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Tavis: After the fall of Baghdad, an American filmmaker, Michael Tucker specifically, captured the daily lives of a U.S. Army unit who took up residence in the palace of Uday Hussein. The film 'Gunner Palace' opened to rave reviews at film festivals in Telluride, Toronto, and Miami. Tonight we're joined by filmmaker Michael Tucker, along with one of the U.S. soldiers from the movie, retired army captain Jon Powers. The film opens in L.A. And New York on March 4. Here now a trailer from--or for, I should say, 'Gunner Palace.'

Narrator: In the most volatile sector of Baghdad, 400 American soldiers carry out their mission from the ruins of a playboy's estate built by Saddam Hussein.

Soldier: We dropped a bomb on it, and now we party in it.

Second Soldier: They've got a driver's range.

Soldier: Basically an adult paradise.

Narrator: Ordinary men and women...

Soldier: I'm 19 years old and I fought in a war. Nothing beats it.

Narrator: Facing an enemy they rarely see.

Soldier: If it's anything like last night, it's gonna be ugly, Jones.

Narrator: Now, a war thought to be over...

Soldier: I'll get back soon, honey.

Narrator: Has only just begun.

Tavis: Michael and Jon, nice to have you here.

Both: Thanks for having us.

Tavis: My pleasure. Michael, let me start with you. This is not--I didn't know what to expect when I first became aware of 'Gunner Palace.' There've been so many documentaries made over the last year, certainly given the political season that we had to endure, for lack of a better word, last year. This, I should say up front, is not a Michael Moore piece. And by that I mean to suggest you're not really pushing an agenda here.

Michael Tucker: Yeah, that was really--it was actually quite difficult not to do that. When I went into the palace, I had to really kind of check all my preconceptions and my opinions and really just try to get in the sh...s of these soldiers and somehow convey what they were experiencing. And they said, "Tell it like it is," and we tried our hardest. Every film isn't perfect, but I hope that it somehow gets the message of what these guys have experienced.

Tavis: 2 questions. What made it difficult, to your words--what made it difficult to not push an agenda, and what were your preconceived notions--what specific agenda were your preconceived notions wrapped around when you first arrived?

Tucker: Well, I think one of the biggest problems is the war. Everyone's seen the war through the lens of politics. The guys on the ground, their families, the Iraqi people--it's emotional. People are fighting and dying every single day. And once you're wrapped into that, you can't help but see it emotionally. I mean, you're connected to it. Walking into the war, I probably thought it wasn't exactly the best idea--that there wasn't a coalition. The reasons weren't really rock solid. They've been proven not to be rock solid. But we're 2 years into a war now, and it's a very, very complicated situation.

Tavis: So you went in thinking one thing, you came out thinking what?

Tucker: I think I came out emotionally changed. I made friends with these guys. One of the guys who I really admired was killed.

Tavis: As a matter of fact, not to interrupt, as a matter of fact--correct me if this number's wrong: since the time you filmed this--and you filmed this in 2 stints. You had 2 one-month stints...

Tucker: Yeah.

Tavis: Where you filmed this, back in...

Tucker: September, Cctober 2003.

Tavis: And since that time, in addition to the one soldier you mentioned who you befriended who's died, there are 7 others. There are about 8 people, I think, who died in Iraq since you filmed this.

Tucker: Soldiers and Iraqis who I either was filming or met or were attached with the unit. So you carry that with you. And people start yelling and screaming about politics, or you've got pundits on both the left and the right. And we've been meeting moms who lost their sons.

Tavis: Before I go to Jon here, tell me why the name 'Gunner Palace'?

Tucker: 'Gunner Palace.' Um, the palace was built for Uday Hussein by his father. It was called Adhamiya Palace--the neighborhood Adhamiya in northwest Baghdad. They're the gunners. They're artillery men. Hence, 'Gunner Palace.'

Tavis: Got it. Um, Jon, tell me what it was like, first of all, having a camera crew--having this guy with his camera in your face for a couple of months.

Jon Powers: Sure. When we first got to Iraq in May of 2003, the war had just--well, they said the war was over, and there were still camera crews there. We had a lot of imbedded reporters. Those guys would come with a cameraman, a journalist, sound man, a producer. So there was a big team, and if they wanted to go out, it was taking a big team out. Mike was there by himself with a camera. So after he stayed the first week, guys sort of realized that, hey, he's gonna be around here, he's gonna tell our story. So he sort of became a gunner and almost became invisible to everybody.

