Gunner Palace

This documentary tried many of the things I am interested in - the idea of embedding oneself, becoming a type of honorary group member. Despite the potential drawback of becoming an advocate or biased (as many journalists were criticized for during the Iraq war), I think the benefits accumlated through trust show a more honest and interesting side to the subjects. The guy also tried some stylistic things - using a lot of music, freeze frames, and text. What stood out for me most, however, stylistically, was his voice over. His voice was completely without pretense or superficial politics. It was matter of fact, cold, honest, and oftentimes poetic. It reminds me of Werner Herzog.

I'm still trying to figure out this documentary. It appears to have been done by a pair of filmmakers, but it felt like one man. Some of the images are simply amazing - some of the best digital imagery I've seen.

There a lot of music in the film, all performed by the soldiers...a lot of rapping, which took on a greater meaning to me as a mode of expression, especially because rap in America has become so overrun with materialism. These guys have something serious to rap about. And it's pretty cool to watch amatuers expressing themselves on the cheap, creatively...it kind of reminds me of blogging. Few of the raps or music are full complete songs, the type of thing we expect to hear and be packaged on the radio. They are snippits. The movie is full of snippets. Bits here and there, characters here and there, some reoccurring. Mostly, you don't remember their names. This is the first film I've seen that seems to have a "blogging" sensibility. Unsentimental, hard-nosed, episodic, not a fully formed "narrative," mixing different types of texts - images, Voice over, text on the screen, music. I imagine a lot of documentary people won't like it - they will say "It doesn't take a political position." Thank god, it's about frigging time to see something not completely diluted with a message they want to impart to the audience.

One of the things I felt at the beginning of this film was - man, I expected some blood and guts and death. What does that say about the film? What does that say about me?

George Carlin framed the issue of war in an interesting way - "It's entertainment, folks. Don't kid yourselves, for you, it's a form of entertainment."