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March 10, 2005
Gunner Palace
Gunner Palace (2004), Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein:
A very nice documentary, if only for the uniqueness of perspective--a ground-level view of the soldiers in Iraq. I'd say that Three Kings is similar, but that doesn't come close to showing the monotony of day-to-day operations. Swimming in the pool, patroling the streets, following leads to weapon caches, repeat.
In some way, it could have well been the result of a camcorder. You see the soldiers' daily culture alongside their successes and frustrations. The footage is set (mostly) to the soldiers' own guitar, beatbox and freestyle compositions.
I'm still trying to figure things out. It's very interesting, but the ninety minutes go by really slowly. I feel pretty guilty about saying it's not exciting, because it's not supposed to be entertainment, but it's still supposed to be compelling. How do you show the routineness of their day-to-day without boring the audience? I don't know.
The makers definitely have a bone to pick, which is a little unsettling. It doesn't really get in the way much, but it started off on the IRONIC! title of "four months after the end of major combat operations" and I totally lost step with the movie when it used Ride of the Valkyries behind a weapons raid. C'mon, you don't need that.
Like I said, though, it doesn't interfere with what's going on. The soldiers are themselves so far removed from the politics and upper echelon of decision-makes that there's not really any room for anything beyond a pervasive animus.
10/15
Posted by bing at March 10, 2005 11:38 PM