Gunner Palace (2004)

Directors:

Petra Epperlein
Michael Tucker

Release Date:

4 March 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | War

Tagline:

Some war stories will never make the nightly news.

Plot:

American soldiers of the 2/3 Field Artillery, a group known as the "Gunners," tell of their experiences in Baghdad during the Iraq War. Holed up in a bombed out pleasure palace built by Sadaam Hussein, the soldiers endured hostile situations some four months after President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat operations in the country. |

Plot Keywords:

Iraq War | Palace | Iraq | Army | Gulf War

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Bryant Davis	...	Himself
Devon Dixon	...	Himself
Javorn Drummond	...	Himself
Elliot Lovett	...	Himself
Nick Moncrief	...	Himself
Jon Powers	...	Himself
Richmond Shaw	...	Himself
Terry Taylor	...	Himself
Stuart Wilf	...	Himself

Directed by
Petra Epperlein
Michael Tucker

Produced by
Petra Epperlein	....	producer

Original Music by
Robert Cimino

Cinematography by
Michael Tucker

Film Editing by
Petra Epperlein
Michael Tucker

Art Direction by
James David Goldmark

Sound Department
Chris Müller	....	sound mixer
Michael Tucker	....	sound

Music Department
Robert Cimino	....	musician: freestyle beats
Heinrich Kreyenberg	....	musician: piano
Stuart Wilf	....	musician: guitar

Other crew
Winston Emano	....	publicist
David Magdael	....	publicist
Steven Wallace	....	publicist: David Magdael & Associates

Production Companies

• Nomados

Distributors

• Palm Pictures (2005) (USA) (theatrical)
• Elephant Films (2006) (France) (all media)
• Palm Pictures (2005) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• David Magdael and Associates  publicity
• Fidelis, Matt & Dean  security
• Studio Babelsberg  sound mix

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 on appeal for strong language throughout, violent situations and some drug references.

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Canada:14A | USA:PG-13 (re-rating on appeal) | USA:R (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Baghdad, Iraq

Company:

Nomados

Trivia:

The word "fuck" is used 42 times, the most ever used in a PG-13 rated film

Quotes:

SGT Beatty: When you sit on your couch and you watch the TV, and you go to your 9 to 5 job and you complain about the pizza being late ... there's no way you're gonna know how to live here.
SGT Beatty: Someone being sympathetic to this? I don't know if I'd be sympathetic if I wasn't in the army. After you watch this, you're gonna go get your popcorn out of the microwave and talk about what I said, and you'll forget me by the end of this.
SGT Beatty: Only people who remember this is us.

Movie Connections:

Featured in This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

Ultimately one-sided

This documentary is well worth seeing for one reason -- more than anything I've seen about the Iraq war, it gives the American soldier's point of view on fighting in Iraq. The news-bites and short glimpses of the war given the American public on television are filtered down so much by the time they get to your screen that you feel like you've seen nothing and gained no insight about what is really going on there. If you have a family member or friend fighting over there, you MUST see this film to better appreciate their perspective.

What this film does not do, however, is provide any sort of an Iraqi perspective on the fighting. Granted, there are interviews with Iraqi informants employed by the American military and and several shots of suspected insurgents being detained, but there is no attempt to show the average Iraqi's point of view about the conflict. In other words, this documentary is a very subjective and one-sided perspective, but it is still very worthwhile.

I went to see it with a friend whose brother is currently fighting over there, and she said it was remarkable how well it captured the soldiers' off-time activities and philosophies about the fighting. Her brother and his buddies had made some video footage of their own and it was very similar in that regard. What the documentary doesn't show, and what her brother's video did show, was the dismembered bodies, the hellish and disorienting firefights, and the horrified, screaming civilians. One should not go into a screening of this film believing that they will experience the war or see what it's really like. One has to be there to understand.