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DVD Gunner Palace
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 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
Reviewer: D. G. Rosenthal "SPC Rosenthal" (A Co. 3/124th Infantry) - See all my reviews
"While Gunner Palace is a good documentary of the 1st Armored Division's "Gunners", it ignores nearly all of the negative aspects of their deployment. For instance, the "gunners" did not capture that sector of Aadhamiya they patrolled: the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force did, and then turned it over to 101st Airborne, and then to the Florida Army National Guard's Warrior battalion (who can be heard on the radio throughout the movie).
I was stationed less than 500 meters away from Gunner Main, as we called it. They were by far the most screwed up unit in the entire first armored division. The documentary fails to mention the 25 minute long firefight that 1-36 IN, also stationed at Gunner Main, had.........with themselves. It was all friendly fire.
It also fails to mention that the Gunner's on guard duty, shot up our sniper teams from Warrior Battalion, nearly every day, because the gunner's were untrained and unskilled in their professions. They were engineers, and should have stuck doing engineer jobs.
The documentary fails to mention any of this. What it DOES do though, is give a great sense of what Aadhamiya was like. You graphically see the discrepancies between Uday and Qusay's palaces, and the slums around the soccer stadium and on River Road. You get a great idea of what the streets were like, how the people reacted, and such. I saw many familiar faces from the streets of Maghrib and Aadhamiya, in Baghdad. So yes, while it's overly preachy towards the troops, and covers their blemishes, it's definately a good documentary....for what it's worth."
OK first off, this guy is a clown.... I never knew of a movie in which negative aspects are part of a movie. CLOWN!! for 1 the movie was designed to show the people of the civilian world ...That MICHAEL MOORE does not know what he was talking about, Michael Tucker made it evident that the war needed to be expressed by the Soldiers and not the anti-war CLOWNS OF TH US.
2ND, 1-36 was never stationed at "GUNNER MAIN", they were almost 10 to 15 miles down to the west end of SLAYK, thats over by the WATER PLANT that myself and the rest of AZTEC 2/3 FA secured.
3rd, watch the DOCUMENTARY before you label our MOS, WE are Artillerymen not Engineers.
You say you were 500 meters from the Palace, WHERE? because 500 meters would have made that in the same hood that we lost two soldiers at, where you all doing your jobs or too busy worried about ours?
ANYWAYS, this Documentary is what it is, BY US, FOR US,
THANK YOU MICHAEL TUCKER
Great Documentary- Music an issue??
Before I get into the review, I just gotta point out that the music in the film has become an issue by other reviewers, that the RAP MUSIC is not appropriate for the film. Did it not occur to the reviewers who had issue to this that the RAP MUSIC is original stuff from soldiers featured in the documentary? (You can see some of them perform it for you on camera. It isn't P-Diddy or Snoop Dogg or Dr. Dre...Its our own US Troops!) I'd say its appropriate enough, wouldn't you? Yes, they curse and use the N word, but i'd say they have the right to say whatever they want, wouldn't you? Or is it that those people don't like RAP MUSIC for whatever reason? (The guitar music heard in the film was also played by one of the troops, SPC Wilf to be exact.)
Anyways, I agree with other reviewers that it could've been better, the film didn't really flow and was somewhat disorganized, that being the fault of the director. But otherwise, we get to see what this particular unit goes through for a couple of months, which is something you don't see on CNN. You get insight on what the soldiers are feeling and going through. They show the interaction with some of the pro-US Iraqis helping catch insurgents. It then resembles a COPS episode when they investigate possible insurgent houses and weapons caches. And I'm glad there was minimal combat seen on the film, as some reviewers were disappointed with. I know its going on over there on a daily basis, but i don't enjoy seeing footage of our troops getting killed.
I especially liked the part when they pointed out the customized armor on one of their Humvees, showing that the soldier that brought up that point to Rumsfeld a while back really wasn't BS like some White House reps have pointed out. This is not a political film, pro-war or anti-war, although some of the soldiers interviewed don't believe in the war. Overall, a very good documentary. And people, don't judge it for its music, especially the RAP MUSIC.
The Real Deal!
I don't necessarily see this as a political movie, but more as a look at the surreal life of soldiers. Surreal because those of us that haven't been in the military and haven't had to live with imminent violence from all directions don't always comprehend what it must be like. Gunner Palace gives a dramatic and respectful look into that world.
