Interesting perspective

Saw movie last night called "Gunner's Palace." It's a documentary on how some army members live, breath and work in Iraq. The film itself, although slow in places, was a pretty good depiction of what your average soldier deals with everyday in Baghdad (or so says my husaband, and since he's been there, I believe him). The director lived with the soldiers when they first arrived in Baghdad and then lived with them again just before they came back a year later. The perspective changes in the men and their opinions alone are worth seeing the film. The director also shows different missions the soldiers carry out - everything from clearing a room by force to training Iraqi police. in a question and answer session after the film, the director talked about the lack of blood and gore in the film (there really isn't any - kind of refreshing actually). He mentioned that he wanted the film to stand apart from what people see on the news. He feels that most of America doesn't really care much or really remember that men and women are trying to stay alive in a warzone right now and that he wanted to show the human side of the soldiers.

I watched the film in a movie theatre full of war veterans (Iraqi war, Vietnam War, Bosnia, Afghanistan...) and their families. Some said the film wasn't an acurrate depiction of what all soldiers go through. And it's not. The Special Forces troops or Navy members have a very different experience. But it's a slice of the pie.

My question was how did he get access to the military personnel in the way he did. Apparently it wasn't hard for him to do. My second thought was - how much of what you shot was pre-censored by the military red-tapers. From what he said - the only things that he left out of the 400 hours of footage he had, were things he chose to leave out. Thinking back on it, it makes sense. The film doesn't really have a political agenda and it really is more about shooting an accurrate depiction of the men and women serving in this unit in Iraq. An intriguing film with some important perspectives. Doubt it'll change the world, but perhaps it will remind some people that there's a war on - even if only for a minute.