reviewed by Brian "The Naked Gun" Felts
Gunner Palace is about a unit of soldiers living in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces during the war in Iraq.
The movie shows day to day life while soldiers explain what is going on, sometimes in rap song, and sometimes
in humor, and the dangers they face.
The interesting aspect of this movie is how it shows the soldiers feeling neglected now that the press
is reporting the day to day activities like it did during the combat during the "war." Many of them
feel that the public doesn't understand that they are still fighting and dieing every day. I also enjoyed
how the film mixes the good and the bad the soldiers' experience. One block the kids are coming up to the
soldiers to walk with them but the next block over, kids are throwing rocks at them. I do like how the
movie shows what good things that are taking place over there, like visiting orphanage's and helping people
in the street. I didn't like the continuous mocking of the President and Secretary Rumsfeld all though it's
to be expected because this movie did have a anti-war feeling to it. Yet the content was still good.
What was horrible was the total lack or direction in the movie and the editing of the movie. I was
constantly turning up the volume on my TV to hear what the man behind the camera was saying, yet had
to turn it down when the Rap music came on. I then had to turn it up when he was interviewing the soldiers
but turn it down when the fighting began. Poor sound editing. I also really couldn't follow what was
going on. At one point, about a hour into the movie, the cameraman says he is going home, and we do
indeed see pictures of him at his house. When then hear how one of the soldiers he visited was
killed, and the next scene, without explanation we are back in Iraq. Did he go back after he heard
the death of his friend, or did he just provide more pictures of stuff he took? Later on it becomes
semi-clear that he goes back, but he never really says it. It could be his cameraman for all we know.
There is a wonderful interview with a kid over in Iraq who talks about his hometown, of Colorado
Springs, and how when he left to join the Army, there was construction at the I-25 and Woodmen
intersection. He then tells how since then he lived in Germany for a year, got called to invade
Iraq, and toppled a country, helped build it back up, and after all of that, he goes to the internet
to look at the Colorado Springs newspaper to see a headline that said Woodmen Intersection making some
progress. For those of use, like me, who lived in Colorado Springs during that time, could really
appreciate that comment. I laughed out loud at that comment.
This could have been a wonderful movie, but because of the lack of direction the movie falls into
confusion on more than one occasion. Interesting material, but poor story telling by the director.
Brian - the Naked Gun I think Brian hit this one right on the head. This documentary was very observational and had SO little focus, I could barely keep myself interested. The movie fails first by not providing a perspective on the part of the cameraman, who on occassionally narrates. I never got how the cameraman ended up at gunner palace. Is he in the military? Why was he "going home?" Was he at the end of an assignment, like a videojournalist? This is never made clear. Like Brian said, half way through the movie, the timeline gets very confusing. Did the cameraman go back and shoot more because Spc. Hogan was killed? Again, it is never made clear. I did like the balance the picture gives to serving as a combat veteran with this unit, and how excited they were to be there. I thought it was going to be a two-hour anti recruitment video. Overall, I thought this documentary sucked. It simply was poorly made. There was no heart, and there were SO many contrived moments where the cameraman obviously staged things with the soldiers for the sake of the movie. Not only half of the cameraman's narration was had these corny-a** sound bytes thrown in that were completely getting on my nerves. This filmmaker needs to study up on the works of Erol Morris. And see how REAL interesting and exciting documentaries are supposed to go together. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
Wow. A documentary not made by Michael Moore that still sucks. In this case the movie sucks because
the direction is horrible, actually there is almost no direction. I like the content, but this is more
of a home video then a documentary.