August 16, 2005
Gunner Palace by Gunner Palace
Filed under: Movies | Buy on Amazon
directed by Michael Tucker
2005
Gunner Palace was a former party house of Uday Hussein in Baghdad and home base for the 2/3 Field Artillery in late 2003 and 2004. This documentary follows the daily lives of the soldiers as mortar rounds land in and near the palace and daily patrols carry the threat of attack by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). It's not a combat documentary. You never watch soldiers shooting, though you do see them on patrol and on raids looking for insurgents. It's a soldier's viewpoint with very little in the way of a political agenda.
If you're looking for the fierce action of a warzone, Gunner Palace doesn't have it. You see more soldiers playing guitar than firing their weapons. You do hear a lot about what the soldiers have experienced, how they're feeling, how they're coping. Often the words of the soldiers are contrasted with the latest news and statements from the top brass, which is as close as the film gets to an agenda. Throughout the film the soldiers wonder if anybody at home remembers them.
As a matter of trivia, the f-word can be heard 42 times in the film, a record number for a movie with a PG-13 rating.
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Tracked on August 31, 2005 2:02 PM
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