Gunner Palace
From gunnerpalace.com the internet home for the movie:
“GUNNER PALACE reveals the complex realities of the situation in Iraq not seen on the nightly news. Told first-hand by our troops, ‘Gunner Palace’ presents a thought provoking portrait of a dangerous and chaotic war that is personal, highly emotional, sometimes disturbing, surprisingly amusing … and thoroughly fascinating.”
Honestly I watched this movie, not expecting anything. What Gunner Palace shows is the daily life of an Army unit that was trained literally to blow stuff up (it’s an artillery unit hence the name “The Gunners”) working as police/peacekeepers. The daily life consists of watching out for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) while on patrol, acting as police, and at night listening to the motars fall short of the palace they are staying in. A palace that once belonged to Uday Hussein, but now is bombed out and a headquarters.
The movie is pretty good in making you see how tough these soldiers have it, and their occasional R&R (sometimes in the palace pool). It made me glad I’m not there.
If you are looking for a movie that shows you firefights with people dying, there is none of that in this film. To be honest the raids the soldiers went on reminded me more of Cops than anything else. Most times the intelligence they were given was wrong and they came up empty handed. Mostly this movie is about the soldiers, how they survive in Iraq, and what they think about. There are numerous segments where the filmmaker asks the soldiers questions, and they give honest answers. This film is not a flag waving exercise, but at the same time, none of the soldiers out right say they don’t like the government (of course, I would never bad mouth employers on the clock and on camera either.) There are some humorous scenes, a lot of tense scenes and a few that bring it home that some of these soldiers did not make it home alive.
Overall I think it’s a good look into the lives of soldiers in Baghdad. It’s good not great, but I recommend it!
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