Gunner Palace (Documentary)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C+     Main Program: B-

 

 

Like Fahrenheit 911, there was a truly concerted effort to stop and/or limit the release of the Michael Tucker/Petra Epperlein documentary Gunner Palace (2004) which had the guts to go to Iraq in the middle of the conflicts height, which has been going on nonstop and long after George W. Bush declared victory.  One battle over the work was whether it should get a PG-13 or an R.  Like Michael Moore’s film, the R would restrict the young men and women most likely to serve in the military.  Unlike Moore’s surprise hit, this film got the lower PG-13, but has not reached a large enough audience.  Now, the DVD is here.

 

To its advantage, it deconstructs and deglorifies the lying that has been used constantly to sell “the war” and/or “new kind of war” instead of actually getting the job done.  As one scene with limited resources and armor for the soldiers show, Donald Rumsfeld (quoted at the beginning in text only off the bat) is actually experimenting with small groups and very limited armor to get the job done, which NEVER gets the job done.  Since it is not his family getting killed or permanently mutilated, it will not affect him; yet this administration supports him blindly and without fail the way they expect the country to unconditionally support them.  It is even more complex than that, especially when going over to Iraq to see what is happening.

 

One criticism is that Gunner Palace could be slanted by showing complaining soldiers instead of “proud” or “loyal” or “patriotic” soldiers happy to be liberating the Iraqi’s from terror, but it is those very proud, loyal, patriotic soldiers making the comments while they put their lives on the line.  There are not two subdivisions of opinion fighting over there, but the work here is good, though I felt it fell short in really showing how bad things are.  Considering how miserable the reality is, as shown here, that says something.  I wanted something more unrelenting, but this is a great record of events in what it does offer.

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image is from the location video shooting and is fine for what it is, though since this did get a theatrical release, an anamorphic transfer would have been nice.  The sound is here in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds and a slightly better 5.1 mix, which reveals more of the location audio.  Tucker’s voice-overs are taped later and sound the best by default without sounding too forward.  There are more extras on the DVD that the label would lead you to believe, seemingly isolated to rap tracks and deleted scenes, it is 17 deleted scenes.  The Rap Freestyles offer three tracks, plus the trailer for this and three other Palm titles.

 

The point of this program and its extras is to let the soldiers, as much as possible, get to tell and reflect their experiences, which is admirable.  There is just so much more to say.  Catch Gunner Palace as soon as you can.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo