Review of Battle for Haditha (2007) by Thomas T — 28 Feb 2009

I'm not sure how to feel about this movie. It's documentary realism is breathtaking and the performances from the non-actors are amazing, but.... I went in expecting a change of pace from the knee-jerk Liberal Hollywood anti-war Iraq movies that have been done before, movies which seem to demonize the troops and present a horribly one sided view of the moral quagmire that is Iraq.

Grant this film does neither of that thankfully in spite of its subject matter and in spite of the fact that it assumes the guilt of the marines in the deaths of those 20 some odd Iraq civilians. But I just felt angry and despairing after seeing it.

And because it is a "speculative" account of the sad events of Nov. 20th 2005 I felt like something was missing and more of the "flip side" of the Marines treatment of the Iraqis that day was really needed-i.

E. Broomfield says the beautiful scene at the end with Elliot Ruiz helping out a injured child whose parents he killed in the fog of war and revenge was inspired by the Marines giving lavish medical attention to the few survivors of the massacre (You'll never see the Taliban or Al-Quida doing that).

I liked the scenes with the Insurgence in that it's a world we never really see and that it portrays the Al-Quida terrorists as the psychotic murderous fanatics they are-even going so far as to show them using the massacre survivors as recruiting tools and I think suggesting that the terrorists actually PLAN ON making American Soldiers do these kinds of horrid mistakes JUST to grow their insidious organization.

This is a film ultimately I think should have been made later, not now, not when the wounds are still fresh. In the end Broomfield's excellent filmmaking can't be judged on it's own merit because the film is so painful and anger inducing.

One sees a kind of microcosm of the whole war on terror in this incident in which Americans are driven mad by grief wrought by evil (the roadside bomb/911) and allow their emotions to dictate their actions which become wrong (the massacre/the Iraq war-although at least in the actual war guilty people DID get killed), but the film presents no solution, no hope, and made me think that perhaps 911 and the events that sprang from it will indirectly lead to the USA's downfall and sadly, the downfall of the Iraqis who'll be ruled by someone worse then Saddam (as rightly observed in the film).

I'd like to see it with a real Marine and ask what they thought, and for brave filmgoers I recommend it, but, just I don't know, maybe escapism is better in this age.