Gunner Palace, a documentary I wasn't expecting. This doc didn't go left or right, it went to Iraq by telling the stories of the soldiers... well, it lets them tell the story, which was a twist. You get to see their evolution over a period of 2 months. And though the boys are funny as hell, you get the feeling they know exactly what's going on.
The doc starts out at Gunner Palace, a bombed out palace that used to be party
central for Saddam's two sons. They take the broken palace and turn it into
their base and also, their own little getaway to let off some steam, to drink
Snapple and to swim in the pool while listening to music.
At first the movie seems to show that they don't have it too hard. One soldier is in a
floating tire chugging down Snapple (because they can't have beer); one
soldier is this wannabe rapper and, while not knowing diddly about rap, I think
he was pretty good and the subject matter was far more interesting than the
usual rap lines of vengeance, pussy and ego inflation. He rapped about what he
was going through which compared to rapping about a tricked-out ride, seemed
much more profound. There's also a female soldier that's just having a hoot
because the locals have never seen a woman in uniform. We also meet a soldier,
about 18, just out of hick-town Middle America that on his time off plays First
Person Shooter games on his laptop. And despite my personal hate for all the
wrong reasons this war is even going on, I get attached to these poor guys,
having to go out and do their thing. They're mostly kids, to young and stupid to
be there and yet they make the best of it. But they should be at home getting
drunk and laid on week-ends. Not occupying a foreign country.
But soon enough, funtime is over, we get to the nitty-gritty of occupying, which
is patrolling, disarming EDIs (basically explosives left on roadsides), getting
stoned by locals and nightly raids on civilians suspected of being part of the
insurgency (which just sickens me, because seeing small children being led at
gun-point outside at 3 in the morning, that's just not right and these kids will
remember this and the end results in a few years won't be good... but I'm sure
Junior will have won his war on terror by then right ?)
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
From what I've read, nothing was censored in the sense that anybody told the filmmakers not to include certain things in the documentary. The goal of the filmmakers was to present a side of the war that isn't often seen, and as you said, it doesn't lean to the right or left. It couldn't do that if it contained any of the things you lament not seeing.