Battle for Haditha (2007)

I love this movie so much

best movie i've ever seen.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It's unfortunate that so many reviews reflect not the quality, artistry, or technical merits of a film, but rather a visceral reaction based upon preconceptions. The director did a good job re-creating the atmosphere in Iraq using a hand held documentary style of film making. While the dialogue and acting left a lot to be desired, I understand this was a low budget picture so he did admirably with the resources he had. It is an independent film, so you shouldn't expect "Black Hawk Down."Many of the negative reviews simply reflect an aversion to anything perceived as Anti-American. I am a veteran of the Iraq war with two tours of combat duty. I have lost brothers in arms. I have witnessed the suffering of civilians (vast majority at the hands of insurgents). I was close to Al-Anbar Province when this happened. To claim it was all lies is simply lying to yourself. If you cannot distinguish between engaging the enemy and murdering unarmed men, women, and especially children, either your moral compass is way off or you are completely brainwashed, or both. One poster above referred to insurgents as "less than human." It's that kind of thinking that leads to these kind of atrocities. No army on earth is immune to barbarism if there is a breakdown in leadership, especially in an emotional situation like this. It is all too common that civilians will be the victims of collateral damage. That's what makes war so terrible. The reality is that 99% of American servicemen and women conduct themselves honorably. It is to protect that honor, and give some justice to the victims, that these marines should have been dishonorably discharged and sentenced to Ft. Leavenworth.

I had quite a hard time finding this movie, when i heard, that it was finished. when i finally found it, i knew why. Now, under a new U.S. government, it is easy to say "mistakes have been made, we are doing a much better job now, and we can talk about what went wrong". But under the bush era, in America, this must haven been much more difficult. So a big political "thumbs up" for the director for picking up the controversial issue at that time. And I think, politically he did not do a bad job.The movie follows a group of marines, terrorists and families through an incident some months after the battle OF haditha. It does so sometimes at the cost of the tempo, but does in my opinion a really good and fair job. not unlike bloody Sunday (the historical one and the 2002 movie) the situation is a ticking bomb, with the terrorists or freedom fighters (depends on the perspective) setting something up, the military "triggering" it, the civil population suffering the consequences and the terrorists ultimately winning the battle by having won more forces than they lost. This surely is an old story, but still is a reality. But where the art of "realistic" film-making, if it fails, might make you a part of this downward spiral, this movie succeeds in telling you the whole story. This movie doesn't point fingers at those who were directly involved in the incident. It simply tells how people on either side of both, the trigger and the violent struggle, got into the situation where they did what they did. So yes, this is a very political motivated movie. But not in the sense, that it prefers one political view over the other, but in the sense, that it shows quite realistic what happens to people that have to suffer the consequences (not only the civilians). And in the end, the movie does point fingers at people. But not at those who were involved in what "really" happened, but at those who orchestrated the conditions in which things like this can happen.This movie tells a story that is difficult to be told. And in my opinion it does a really good job in that. For a really great MOVIE, of course, there are a lot of things missing. But i think, it wasn't the purpose of this movie to be a great movie, it was the purpose to tell a story. And in my opinion, the story is very well told. Good Movie.

As a former Marine I am deeply offended by this movie. It is nothing but an Anti-American, Anti-Military movie. This movie tries to portray itself as a factually based movie based on actual facts. It is not. Instead it is based completely on lies. All of the Marines have been acquitted of all charges. This movie was designed to make the Marine Corps and the US look stupid. It makes the insurgents look good.I have gladly deployed twice as an infantryman to Iraq. We have done many good things. I can honestly say that as this movie is completely wrong in how it portrays Marines. We don't talk like that, we don't act like that and we sure as hell don't go around shooting innocent civilians. The "Peace Loving" Sunni insurgents on the other hand have slaughtered thousands of innocent civilians in the name of Allah. If this was a fair movie it would be 99 minutes of Insurgents killing innocent civilians and 1 minute of us killing insurgents with some innocent civilians getting accidentally killed because the cowards hide behind women and children and use them as shields.This movie is a disgrace. If any of you believe that this is a portrayal of what actually happens you are either foolish or so biased that nothing will change your mind. This movie isn't anything like what happens over there. Insurgents are less than human. They are barbarians while American Soldiers are some of the most honorable people in the world.

I just saw this movie and found it very moving. I have spent some time with Iraq veterans and I feel this movie did a very accurate job portraying what they went through.I think it's important to point out that 12 of the actors, including Ruiz, who plays Corporal Ramirez, are themselves Iraq veterans. Here are some quotes from Ramirez: "I was 17 when I was sent to Iraq, during the initial invasion. We pushed all the way up to Tikrit and I ended up being wounded, I almost lost my life. It's crazy, people don't know the type of things that we go through. That's what I like about the film, it shows that." The concept of taking Iraq refugees and ex-marines to make a movie with no script is brilliant. I felt the improvisation from these actors was likely better and more realistic than anything professional actors could have pulled off. I was also impressed with the production values, especially since no US funds were available for a fair and honest portrayal of such events.