Battle for Haditha (2007)
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 97m
Director: Nick Broomfield
Cast: Matthew Knoll, Elliot Ruiz, Yasmine Hanani
Synopsis:
In November 2005 Al-Qaeda pay a pair of civilians to set off a roadside bomb in the suburbs of Haditha, Iraq. The convoy of US Marine vehicles that is thus attacked unleashes a disproportionate and entirely murderous reprisal on the civilian population of the nearby houses, 24 of whom are killed practically in their beds.
Review:
A dramatised documentary which takes as its witnesses/participants a young Iraqi woman of one of the murdered families, the bombers, and a Marine corporal in charge of the platoon who has previously sought medical advice for his febrile and violent mood swings. It's Bloody Sunday-style stuff, effective enough as exposé material, though undeniably slanted (a shot of one of the bombers returning home to his child and sobbing into her shoulder is surely supposition, even if it has a ring of human truth). Still, it is hard to portray the Iraqi civilians as anything but innocent victims, and the atrocities have a jaw-dropping banality about them which renders the officer's 'Job well done' all but incredible. Where the film is perhaps less satisfactory is in its delineation of character (perhaps too many?) and too much detail is barely etched in, for example the young couple of lovers: are they married? How many children are theirs? The closing sequence of Corporal Ramirez leading the surviving girl out by the hand is enigmatic: is it flashback or wishful thinking? No doubt it helps lend an even-handedness to the work's treatment of its protagonists, which is its chief virtue.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 97m
Director: Nick Broomfield
Cast: Matthew Knoll, Elliot Ruiz, Yasmine Hanani
Synopsis:
In November 2005 Al-Qaeda pay a pair of civilians to set off a roadside bomb in the suburbs of Haditha, Iraq. The convoy of US Marine vehicles that is thus attacked unleashes a disproportionate and entirely murderous reprisal on the civilian population of the nearby houses, 24 of whom are killed practically in their beds.
Review:
A dramatised documentary which takes as its witnesses/participants a young Iraqi woman of one of the murdered families, the bombers, and a Marine corporal in charge of the platoon who has previously sought medical advice for his febrile and violent mood swings. It's Bloody Sunday-style stuff, effective enough as exposé material, though undeniably slanted (a shot of one of the bombers returning home to his child and sobbing into her shoulder is surely supposition, even if it has a ring of human truth). Still, it is hard to portray the Iraqi civilians as anything but innocent victims, and the atrocities have a jaw-dropping banality about them which renders the officer's 'Job well done' all but incredible. Where the film is perhaps less satisfactory is in its delineation of character (perhaps too many?) and too much detail is barely etched in, for example the young couple of lovers: are they married? How many children are theirs? The closing sequence of Corporal Ramirez leading the surviving girl out by the hand is enigmatic: is it flashback or wishful thinking? No doubt it helps lend an even-handedness to the work's treatment of its protagonists, which is its chief virtue.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 97m
Director: Nick Broomfield
Cast: Matthew Knoll, Elliot Ruiz, Yasmine Hanani
Synopsis:
In November 2005 Al-Qaeda pay a pair of civilians to set off a roadside bomb in the suburbs of Haditha, Iraq. The convoy of US Marine vehicles that is thus attacked unleashes a disproportionate and entirely murderous reprisal on the civilian population of the nearby houses, 24 of whom are killed practically in their beds.
Review:
A dramatised documentary which takes as its witnesses/participants a young Iraqi woman of one of the murdered families, the bombers, and a Marine corporal in charge of the platoon who has previously sought medical advice for his febrile and violent mood swings. It's Bloody Sunday-style stuff, effective enough as exposé material, though undeniably slanted (a shot of one of the bombers returning home to his child and sobbing into her shoulder is surely supposition, even if it has a ring of human truth). Still, it is hard to portray the Iraqi civilians as anything but innocent victims, and the atrocities have a jaw-dropping banality about them which renders the officer's 'Job well done' all but incredible. Where the film is perhaps less satisfactory is in its delineation of character (perhaps too many?) and too much detail is barely etched in, for example the young couple of lovers: are they married? How many children are theirs? The closing sequence of Corporal Ramirez leading the surviving girl out by the hand is enigmatic: is it flashback or wishful thinking? No doubt it helps lend an even-handedness to the work's treatment of its protagonists, which is its chief virtue.