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How long will the scars of war last? Back in 2003, American filmmaker and frequent contributor to his GZERO, Mike Tucker, infiltrated Iraq with a group of rookie U.S. soldiers to make the film Gunner Palace. bottom.
It was the first great documentary about war. Basically, it was a charming, chaotic, and sometimes darkly humorous portrait of a group of mostly idealistic children sent to murder in a country they barely knew.
As one of them said, “It’s great to be a veteran. It’s great to be able to look back.”
The point is now. During the pandemic, Mike and his wife and co-director Petra Eperlein sent Gunner to the United States to track down her Palace children to see how the war has shaped their lives since then. crossed.
A short film co-produced by the Eurasia Group Foundation and released by The New York Times last week is called “The Army We Had.”
In it, Tucker and Epperlein clip footage of the idealistic, war-hungry children of “Gunner’s Palace” to fresh interviews with the people they have become today. war. who were they fighting? why were they there? What good did it do?
Mike is currently in Ukraine, but he took his time to discuss the lessons of “The Army We Had”, the biggest differences between Ukraine and Iraq, and what he thinks most people don’t understand about the experience. I asked about war.
His answer has been lightly edited.
Alex Clement: Mike, congratulations on your new movie. where are you now and what are you doing
I’m currently in Ukraine and have spent the past seven months filming a project about how a ragtag army of volunteers delivers machinery and materials to the front lines.
What is the main lesson you want people to learn from ‘The Army We Had’?
It is vital that America rethinks when and how it authorizes arms. After all the death, suffering, sacrifice, deployment, and military spending in Iraq, it is difficult to point to any positive outcome. You can see it in the faces of the soldiers in the film.
Twenty years after ‘Gunner Palace’, you find yourself in the middle of an equally era-defining war in Ukraine. How do the two experiences compare?
The war in Ukraine is completely different than in Iraq. For one thing, instead of filming the invaders, this time I’m filming people resisting Russian aggression, and I feel it’s essential that people in the West understand that.
But also technology has changed everything. The invasion of Iraq predates YouTube. Before social media. Now in Ukraine, fighters are flooding social media with content. It has a raw immediacy that I haven’t seen before, and I think it risks numbing its terror.
You’ve spent a lot of time in and around war, what do you think the general public understands? Even if only slightly What about your experience?
As for Ukraine, what people don’t see in the news right now is the psychological impact on the Ukrainian civilian population. Around Kiev he 2-3 times a day the aviation alarm sounds. Worst of all, when it’s nothing, it all feels normal.
but in other words [American journalist] Chris Hedges “War Gives Us Meaning” I like to think of the years of “Gunner’s Palace” as the best and worst years of these soldiers’ lives, and many of them agree. I think so. They will never feel close to another person again. And for many of them, some never feel that purpose again, regardless of the issue of the mission itself.
You can (and should!) watch the movie The Army We Had here.
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