Product Description

Genre: Education/General Interest, War, Documentary, Theatrical Release, Soldiers, Military (Usa), Weapons, Saddam Hussein Director: Mike Tucker Description: In this striking documentary shot in 2003, early on in the US-led war on Iraq, a group of American soldiers in Baghdad who have taken over a bombed-out palace that belonged to Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein, offer the camera a view on their world. While they party poolside for most of the day and lead raids on homes of suspected bomb-builders most nights, they also have a lot to say about the war and their situation. Rapping to each other or to the camera, they use rhyme to speak their minds about various aspects of the war, their day-to-day duties, and life in Iraq. Their youth and immaturity is striking, as is the war itself and the nebulous reasons that they are stationed there. While the primary purpose of GUNNER PALACE is to give the perspective of the soldiers, secondarily viewers get a glimpse of Iraqi civilians and how they react to the US military presence--some are terrified, others are skeptical, still others are compliant and grateful if not totally sure why. However, giving voice to the soldiers remains the film's major theme, and for this reason, filmmakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein appealed the original R-rating given to the film by the MPAA, and won. With a PG-13 rating, filmmakers explained, teenagers considering military careers can watch the film and benefit from seeing soldiers in combat and hearing them talk about what it's like. Release Notes: DVD Features: Region (unknown) Audio: Stereo 2.0 Surround Sound 5.1 Additional Release Material: Deleted Scenes U.S. Theatrical Trailer DVD Rom Features: Weblinks

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49659 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2005-06-28
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Amazon.com
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

From The New Yorker
In late 2003 and early 2004, the filmmakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein hung out with the men and women of an American field-artillery unit in Baghdad and came back with this fragmentary but suggestive report. The movie has an absurdist framework: the company is billeted in a former palace that had belonged to Saddam's son Uday, a building that looks like a gigantic, crumbling Miami Beach hotel, complete with swimming pool and putting green. At night, in scary raids, the soldiers break into the houses of suspected bombmakers and often find nothing. Mostly very young, they are baffled and frustrated by a situation in which they are received not (as they had been told) as liberators but essentially as occupiers. Their innocence is both touching and exasperating. What right does anyone have to be so uninformed? Bitter rap lyrics, sometimes sung straight into the camera, serve as the descendant of the acid rock that played throughout Vietnam movies. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

No Roger Ebert
I may be somewhat biased in my review, having a husband in Iraq. I know that I saw the trailers and looked so forward to it, I marked it on my calendar. My friend and I, who both have husbands in Iraq, were curious to see the day to day happenings.
The things they don't feel the need to discuss with us, because to them it isn't news. I figured if my husband won't tell me I might find it in this movie.

I am sure I caught a glimpse of the macabre humor that he and I have always shared. If you joke about it enough you can get through it. If you are looking for Platoon, this is not the film for you. If you are looking for uncomfortable reality, this is it. This isn't Hollywood, and that was my favorite thing about it. There is no message, there is no happy ending. Tom Hanks doesn't die in the end or walk off into the sunset. It doesn't really end. It goes on still. There is no neat and tidy tie up at the end when all the subplots come together.This is Life. This is reality for countless men and women. This is not eating bugs or jumping a car off a ramp, this is the real Fear Factor. See how they deal with it. See the look in their eyes.

I loved every minute of it. I loved it's humor and it's stark reality. Mostly I loved Wilf.

Don't forget about our troops...see this movie
I have seen Gunner Palace and must admit that prior to seeing this movie I had not given much thought to the war in Iraq.
When I saw Gunner Palace, I tried to view the movie as a major Hollywood production and maintain distance from the "actors". Somewhere in the middle of the movie, I realized that the director, Michael Tucker, was holding the camera, riding with the troops and putting his own life at risk to show people like me, safe in the US, safe in our jobs what our employees and neighbors were experiencing in Iraq.

When the director shared with us the death of Ben Colgan, this hit home and I was jolted back to the reality that these young men and women are not actors. I appreciate that Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein had the courage to show us the reality of this war. Gunner Palace gives us permission to talk about our own fears and axieties about this war without being told what to think. Our soldiers deserve our support as I am sure they would support people viewing and buying this movie.

Congratulations to the Directors (Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein) for having the courage to create this movie.

I was there
look i was there i was a Gunner I was in Alpha Brty 2/3 FA and i can tell ya they had to take some thing that happened while they were filming out so it could be put onto the big screen this movie is as real as it gets.