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 Gunner Palace
(2004)
Director:
Michael Tucker
Stars: Ben Colgan, Stuart Wilf
Release Company:
Palm Pictures
MPAA Rating: R
Official Site
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A Crowd of Iraqi Protesters Pray in Front of a U.S. Military Checkpoint
Photographic Print
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"I've asked soldiers what they think about the war and their answers are surprisingly simple. After a year, the war isn't about WMDs, Donald Rumsfeld or oil. It's about them. Simple. They just want to finish the job they were sent to do so they can go home."
-- MikeTucker
Certainly you've seen the "Support Our Troops" decals (that have made savvy Chinese entrepreneurs wealthy) popping up on automobiles and have noted the news stories emanating from Iraq where nearly 1500 U.S. troops have been killed since March 2003. Of course, the media is profit driven and other stories have now captured their primary interest (like the Michael Jackson trial) to bury the latest U.S. casualties to page 7 or deeper. Such a situation makes Gunner Palace the timeliest documentary to hit theaters in 2005.
Don't expect heavily scripted, censored, and edited for television footage by an embedded journalist (who must sign a 7 page contract); we've seen plenty of this on CNN and other standard networks that offer small doses for mainstream consumption, along with standard pro and con punditry. No political treatise about the justification for the war in Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, this intriguing film consists of little more than a year long "home movie" video diary of the 2/3 Field Artillery, who bunk down in the bombed out pleasure palace of Uday Hussein. Granted complete access to all operations, Tucker begins the film with terrifying "minor combat" under heavy machine gun fire in the streets of Baghdad.
As harrowing as this appears, this isn't the most dangerous situation that strikes fear in the highly trained soldiers—nor are mortar attacks or isolated snipers. The most dangerous situation often involves a cardboard box or plastic bag left on the road. It may appear innocent, but far too many contain IEDs (improvised explosive devices). We see one reluctant soldier tentatively approach a suspicious trash bag, highly relieved that it contained no IED. The local Iraqis think it highly humorous that the trash bag has held up street traffic for 15 minutes, but this is no laughing matter for American troops who have witness far too many personnel implode with similar devices.
Trained to blow things up, those skills are virtually useless after a month into the Iraq War. U.S. military now find that they must operate primarily as police, social workers, or truant officers; Gunner Palace chronicles their varied activities in all these pursuits at all hours of the day. One minute they are picking up a homeless urchin (dazed from glue sniffing) and the next they are cruising an ominous street near the main Sunni mosque, breaking down civilian door, or breaking up game playing at a local cafe.
The hazardousness mission and intimate contact simply doesn't allow for professional lighting and camera crews; thus, 100% of the film is shot solely by Tucker (mostly in shaky hand held fashion). The roughness of the digital recording lends authenticity to the project—this is definitely the real stuff, especially the action. Other scenes back at the palace showcase soldiers obviously playing for the camera, whether reciting rap lyrics or imitating Mathew Modine's Full Metal Jacket routine. The filmmaker declares that he didn't want to follow any one soldier around so that he'd give a better view of the general life of the soldiers, but charismatic SPC Stuart Wilf emerges as the film star through his quirky humor and rock star mentality. A party animal denied real beer for over 300 days, Wilf openly displays his wacky side while making it plain that his main mission is to survive and get back home.
Cutting out those scenes would deprive the film of much needed humor and humanity, however. Especially hilarious is the sequence where a soldier displays a scrap metal reinforced Hum-Vee that now only allows shrapnel to enter a man's body instead of go through it and another sequence where SPC Wilf narrates his biography while a buddy "signs" it for the camera (without any authentic knowledge about the specialized language for the deaf). The palace plays a central role, and its bombed out appearance still offers a glimpse of the former regime's opulence—the chandeliers, large circular bed, the miniature golf course, a stocked fishing pond. The massive swimming pool is used for relaxation (i.e. a Sergeant lounges in a tube with Snapples in hand) and for parties (a group performs impromptu synchronized choreography to "My Girl"), but the film misses the times that soldiers fish mortars out of their pool.
People with political agendas may find support for their point of view from the raw material contained in Gunner Palace, but that would take some heavy editing and added commentary. The chaotic appearance and structure may signal the entire them of our situation in Iraq to some, while others will see this as the natural product of any personal video diary selected from 400 days of on location shooting—note: the U.S. military neither censored nor sanctioned the film since they did not commission the project.
It's often rough stuff, but this is the true voice from our men in Baghdad, tastefully edited so we never see inappropriate carnage and killing. Mike Tucker succeeds in capturing raw video data and putting very human faces on the news events that we "think" we are familiar with. But 2/3 FA emphasizes that no one can really know what they've been through if they've not been through the same situation. We all can't get to Baghdad to experience their current transition to a new Iraq, but Tucker's documentary remarkably helps put us into their situation for 85 unforgettable minutes. At least we can hope that these minutes won't be forgotten. Not all the soldiers will make it back alive, so this film remains a living chronicle of their final deeds.
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