Gunner Palace

One of the most known, and few, documentaries to come out about the war in Iraq (the second war in Iraq, or is this the third, please direct questions to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld), Gunner Palace tells the story of the 2/3 Field Artillery, a.k.a. "The Gunners" who were based in the former, and bombed out, pleasure palace of Uday Hussein.

The movie tries at best to remain as politically neutral as possible, save for an opening including a speech from Rumsfeld set against the troops suffering in the heat, which seems to serve as a weak attack against the Bush administration; although the soldiers themselves occasionally speak out against equipment issues, strange with the $200 billion already spent on this war.

The heart of the movie is showing the soldier's feelings throughout the film. A general feeling throughout the movie seems to be a fear of IEDs. Some of the more interesting comments include one soldier saying he no longer felt like he was serving his country, but he was still proud to be a soldier; another saying that the normal everyday American watching the film with his popcorn and getting ready to return to his 9-to-5 job the next day can't understand what it's like to be there; a soldier starting to get over the fact that he has killed his enemy in order to survive and he's right because he's following orders; one said he didn't fire gunfire or RPGs, but rather the IEDs because they could be anywhere or anything, but usually garbage which is tough because the whole country is one big heap of garbage; one solider said that the Iraqi forces can't be trained because they don't give a shit and are only in it for the money; and Specialist Stuart Wilf (who was one of Time's persons of the year and had a terrible accident upon returning home resulting in medical bills the army is refusing to pay):

"If you see any politicians be sure to let them know that while they're sitting around their dinner tables with their families talking about how hard the war is on them, we're here under attack nearly 24 hours a day, dodging RPGs and fighting, not just for a better Iraq, but just to say alive."
-April 10 ^th, 2004

Wisdom of the Day: A good writer is made that way from his experiences, not from what he sees on TV and what he hears from others