MovieChat Forums > Gunner Palace (2004) Discussion > Good but not great...

Good but not great...

posted 19 years ago by tmacdonald924
3 replies | jump to latest

The documentary was powerful but only because of the subject matter, the director's constant overly dramatic narration definitely detracted from the overall story. I believe if he had allowed the soldiers to do more narration and allow more of them to speak their opinions it would have helped the movie. Maybe less time on the SPC Stuart Wilf and his opinions and more time on some of the other soldiers views. The scene where the soldier points out the armor on his humvee was the most moving because you see how these soldiers cope with the situations they've been thrown into. They are frustrated and vent this through humor. It's some what funny, but more just shocking because underneath there laughs is the reality that they may die or end up permanently wounded because of our govt. shortcomings. However scenes where the director arrives at home and he films himself pour a cup of tea are pointless and distracting. I specifically enjoyed the soldier towards the end of the film who states that those of us who are not directly involved in the war through a family member or someone close will watch the movie, discuss it for a day or two and then forget. Sadly this is very true.

[–] interlingua_usa 17 years ago

I agree it's good but not great. For me the two biggest problems were that I had trouble keeping the US soldiers apart and that there was far too little about the Iraqis. Some names, like Wilf's, kept coming up again but it was hard to associate name with face with words with life. And there was very little about the lives of Iraqis, whether translators or people outside Gunner Palace.

[–] shrekmichaels 16 years ago

boo hoo
not enough about the iraqis

i'm sick of the iraqi people

ungratful bitchs

GOVERMENT SHOULD BAN PERSONAL LIvES

[–] CaeserOct0 14 years ago

First of all, the word is spelled "bitcHes". You see, the singular 'bitch' ends in a consonant, so you have an 'e' before the 's'. I realize that you may have not been afforded 2nd grade education, which may perhaps explain your comment as a whole.

That being said, I find your commentary regarding ordinary Iraqis a bit disgusting. Remember, they didn't say "Invade us, invade us". We went there, on our own, under false pretenses. Of course, once you're in, you can't leave all too easy.

Thus, our mission now is to clean up this mess, which I will acknowledge we are trying to do. Now, here's where the Iraqis come in. Imagine if you were, an ordinary Iraqi. Of course, you hate Saddam but you realize that it would be incredibly destabilizing if a foreign force such as the US just came in and got rid of Saddam violently. Too bad though, because they did. Now here are some Americans, just walking around your streets. For the most part, they are trying their best to work with you but not always. Sometimes they arrest your neighbors based on hunches, sometimes they catcall your women, or in worst case scenarios, murder and rape your fellow citizens (see for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmudiyah_killings, although there are other examples).

How do you react to this? Should you not complain? Do you not have a right to? The answer is you should and you do. The fact of the matter is, we are at best, guests of Iraq and we should take our job seriously and treat the Iraqis with the same rights we have at home. We don't allow our police officers to randomly arrest and harass American citizens here and I suspect Iraqis don't our military to do the same there.

I realize that this may be more words than you are used to. I apologize if I made your head hurt.

P.S. I hope your last statement is a joke because if I understand history correctly, both Stalin and Hitler had similar views and I don't think life under their regimes was particularly great.

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