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Written by RYAN COX
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Friday, 25 March 2005 |
Anyone who’s ever wondered what a typical day in Baghdad must be like for an American soldier should see "Gunner Palace," the latest Iraq documentary by American-born, Berlin-based journalists Michael Tucker and his wife/partner Petra Epperlein.
It follows the lives of the American military’s First Armored Division 2/3 Field Artillery, who are living in the bombed out palace (hence the title) of Uday Hussein after his capture, but before the major insurgency had begun, and before the Abu Ghraib scandal broke.
Baghdad in "Gunner Palace" is depicted as oppressively hot, poverty-stricken and filled with trash, as several soldiers point out. Although the soldiers rode around town in Humvees and every piece of trash they saw was a possible IED (Improvised Explosive Device), this was seemingly a relatively calm period of the war. As a member of the so-called "loony left," but a theoretical supporter of the Iraq war, it was nice to see how the Iraqi people interacted with the soldiers and how the children they frequently encountered would run after them and cheer. The soldiers would often carry them around and would be genuinely affectionate. One of the most touching scenes was filmed in an orphanage with a soldier holding a tiny baby with a swollen head, whose entire body was wrapped tightly in a blanket. He gazed at the baby with a true smile on his face, and talked about his own son, born months before in America, that he hadn’t even met yet. His eyes water, no more words or explanation are necessary, and the scene is a real heartbreaker.
At times the film drags, however, and could have been subtitled "Boyz in the Baghdad Hood," so filled as it is with the soldier’s home-grown raps and beat-box songs about the dangers they face and their friends who have been killed. This was interesting the first couple of times, and about as insightful as any of the soldiers get about their situations. Unfortunately, but after about 6 or 7 of these, I got the point.
At the end, it picks up a little. The soldiers talk about how people at home have no idea what the war is really like; as soon as Americans turn off CNN, it ends for them. But the soldiers have to keep living there, every second of every day. One soldier even goes so far as to say that he no longer feels like he’s fighting for America, and "that sucks," but he’s still proud to be a soldier.
"Gunner Palace" is the first documentary that I’m aware of that really tries to see things from the soldiers’ points of view, and seems to totally lack a political agenda, which I found more than a little refreshing. Overall, "Gunner Palace" is not groundbreaking work, but it does offer a glimpse into a world I, and I suspect most Americans, know nothing to little about, and I would speculate that everyone who has an opinion on the Iraqi invasion, regardless of their politics, would benefit from spending 85 minutes in the theater with "Gunner Palace."
"GUNNER PALACE"
Directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker
Entertainment: 3 stars
Art: 3 stars
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