Tavis: When you say you and your fellow soldiers came to understand or to accept or to believe that this guy Michael Tucker was going to tell your story, if you can capsulize for me--I don't know that you can--what is your story? What is the soldier's story that you all thought at the time, or even now, was not or is not being told, from the soldier's point of view?

Powers: Sure. Definitely. The--when I came home, the first thing I did is I went to visit a family of the Colg--Ben Colgan, the guy who died--and asking their family, talking to my family--people, they get their idea of the war from a 30-second news clip on the nightly news. They see the burning Humvee, they see the assault on Falusia. And Iraq is so much more of an experience than that. I mean, there's the nightly mortar rounds. There's the I.E.D.s--improvised explosive devices--that you fear every day. There's going to the orphanages. There's, you know, just the personal relations you get with the Iraqis. And Mike really captured the rest of that pie. And it shows so much more of what we actually did than what they show on the nightly news every day. And the American people, I think, need to see that to really get an idea of what's going on in Iraq.

Tavis: Let me try to juxtapose 2 things. You talk about the difficulties you encountered that people don't get in these 30-second sound bites. On the other hand, I saw in this initial trailer that we witnessed, Michael, these soldiers having a pretty good time. I thought I saw some U.S. soldiers partying and dancing and singing and swimming in Uday's pool. Tell me about this part here that we don't always see on the news, either.

Tucker: That was right after a raid. Their commander kind of had this philosophy, "We party harder, we fight harder than any unit in the U.S. Army," and he kind of had a frat boy kind of approach to leadership. So they cleaned out their pool. They would have these pool parties. But that was going on for about 90 minutes every 6 weeks. It's 130 degrees outside. These guys are getting shot at, attacked, you know, every single day, and that's just them letting off steam. And it's made people uncomfortable to watch it 'cause they're like, "Hey, those guys are in a war zone." But in Vietnam, there were whorehouses, there was beer. There are no whorehouses. There isn't any alcohol, really, readily available in Iraq. And these guys have very few outlets.

Tavis: So, Jon, these events, the ones we just saw here, were essentially celebrations after you all had successfully done...A project?

Powers: Sure. We had monthly or almost every 6 weeks--we called them Gunnerpaloozas--just as a way to relax. But one of the things, I guess, missed is that pool is a huge mortar target that got hit almost every day. So those 90-minute periods we got to go out there and enjoy, everyone's sort of crossing their fingers, hoping nothing was coming in. Also, we were within our PG range on the other side of the river, so we'd take those little breaks and try to--as much as you can let your hair down--you let it down for a little while.

Tavis: There's a poignant clip in this documentary, Michael, where one of the soldiers is actually given a tour of some of the equipment and really pointing out how this particular machine has really been patched together. What we hear is about all the money that we're sending over to Iraq and, indeed, the number keeps going--it's a staggering amount of money. But yet these soldiers are really doing the best they can with some insufficient equipment.

Tucker: Right. Yeah, they--I mean, soldiers make do with what they have. And that's actually a really poignant scene. Looking back on that stuff, we were driving around in vehicles with very little armor on them, pickup trucks in the middle of Baghdad. There was one day when one battery had just been hit the 18th time by an I.E.D. So, it's a roadside bomb going off next to you, right next to the vehicle. One driver had been hit 8 times personally, and they make the best of it.

Tavis: Jon, talk to me, since you've been there now and you can look back on it, you know, hindsight they say is 20-20 vision. You got some perspective. You've got a rearview mirror here now. What do you make of how the Iraqis treated you as a solider, because clearly, you get both ends. There are kids, I suspect, who love you. There are others who are throwing rocks at you, telling you to go home. We see the insurgency. How do you feel about how the Iraqis made you feel?

Powers: Sure. When we first got there and everyone was jubilant, Saddam was gone, liberated Iraq, and we were going to guys' houses for dinner. We would go and we were setting up--rebuilding their community. Over time, though, things became evident there wasn't much of a plan. Things started to sort of fall apart in the reconstruction effort, and I think that started to annoy a lot of Iraqis because they were living in their own sewage, they were living in their own garbage, because there was no government to pick it up, nothing to organize it. So, you know, if that happened anywhere here in the states, people would be upset about it, too. But for the most part, the Iraqis are happy to have the Americans there as security. At same point, they want to be able to move on to the next step of their lives and have their own country.

Tavis: Judge for yourself. The new film by Michael Tucker is called 'Gunner Palace.' You can go to their web site at GunnerPalace.com to read more about the project. Michael, nice to see you. Jon, nice to have you on as well. And thank you for your service to our country. That's our show for tonight. I'll be back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching. And, as always, keep the faith.