Gunner Palace

Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker's agenda-free documentary is an exciting look at the every day life of Artillery Division "gunners" stationed in what was once one of Uday Saddam's entertainment palaces. It is also the best cinematic glimpse into the everyday lives of our soldiers in Iraq. We get to see our young men and women joke around, do cannonballs in what used to be Uday's backyard pool, play guitar, hunt for rats before bedtime, perform some impressive on-the-spot hip-hop rhyming, and (of course) brace for inevitable violence.

Tucker and his wife, Petra, are able to evoke the tension our soldiers face and show how they relieve the stress with humor or art. It is not an issue of them not taking their jobs seriously. One moment they're clowns because the next moment they could be dead. There is a lot of waiting in Gunner Palace and that's where the tension lies.

The documentary reflects the difficulty American soldiers face from both the enemy and the almost equally important upkeep of public relations. An insurgent bomb goes off injuring Iraqis and, when the U.S. comes to investigate, they are met with thrown rocks. Soldiers play mediators between religious orders, while the nation tries to find itself in the aftermath of Saddam's exit. Other soldiers sift through the lies and half-truths of snitches, looking to be rewarded or confuse American forces.

What's more, the soldiers have to rely on this iffy information, although it could lead them into traps and/or cost more American lives. Trust is a big factor in Gunner Palace. One Iraqi, who appears to be a real asset to the American forces, is later found to be something of a double-agent. There is so much confusion and chaos. If the film is messy, it's easy to see why.

Palace is not without a colorful cast of characters and is definitely not short on humor. Most colorful is SPC Stuart Wilf, your true rock 'n' roll soldier. He figures in the flm's most iconic image, as he plays the national anthem on an electric guitar at sunset. The "PC" in SPC doesn't stand for politically correct, as far as Wilf is concerned (take his barrack-made costume of an Arab for instance).

In the film's funniest scene, a soldier mockingly reviews the "armored" vehicles they are given to patrol the bomb-intensive streets. It is clear that they are not impressed with the materials their country has provided for them. Watching this, I couldn't help but realize how accurate Robert Altman's M*A*S*H was. There is also a tender interview with SPC Billie Grimes who was later one of three soldiers pictured on Time Magazine's "Person of The Year" cover.

Gunner Palace has met with great acclaim and is only a little overrated. It isn't the best film on the current situation in Iraq, as that title would go to the searing documentary, Control Room. Palace takes a while to get rolling and I'd argue that you could probably remove a good portion of the first half, without hurting the film.

The DVD is not jam-packed but is worth purchasing for the following reasons: you get a solid flick, more free-styling rhyming by soldiers, and some good deleted scenes, including a definition of "battle buddy," according to SPC Wilf. He wants to set the record straight, insisting that "battle buddies are not gay." Most importantly, a portion of the proceeds for this DVD are going to the Fisher House, an organization that assists military families. -- Andre Rivas