Product Details

• Actors: Matthew Knoll, Eric Mehalacopoulos, Nathan De La Cruz, Elliot Ruiz, Jase Willette
• Directors: Nick Broomfield
• Writers: Nick Broomfield, Anna Telford, Marc Hoeferlin
• Producers: Anna Telford, Barney Broomfield, Charles Finch, Donall McCusker
• Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: December 30, 2008
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001FRNB9Y
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,966 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Battle for Haditha" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

November 19th 2005, Haditha, Iraq Enraged by the loss of their commander to an insurgent's bomb, a convoy of U.S. Marines brutally massacres 24 Iraqi men, women and children - tragic casualties of a war they cannot control. Nick Broomfield's acclaimed dramatic and moving recreation of this fateful day in 2005 uses real people and real locations and was shot mostly in real time which "immerses us as no other film on Iraq has done in the dust and smoke of warfare" (Observer).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A powerful film, October 30, 2008

By	Justin (Kaneohe, HI USA) - See all my reviews

Before I begin my review I'm going to give you all my biases up front - I'm a Marine and I served one tour in Anbar Province in 2007 with a rifle company. Many of my seniors served in the Haditha area and told many-a-tale about that awful place. Having gotten that out of the way, I really wanted to like this movie from the get-go. It obviously draws its inspiration from one of my favorite films, the Gillo Pontecorvo classic "The Battle of Algiers - Criterion Collection", where many of the characters (including the screenwriter) were insurgents in the conflict rather than professional actors. I've been pretty disgusted with the Iraq films and TV shows that have come out over the past few years. Shooting in the California desert with a bunch of Mexicans dressed up like Arabs is never going to cut the mustard. Iraq has its own look and feel, and the Iraqis have their own style, even compared to the rest of the Arab world.

So I was really excited when I read that "The Battle of Haditha" was shot in Jordan, which is about as close to Anbar as you can get without crossing the border, and used real Iraqis and former-US military personnel. I also liked that Broomfield let them ad-lib most of their lines, giving them a feel of authenticity that no scriptwriter ever can. Broomfield definitely sets standards that every subsequent Iraq film is going to have to live up to. I also liked the controversial topic - there's a reason counterinsurgencies are called "dirty wars" and the Iraqis definitely do a great job portraying the mixed loyalties and emotions of many Iraqis as they seek to make some sense out of what was - for many Sunnis - an occupation.

Unfortunately, the movie's portrayal of the Marine Corps runs into a brick wall that nearly sinks the whole picture. While I enjoyed Elliot Ruiz's haunted squad leader, none of the other characters looked or sounded like real Marines. In fact, many of them seemed to be acting out popular stereotypes of Marines based on recruiting commercials and "Full Metal Jacket" or "Jarhead", which is almost nothing like what they really are. With the exception of Ruiz, there was almost no character development among the Marines, no explanation of how an infantry unit operates (which is crucial to understanding why the Haditha killings played out the way they did). Broomfield also falls into the trap of using actors in their mid-to-late twenties to portray a bunch of kids fresh out of high school. One of the guys I went to Iraq with was born in 1989 and was 12 years old when 9/11 happened.

Speaking from my experience, the Marines in "The Battle of Haditha" look like a third-rate Iraqi Army unit fresh out of boot camp. They do not know how to: hold their weapons, conduct mounted or dismounted patrols, clear a room, tactically question Iraqis, maintain cover and concealment, return fire, or conduct a squad attack on the enemy. If such things don't concern you, then disregard what I've said, but this is a point of professional pride for me and I really wish Broomfield had been able to get a bunch of real grunts for his actors. When I tried to get my company to watch this as a training film, the other Marines honed right in on this problem and were worried that some of our new-joins would get the wrong impression of how to behave in a combat zone.

Maybe I'm the last person who should be reviewing this - maybe this film was made to explain what Iraq is like to people who have never been there. If that's your opinion, go see it. But it was not made for Iraq veterans. If that's what you want to see, I recommend the HBO "Generation Kill" series, which gets more of the technical details right.

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling, November 3, 2009

By	J. Plannette "mystery lover" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Battle for Haditha is a chilling war movie that views the story from three perspectives; each more upsetting, You will come away feeling empathy for all involved. A must see.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A gross misrepresentation of the truth, October 6, 2009

By	Shannon - See all my reviews

Clearly no subject matter expert was consulted in the making of this piece of garbage. Broomfield has NO CLUE about Marine Corps policy or protocol in combat operations. I am truly disgusted with this unreal portrayal of US Marines. Broomfield seems to think that any group of cussing aggressive young men can adequately portray Marines. Reality aside, the direction and dialogue are weak. This malicious propaganda is criminal.