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Gunner Palace may well prove to be the emblematic film of the Iraq war, offering a yet-to-be rivaled level of intimacy with the inner lives of those who hate war more than anyone--the soldiers ...( read more  read more... )who have to fight it. A war documentary seemingly without an agenda, at least in political terms, it appears to neither support left-wing nor right-wing interpretations of the Iraq war (or perhaps it supports both). Director Michael Tucker provides a ground-level view of the conflict by closely following members of the 2/3 Field Artillery. He lived with these soldiers, documented their daily lives in a bombed-out former pleasure palace once belonging to Uday Hussein, accompanied them on raids, and recorded their brutally honest observations on film. We learn that mortar attacks typically fail to rattle the troops, but that paper bags or packages in the streets that may contain Improvised Explosive Devices evoke gut-churning anxiety. We see Iraqi civilians whose homes are raided, cowering with fear as these members of the occupation search for contraband weapons. We meet soldiers who express profound doubts about the morality of their mission, soldiers who earnestly hope they’re helping the people of Iraq, soldiers who roll on the ground with laughter at the ineffective armor they've been provided for their Humvees. Most of these men (and occasionally women) hail from small towns and vacillate between exaltation for the adventure they're experiencing on the world stage and deep confusion and disillusionment at how it's proceeding. At one point in the documentary, Tucker returns to his home in the states; some footage of him making breakfast in his kitchen is shocking when one considers that only twelve hours previous he was in a war zone. Gunner Palace recapitulates this dissonant sensation by virtue of its candor and proximity to the conflict. In the 1970s the major broadcast media brought Vietnam into our living rooms via the nightly news. Gunner Palace, practically by itself, provides the same service today. --Ryan Boudinot

Flixster Users

67% liked it

1,682 ratings

Critics

85% liked it

101 critics

PG-13, 85 min.

Directed by: Michael Tucker (I), Petra Epperlein

Release Date: March 4, 2005

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DVD Release Date: June 28, 2005

Stats: 120 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (120)

  • Lateralus98
    August 20, 2007
    Lateralus98
    Great movie. Shows from the soldier's perspective from the ground. Shows how disillusioning this war is.
  • mpghoul1973
    May 7, 2009
    mpghoul1973
    Well made. And there is no political bullshit involved in the film. Its just an intimate look at the soldeirs involved in the war. One cant help but feel for these kids over there and wonder when the credits roll at the end if they are still alive?
  • moviesarefun
    April 9, 2009
    moviesarefun
    Gunner Palace provides an interesting view on the War on Iraq from the soldiers' side.

    This movie is only for people interested in joining the army or people who are into the war because the documentary basically shows the viewer what the life of a soldier is like. I wasn't stun...( read more)ned (mostly bored) but this movie will appeal to its target audience.
  • caffeinatedalex
    October 8, 2008
    caffeinatedalex
    I first became aware of Gunner Palace through the incredible documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, which exposed the battle Michael Tucker had to engage in to "save" his film from an R rating over naughty language. In what proved to be a completely uncharacteristic turn for th...( read more)e MPAA, they repealed the rating and granted Gunner Palace a PG-13, deciding that the language was necessary for the film to serve its purpose of portraying the real lives of these soldiers. It was a righteous cause for Tucker to engage in a fight for. He felt so strongly that his film was a realistic portrayal of the life of soldiers in Iraq, that it needed to be seen by a wider audience so they could better understand the troops fighting the war that America was engaged in. I agree whole-heartedly. Tucker's film is a pretty incredible portrait of the 400 soldiers of occupy Gunner Palace and perform their missions out of it. What's more, Tucker's contrast in the film between Rumsfeld addresses which summarize what the media was saying about the troops, with what was actually happening at the time, serve as illuminating looks into the realities of overseas combat. We should already know that what they're telling us is almost never the truth, and Tucker shows us. Perhaps most admirably of all, depending on your view of all this, Tucker does it without a significant political slant. There's an air about the film condemning the deception of the media in portraying the battles and struggles of the troops, but there's no vehement anti-Iraq war message or preachy peace talk... everything we're told and made to understand about the conflict in Iraq is through the soldiers voices and contextualized through their struggle. All of these, you would think, would add up to a five star expose of troop life that cuts right to the issue of modern combat... but it's not really. Gunner Palace ends up being good, but not outstanding. Everything feels too out of context. We are completely immersed in the life of the troops overseas, but we never get a true sense of their lives before or after, and we miss the human element. Tucker does a good job of portraying the soldiers, but he doesn't really bother to show us how these men and women function as soldiers and American citizens. So we're left with a different commentary on the war from the perspective of the people fighting it, a necessary journalistic investigation, but one that is absent of any sort of conclusion or identification to the viewers, unless they happen to be soldiers, preferrably ones who fought in the same area. It's more of a reflection on a trip than a cohesive essay film, and so we get a good sense of what the journey was like, but not how it effected anything. Gunner Palace seems to make no effort to avoid trivializing itself, and missed potential becomes its biggest shame.
  • ladiesmn3540
    November 20, 2007
    ladiesmn3540
    i might end up there
  • wolf92mich
    July 27, 2007
    wolf92mich
    This is Iraq... welcome to the world over there
  • jarhop
    April 22, 2007
    jarhop
    Please see this movie and get schooled on what happens when diplomacy fails!

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Critic Reviews

March 24, 2005
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

The film's strength -- and its weakness -- is in its you-are-there view of guys who are e-mailing their loved ones back home one minute and breaking down the doors of Iraqi homes the next, on the hunt... full review

March 11, 2005
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

This film is so valuable. Not because it argues a position about the war and occupation, but because it simply goes and observes as soldiers work and play, talk and write letters home and, on a daily ... full review

March 4, 2005
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

Gunner Palace gives us the best glimpse yet of what it's like to be in Iraq. full review

March 4, 2005
Kyle Smith, New York Post

The directors of this documentary about our troops in Baghdad tell us more about their own views than the soldiers' ... full review

March 3, 2005
Edward Havens, FilmJerk.com

Michael Tucker missed a golden opportunity to say something meaningful and important about the lives of the men and women of our Armed Forces. full review

March 3, 2005
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

A welcome antidote to the self-convinced rhetoric of pundits and politicians. full review

February 24, 2005
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

A riveting and indispensable record of the war in Iraq because it comes from the men who lived it. full review

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