The Sandspur

Issue date: 4/8/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: COURTESY OF IMDB.COM A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR STORY: American soldiers of the 2/3 Field Artillery, tell of their experiences in Baghdad.

Let me begin by saying that everyone should go out and see Gunner Palace, a new documentary about the experience of soldiers in Iraq.

Now admittedly this is going to be a little hard to do given the fact that the movie is only in limited release and just left the Winter Park Village theater, so if you must wait until it comes out on DVD and then watch it. Everyone needs to see this movie because it provides an insight into the war in Iraq like nothing else out there. As the subtitle of the movie says: "Some war stories will never make the nightly news". The movie follows the Army's 2/3 Field Artillery, known as "The Gunners" as they are based out of one of Saddam's former palaces in Baghdad (hence the title, "Gunner Palace").

Gunner Palace is a gritty film that spares no feelings. The filmmaker, Michael Tucker, gives no political slant to the movie, and at no point does it ever come off as an indictment or support of our war in Iraq. This is not a documentary in the Michael Moore sense in which the creator cuts and pastes to lead the viewer to the filmmaker's interpretation of what the appropriate view should be; rather this is a movie in which the stars, the soldiers, tell their own stories and feelings about their lives in Iraq. The viewer is left to make up their own minds as to how they feel about the war and really that's not even the point of the movie.

I think the point of Gunner Palace is to show us, as clearly as is possible on a movie screen, the realities of war. The soldiers fighting over in Iraq are real people and this movie, more then anything else, does a fantastic job of showing how real these soldiers are. The movie follows soldiers as they practice their golf skills on putting greens, hunt for insurgents in grueling door-to-door raids, swim in pools, are struck by roadside bombs and show off their freestyle rapping talents. War is a crazy thing and this movie brings that out in ways our mainstream media has consistently failed to do. I'm not sure how this movie will breakdown in terms of supporters of the war and those opposed, how they will feel about it. As I said the movie is not political but I feel like many supporters of the invasion of Iraq will see it as a critique of our military planning and policies because this movie pulls no punches. The soldiers are at times heartbreakingly funny when talking about the difficulties they face in doing their jobs, of particularly note is a scene where a soldier describes how his Humvee has been retrofitted with local scraps to ensure that it will stop shrapnel just enough to leave it in a person's body. Supporters of the war I hope will appreciate that war is not always fun and games and that showing how things go wrong, the dangers of war, does not mean the movie is a personal attack against the President.

In the end, as I said before, I suggest everyone go out and see this movie however they can manage to do so. It will give you some perspective on what our troops are facing everyday in Iraq and new appreciation for the men and women who make up our armed forces.

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