Press & Reviews

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times "... this film is so valuable. Not because it argues a position about the war and occupation, but because it simply goes and observes ..."  

Tim Appelo, Seattle Weekly "It's TV's M*A*S*H. It's also Apocalypse Now."  

A.O. Scott, New York Times "With Soldiers in a Palace and Death in the Streets"  

Bellamy Pailthorp, NPR "'Gunner Palace' Portrays Lives of U.S. Troops in Iraq"  

Shawn Levy, The Oregonian "... an absorbing documentary ... focus on the faces and voices of the soldiers. "  

Sean P. Means, The Salt Lake Tribune "Support the troops - by seeing what their lives in Iraq are really like. "  

Eric Mink, St. Louis Post-Dispatch "The film feels faithful and true ... "  

David Koon, Arkansas Times "... it’s a movie you must see ... "  

Mike Clark, USA TODAY "Gunner: War isn't pretty "  

Matthew Scott Kelemen, AlterNet. "Life During Wartime"  

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal "Boyz in Baghdad: Troops Rap, Joke, Try to Stay Alive In Raw 'Gunner Palace'"  

Ray Pride, Newcity Chicago "Generous, confounding, suggestive, elating and nightmarish, "Gunner Palace" is a vitally important piece of work."  

Susan E. McGregor, The Harvard Crimson "... captures the difference between the disjointed world of war and the smooth, clearly-labeled sound bytes of the coverage on the nightly news."  

Jennifer Ludden, NPR "Documentary Tracks Surreal Story of War"  

Jim Hoberman, Village Voice "In embedded Iraq documentary, soldiers rap for camera, introduce orphans to SpongeBob"  

David Ansen, Newsweek “... defies any expectations you bring to it. ... eye-opening documentary that will confirm and confound both right and left.“  

The Hot Button.com "Gunner Palace is not politics. It is not an opinion about war. It is war. It is men and women living in war. It is a beating heart."  

Christopher Dickey, Newsweek "The Rap on Freedom"  

Jan Stuart, New York Newsday "An essential and unvarnished documentary ..."  

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times "Documentary filmmaker Michael Tucker looks at the war in Iraq from the ground up"  

Ella Taylor, LA Weekly "Heroes and Victims"  

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle "Shooting the action in Iraq without taking sides "  

Luke Thompson, San Francisco Weekly "Gunner Palace shows what the news doesn't"  

Desson Thompson, Washington Post "A Straight-Shooting 'Gunner'"  

Susan Gerhard, San Francisco Bay Guardian " Digital diary Gunner Palace remixes the war in Iraq"  

Nicole Sperling, Chicago Sun-Times "Warning to parents: These soldiers cuss like sailors"  

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post "Warriors at the Pleasure Dome"  

Gary Arnold, The Washington Times "'Palace' takes viewers into soldiers' lives, fears"  

Peter Howell, Toronto Star "The must-see documentary Gunner Palace gives us the unfiltered and officially unapproved views of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, unhindered by Pentagon censors"  

Internet Movie Database "Film with 30 Uses of F-Word Gets PG-13 Rating"  

Rick Warner, Bloomberg "War is hell, even when you're living in a former palace"  

Mark Follman, Salon.com "Inside "Gunner Palace""  

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com ""Gunner Palace" takes the viewer as close to the actual experience of the Iraq war as anyone will ever want to get."  

Dogen Hannah, Contra Costa Times "Soldiers get their say"  

Mary F. Pols, Contra Costa Times "In "Palace," a Baghdad front line uncensored"  

Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters "Gunner Palace Shows Surreal Side of Iraq War"  

Pascal Riche, Liberation "Gunner Palace n'est pas un pamphlet, genre qui fait florès aux Etats-Unis dans le sillage de Michael Moore. C'est juste un reportage honnête."  

William Booth, Washington Post "Raw Language Of War Will Fall On PG-13 Ears"  

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone “Gunner Palace is a riveting and indispensable record of the war in Iraq because it comes from the men who lived it.”  

Gabriel Snyder, Ian Mohr, Variety “Palm Pictures' 'Gunner Palace' will go out with a PG-13 rating“  

Frank Rich, New York Times "... This sweet yet utterly unsentimental movie synthesizes the contradictions of a war that is at once Vietnam redux and the un-Vietnam. ..."  

Monica Davey, New York Times “... rap may become the defining pulse for the war in Iraq.“  

Jack Broom, Seattle Times "GUNNER PALACE lets soldiers tell the story, ...captures a mix of bravado and anxiety, frustration and determination and a chillingly grim sense of humor... "  

Jack Broom, Seattle Times " War documentary lets dad share in son's final days "  

A.O.Scott, New York Times "Gunner Palace ... is not a movie anyone should miss"  

Greencine.com "Let the audience see things for themselves."  

Guardian Unlimited "Sarah Left interviews Mike Tucker on making a fly-on-the-Humvee documentary about US soldiers in Iraq"  

Ain´t It Cool News "...Gunner Palace is one of those films that future historians are going to use as proof that the entire country didn't all go crazy early in the 21st century,"  

Terry Boyd, Stars and Stripes "It’s a film that may do for the 1st Armored Division’s 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment — nicknamed "Gunners" — what HBO’s "Band of Brothers” did for Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division: Make them into American icons."  

Larry Calloway for Albuquerque Journal "...Michael Tucker's urgent documentary about American soldiers in Iraq...is not a political movie."  

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung "...der erste Film seit Beginn des Irak-Kriegs, der die Soldaten zeigt und zu Wort kommen läßt, der ihre Geschichte erzählt und ihre Körper sprechen läßt... Ein halbes Jahrhundert Popkultur gewordene Militärgeschichte wird für die Soldaten zum Drehbuch..."