War may be hell but for the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq in "Gunner Palace," it is just part of the job description.

At a time when most documentaries arrive in theaters with their own particular political axes to grind this riveting and remarkable behind-the-scenes look at the on-going war in Iraq elects not to lean either right or left.

By firmly taking the side of the common soldier, "Gunner Palace," co-directed by Michael Tucker and his German wife Petra Epperlein, brings the war home in terms anyone can understand.

Tucker is a former U.S. Army Reservist whose father served three tours of duty in Vietnam. His personal history was a prime motivation for making this movie and his empathy for the troops is apparent.

In September, 2003, he managed to embed himself with the U.S. Army outfit known as the Gunner Battalion, which was then based in the volatile Adhamiya section of the Iraqi capital city where mortar, rocket, and sniper attacks were still commonplace months after the "major combat" was officially declared over.

Tucker, currently based in Berlin, served as his own cinematographer and soundman during four extended solo trips to Iraq, the last being in February, 2004. His wife, who also co-edited and produced the film, remained in Germany to care for their child.

Shot on digital video on the mean streets of Baghdad, to the cadences of rock and rap music, and the rhythms of reality television, this candid and courageous chronicle documents the considerable challenges faced by select members of the U. S. Army 2/3 Field Artillery Unit.

One of the year’s best films, "Gunner Palace" isn’t a facile story of one dimensional heroes and villains. It is an intimate chronicle of the daily chaos and dangers faced by vulnerable young men and a few women, recruited mostly from lower-income backgrounds that are just making the best of a bad situation.

"For you all, it’s just a show, but we live in this movie," observes one young combat veteran barely out of his teen years.

Recording the tedious, the terrifying and the terrifically funny moments of being part of an occupying army on foreign soil, "Gunner Palace" adds an additional level of surrealism by having much of the film set inside the Al Azimaya Palace. Though bombed-out, it is still the ornate private retreat of Uday Hussein, the late son of the deposed dictator.

Some of the perks of this picturesque post include a functional swimming pool, a small golf course and periodic dance parties where the most potent beverage available is Snapple.

The interviews conducted on these grounds are often punctuated by tension releasing clowning for the camera and musical interludes where the soldiers freely express themselves vividly through improvised rap lyrics.

Levity and leisure activities are put on hold during tense street patrols, undertaken either on foot or in armored Humvees. All traffic stops for the cautious examination of any item found on the street suspected of being an improvised explosive device.

Literally shooting from the hip, Tucker goes along for the ride for nightly raids on suspected homes of terrorists that take on disturbing aspects of being the international edition of "Cops." Sometimes the intelligence information pays off¾ most times it does not. And those Iraqis found at the wrong place at the wrong time can spend months waiting for trial in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

Tucker was also granted free access to Iraqi interrogators and interpreters, training of Iraqi security forces, community meetings and interventions that include our troops taking one glue-sniffing child off the streets and presenting another with a Spongebob Squarepants doll.

While no one was seriously wounded or killed in this unit during filming, there were casualties when Tucker was not present that included some of his interview subjects.

Who knows what impact "Gunner Palace" might have had if it been released prior to the presidential elections last November? For the record, the filmmakers didn’t want their debut feature to get lost in the crowd of heated political documentaries being released last fall.

What remains of vital importance is the fact that the grave perils facing American troops in this increasingly dubious endeavor have only gotten worse.