The soldiers tell you about life in post-Sadaam Iraq, how they cope with dark humor and raps while being face with IEDs (improvised explosive devices), RPGs (rocket propelled grenades), mortar rounds and untold other threats day after day, week after week. The language is raw and uncensored, possibly offensive to some, but given the context it's natural. In fact, with most of the actual violence and blood occurring off camera, the language is the harshest part of the film. These are young men and women living in an alien world, trying to do the job they've been assigned and make the best of it.
It's not exactly recruiting film stuff, but then again this film does nothing to dishonor the soldiers either. It portrays them as professionals that cope with a very difficult assignment. It's an assignment that will take some of the lives of them, a reality that adds considerable poignancy to the conversations captured on film.
The troops that the filmmakers worked with are/were quartered in a palace built and decorated by Sadaam's son Uday. Supposedly this was one of the places where he hosted his wild parties, that gives a kernel of truth to the rather titillating references to it being a "pleasure palace" in promotional pieces and some reviews. There is a pool though, and somehow some of the soldiers managed to bring along some musical instruments that lighten the mood at times.
Overall, it's a good film, that provides a healthy dose of reality for both the right and the left.
Solidly built around a subtle yet commanding performance by Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda emerged as one of the most highly-praised dramas of 2004. In a role that demands his quietly riveting presence in nearly every scene, Cheadle plays real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who in 1994 saved 1,200 Rwandan "guests" from certain death during the genocidal clash between tribal Hutus, who slaughtered a million victims, and the horrified Tutsis, who found safe haven or died. Giving his best performance since his breakthrough role in Devil in a Blue Dress, Cheadle plays Rusesabagina as he really was during the ensuing chaos: "an expert in situational ethics" (as described by critic Roger Ebert), doing what he morally had to do, at... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Don Cheadle - Sophie Okonedo Director(s): Terry George DVD Release Date: Released the 12 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Startling and powerful, Control Room is a documentary about the Arab television network Al-Jazeera's coverage of the U.S.-led Iraqi war, and conflicts that arose in managed perceptions of truth between that news media outlet and the American military. Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com) catches the frantic action at Al-Jazeera headquarters as President Bush stipulates his 48-hour, get-out-of-town warning to Saddam Hussein and sons, soon followed by the network's shocking footage of Iraqi civilians terrorized and killed by invading U.S. troops. Al-Jazeera's determination to show images and report details outside the Pentagon's carefully controlled information flow draws the wrath of American officials, who accuse it of being an al-Qaida propagandist. (The... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jehane Noujaim DVD Release Date: Released the 26 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Touching and powerful, Last Letters Home is an emotional documentary that features 10 families reading aloud the last letters they received from loved ones who lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Presented in a suitably straightforward, unembellished style by director Bill Couturié (director of HBO's Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam), the film displays close-up pictures of the soldiers in military and civilian life as family members read and reminisce (of the 10 soldiers profiled, the oldest was 51 years old; the youngest was only 19). In the end, this film, which premiered on HBO, is really about the families left behind to mourn and honor the lives of the fallen. In one typically poignant piece, the mother of fallen SPC Robert Allen Wise relates the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Bill Couturié DVD Release Date: Released the 24 May 2005 Usually ships in 6 to 8 days
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The pilot episode of Steven Bochco's Over There is as riveting, unexpected, and shocking as the series premieres of the legendary producer's Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. The first television drama set in an existing war being waged by the United States, Over There concerns the first tour of duty for a young, U.S. Army unit sent to Iraq. Unlike any number of movies and TV shows starring middle-age actors portraying American fighting forces in past wars, Over There's combat soldiers look and act like the barely-out-of-high-school young adults (many of whom, in Over There, joined the military out of economic necessity) most of our real-life troops actually are.
The riveting subject of Downfall is nothing less than the disintegration of Adolf Hitler in mind, body, and soul. A 2005 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, this German historical drama stars Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) as Hitler, whose psychic meltdown is depicted in sobering detail, suggesting a fallen, pathetic dictator on the verge on insanity, resorting to suicide (along with Eva Braun and Joseph and Magda Goebbels) as his Nazi empire burns amidst chaos in mid-1945. While staging most of the film in the claustrophobic bunker where Hitler spent his final days, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) dares to show the gentler human side of der Fuehrer, as opposed to the pure embodiment of evil so familiar from many other Nazi-era... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Oliver Hirschbiegel DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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