hop, Islam, metal guitar, doper humor, Army briskness, pop culture references and the like that the film portrays: I have a pet theory that the twenty-first century will be characterized by the multi-cultural stew that GUNNER PALACE and the like portray. Worth checking out.

Remarkable movie.It really makes you think and want to talk about your own perspectives on the war.Coming from Seattle, it was particularly moving to hear the director talk about the death of Ben Colgan. He was a local boy and well loved.This is the most honest representation of Iraq I've seen yet. It must be good since so many other directors are using a similar format in upcoming documentaries. To learn more about the making of the movie, check out the Apple computers website, and Gunner Palace website. I would encourage you to read Michael's diary about the making of the movie, his emails home to his wife and daughter, and the emails from the troops and their families. They are moving. Great movie, makes you think.