New Film Documents U.S. Soldiers' War Stories in Iraq
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sit on your couch and you watch the TV, and you go to your 9 to 5 job, and you complain about the pizza being late. There's no way you're going to know how we live here. Someone being sympathetic to this -- I don't know if I'd be sympathetic if I wasn't in the Army. After you watch this, you're going to go and get your popcorn out of the microwave and talk about what I say. And you'll forget me by the end of this.</s>PHILLIPS: That's no actor, that's the real deal. And trust me, you won't forget the preliminary "Gunner Palace" after you see it. Four hundred American soldiers carrying out their mission from a bombed-out pleasure palace built by Saddam Hussein. And what takes place in this film, well, you've never seen it on the news until now. Director Michael Tucker and Army Captain John Powers join us from Washington from our newsroom there. Gentlemen, good to see you.</s>CAPT. JOHN POWERS, U.S. ARMY: Good to see you, too.</s>MICHAEL TUCKER, DIRECTOR, "GUNNER PALACE": Thanks for having us.</s>PHILLIPS: Michael, let's start with you. And how did you get access like this to the soldiers? And I just can't believe how much candidness you were able to capture without anybody there like a PAO saying, "You can't shoot this."</s>TUCKER: Well, first, everyone always asks that questions. And I think the simple answer is, I asked them. The Army is very receptive to having people tell their story. At the time there were a lot of freelancers, in-country photographers, writers. And it was very easy to get in there and settle down with them. The thing that I had on my side was time. I had a lot of patience. I had no schedule. And I was able to gain their trust.</s>PHILLIPS: John, why did you and the guys trust Michael?</s>POWERS: Well, we had a lot of cameras with us in the beginning, the time we spent there. And when Mike showed up, he was the first one to actually stay there for over a week. And over a time, he just became a gunner and part of the team.</s>PHILLIPS: There's a scene -- there's a lot of really candid moments in this movie. But we picked this one. Some of the guys, you guys gathered around a Humvee. Let's take a listen, and then I want to talk about it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This armor was made in Iraq. It's high- quality metal. And it will probably slow down the shrapnel so that it stays in your body instead of going clean through. And that's about it.</s>PHILLIPS: Now, Michael, we saw this, and we started laughing, because the sad thing is, is this has become a really big issue, where the guys kind of made fun of the fact that, look, we're making up for resources we don't have. You actually captured this before it even became a big deal and Rumsfeld was presented with the question about hey, when are we going to get more Humvees and more resources? You've got a lot of that, didn't you?</s>TUCKER: Yes, a lot of that just came out. That's -- one thing that's very different about this film is the gallows humor that comes through. There's a lot of laughter in the film. The soldiers, humor is their coping mechanism, and that's stuff that people haven't seen on the news before.</s>PHILLIPS: John, did anyone from public affairs say to you, "You guys can't say these things. You can't joke around? You've got to be serious. You've got to be a soldier. And you know, this is not a laughing matter"?</s>POWERS: No. I don't think anyone said anything that was attacking the military. They were just commenting on the situation, for the most part.</s>PHILLIPS: Michael...</s>POWERS: And...</s>PHILLIPS: I'm sorry, go ahead, John.</s>POWERS: No, no. Mike interviewed the right guys, too. He interviewed the guys that were candid and honest and told the story as it is.</s>PHILLIPS: John, tell us about Super Cop and Roy. You guys really developed some interesting relationships with Iraqis. And these two helped you guys a lot.</s>POWERS: Sure. Super Cop was definitely I'm going to say a man on a mission. He really wanted to clean up the area, clean up Atamnia (ph). And he and Roy teamed up together and were the best informants, best group that we could have, moving around Atamnia (ph), using these guys' information to -- to capture insurgents.</s>PHILLIPS: Michael, as you met the Iraqis and you spent time with these soldiers in this palace that once was a pleasure palace for Uday, as you got to know the guys and they were so, I guess you could say, very much down to earth with you, is there anything that surprised you about putting this film together? I mean, obviously, you were watching the news quite a bit. What do you think you got access to or you're able to portray in this film that we don't see any place else?</s>TUCKER: I think most people have viewed the war through a political lens, and I think what this film shows is the war through an emotional lens. Again, there's a lot of humor in it. You see a lot of coping going on. You see how guys let off steam. You see it when it's boring, which is a large part of being deployed, is -- is loneliness. And you also see the emotions about -- about the losses that they've taken. And that's something that hasn't really been talked about in this country, as these soldiers -- I mean, almost every single person who's been deployed has lost someone who they love. And I think that's something that we need to be honest and frank about in the country is that we're two years into a war, and there are losses.</s>PHILLIPS: "Gunner Palace" is the name of the film. John Powers, Michael Tucker, thanks, guys, for your time today. You can also check out the web site online. It's a good flick. Thanks, guys.</s>POWERS: Thank you.</s>TUCKER: Thanks for having us.</s>O'BRIEN: That's one to see. Will Smith as superhero. That's the word in Hollywood today.</s>SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Big Willie style may be the next caped crusader. And look how Gucci and Dior. Hollywood's taking over the fashion world.</s>PHILLIPS: Identity theft. Criminals may have hit the motherlode. A data-collecting agency is alerting Americans across the country. We're going to tell you about it just ahead.</s>O'BRIEN: And next hour on LIVE FROM, Fritz Pollard finally makes it into the NFL Hall of Fame, thanks to the tireless efforts of his grandson. It's what, about 80 years too late?</s>PHILLIPS: Yes, even more than that.</s>O'BRIEN: Maybe more.