Documentary directed, produced and edited by American husband and wife Mike Tucker & Petra Epperlein, who spent eight weeks during September 2003 and February 2004 with soldiers of the Army’s 2^nd Battalion/3^rd Field Artillery Regiment, known as Gunner Battalion, as they bunker down in the remains of Uday Hussein’s bombed out palace in Baghdad.

Though the roof was hit by an American cruise missile, the swimming pool, fishing pond and putting green were operational. These conveniences only made the lives of the soldiers more difficult. In between combat, satellite phones and the Internet give the warriors an unprecedented ability to carry on mundane conversations with family back home, but they’re far from being home, as the mortar strikes, tense convoys and raids documented in the film indicate.

Tucker & Epperlein were lucky enough to stumble upon a 19-year old from Colorado, Pfc. Stuart Wilf, who functions as the regiment and the movie’s clown, dancing in a sheik’s robe, or wearing mop bristles on his face and imitating an imam in the film’s best uncensored moments.

Wilf may belong to the Jackass generation fighting this war, but his fellow soldiers are not in much of a mood to entertain anyone, taxed by peacekeeping operations in a city that largely does not want them there, and that can turn hostile at any minute.

This feeling is articulated by Spc Billie Grimes, the only woman interviewed for the film, who seems like she wants to appreciate the reactions she gets from Iraqis when they realize she’s a woman, but has seen too much and is too tired to be impressed with herself. Like everyone else, she just wants to go home.

The primary audience for this documentary – I would hope – would be teens in red states thinking about the military. While propaganda about nation building is piped in via Armed Services Radio, the reality on the ground looks different. By showing the convoys – where an oddly placed bag prompts a stoppage in traffic for 15 minutes – the raids on sleeping families at night, and the facsimile of life back in your parent’s basement in between, the film provides an honest picture of what it’s like serving in Baghdad.

For those in search of a good documentary, this isn’t it. Tucker & Epperlein spent eight weeks in Iraq – a lifetime for an American civilian – but evidently, not nearly enough time for a filmmaker to gain an understanding of their subject, learn about their environment, speak to a wider assortment of people or provide the viewer with a deeper understanding of what’s happening in Iraq. This is a very narrow sliver of a small piece of the conflict.

Tucker gets in his way too much, imitating Michael Moore’s dry, ironic delivery with his narration. Unlike Moore, Tucker is stuck reporting on what we already know: Iraq is messed up. The poetry slams and amateur rap songs that a few of the soldiers use to express their experiences are interesting, but like much of the movie, get repetitive.

Gunner Palace has received some good reviews, and I can’t fault anything that was put in front of the camera. My problem was with the filmmakers behind the camera. I think if you had handed out DV equipment to the actual soldiers of Gunner Palace, they would have made a more interesting film than this.