Simply A Masterpiece

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This remarkable documentary centers on a troop of American soldiers in Iraq who make their base of operation in the bombed-out remains of Saddam Hussein's pleasure palace. The soldiers interviewed herein candidly discuss killing enemy soldiers, the bitter possibility of being killed in combat, and how no one but themselves will ever fully understand what they're going through while fighting in the war. A majority of these soldiers are fresh-faced teenagers straight out of high school who hail from obscure small American towns; their charming sense of naiveté and wide-eyed innocence puts a genuinely human face on war itself that's alternately funny, sad, shocking, and ultimately quite moving. The filmmakers follow the soldiers as they carry out their sometimes useless and often dangerous daily routine missions and goof around Hussein's palace in their spare time. Several soldiers perform incredible rap songs that are not only profane and amusing, but also very profound and touching. This movie thankfully eschews politics and preaching in favor of simply letting the soldiers tell their own story in their own words; this gives the picture a strong sense of urgency and intimacy that's both powerful and impossible to shake. The chaos, boredom and frightening unpredictability of war is vividly captured by the compelling anecdotes related by the soldiers. An amazing achievement that's essential viewing for anyone interested in seeing the soldiers' perspective on the war in Iraq.

This documentary is fairly average as far as docs go, and to me seems like more of a missed opportunity. I suppose it's worth watching but just barely. It's really not worth recommending unless one is particularly fascinated by the Iraq conflict (or Gulf War 2.0 as I call it).Basically what we have here is an embedded journalist following a certain battalion around as they go on patrols and whatnot, but mostly as they goof around and make asses of themselves during their down time. If this group is representative of the US armed forces then it doesn't bode well for anyone. On the whole, these folks are young, naive, not very well spoken, and fairly misguided. None of them seem to have much idea why they're in Iraq in the first place, and their reasons for joining the military seem simplistic at best, most of them seem to have enlisted for the "adventure". The knowledge that they're largely pawns in a high-stakes game of geo-political chess seems lost on them.Honestly, this film is rather poorly structured and edited and just barely hangs together. Whatever point the director was trying to get across is pretty vague. A great opportunity to show the horrors of war up close is lost due to the sanitized version of conflict seen herein; no blood, no gore, no death - the very stuff of war. Instead, the alarming naivety of the average US grunt is what came across to me.The only element of the film that really made me think was the musical soundtrack which consists largely of US soldiers telling their tale through rap. It made me realize that this is the modern "folk" music, if you will; the sound of the streets which anyone with even a modicum of rhyming and linguistic ability can take part in - truly the sound of the people. One line that stayed with me (and I paraphrase): "you don't have to agree with what we do, but please respect it". Sadly, this is easier said than done due to the soldiers own rather murky explanations of what they're doing there in the first place. All I really saw was a lot of wasted potential.

This is not a good movie. The director's voice is obnoxious and he is constantly commenting on everything that is happening. The worst part is when he films his own home however many months later and says something to the extent of, "I'm home now and safe, but those guys are still over there risking their lives for our freedom blah blah." Very melodramatically. The background music is poorly produced hip hop by the soldiers in gunner palace and it really doesn't flow well with the rest of the picture. Gunner Palace is boring because the makers tried too hard to strike some sort of nerve and missed completely. The soldiers that are interviewed are not very bright and it's boring to watch unintelligent people talk. While imminent danger is nearby, they never seem to run into any problems throughout the film. I wouldn't call it a war story because where is the war? Might as well watch the evening news reporters stand around interviewing deployed soldiers. Gone are the days of filmmakers actually putting themselves in the sh#t to tell a good story. The makers acted like embedded reporters reporting on only one side of the conflict according to a bunch of nineteen year old morons. You should see Occupation Dreamland. The soldiers are more interesting and the audience gets a better feel for the way things are because Iraqi civilians are interviewed as well. The truth is that a lot of Americans do not treat the Iraqi people very well. It's difficult to do so when you have no idea why you are stuck thousands of miles from home in a desert and you are unaware of how you have been manipulated by your government to occupy a country under false pretexts. Does anyone remember Vietnam? Jesus. It's like it never happened. This movie sucked.

Wow. A documentary not made by Michael Moor that still sucks. In this case the movie sucks because the direction is horrible, actually there is almost no direction. I like the content, but this is more of a home video then a documentary.Gunner Palace is about a unit of soldiers living in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces during the war in Iraq. The movie shows day to day life while soldiers explain what is going on, sometimes in rap song, and sometimes in humor, and the dangers they face.The interesting aspect of this movie is how it shows the soldiers feeling neglected now that the press is reporting the day to day activities like it did during the combat during the "war." Many of them feel that the public doesn't understand that they are still fighting and dieing every day. I also enjoyed how the film mixes the good and the bad the soldiers' experience. One block the kids are coming up to the soldiers to walk with them but the next block over, kids are throwing rocks at them. I do like how the movie shows what good things that are taking place over there, like visiting orphanage's and helping people in the street. I didn't like the continuous mocking of the President and Secretary Rumsfeld all though it's to be expected because this movie did have a anti-war feeling to it. Yet the content was still good.What was horrible was the total lack or direction in the movie and the editing of the movie. I was constantly turning up the volume on my TV to hear what the man behind the camera was saying, yet had to turn it down when the Rap music came on. I then had to turn it up when he was interviewing the soldiers but turn it down when the fighting began. Poor sound editing. I also really couldn't follow what was going on. At one point, about a hour into the movie, the cameraman says he is going home, and we do indeed see pictures of him at his house. When then hear how one of the soldiers he visited was killed, and the next scene, without explanation we are back in Iraq. Did he go back after he heard the death of his friend, or did he just provide more pictures of stuff he took? Later on it becomes semi-clear that he goes back, but he never really says it. It could be his cameraman for all we know.There is a wonderful interview with a kid over in Iraq who talks about his hometown, of Colorado Springs, and how when he left to join the Army, there was construction at the I-25 and Woodmen intersection. He then tells how since then, he lived in Germany for a year, got called to invade Iraq, and toppled a country, helped build it back up, and after all of that, he goes to the internet to look at the Colorado Springs newspaper to see a headline that said Woodmen Intersection making some progress. For those of use, like me, who lived in Colorado Springs during that time, could really appreciate that comment. I laughed out loud at that comment.This could have been a wonderful movie, but because of the lack of direction the movie falls into confusion on more than one occasion. Interesting material, but poor story telling by the director.**This review and others can be read at www.bbmc.dockratent.com**