movies

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 31 January 2008

US Marines go on the offensive in Haditha after a bomb planted by insurgents kills one of their platoon

Bloody revenge shows the terror of our ways

BATTLE FOR HADITHA
Directed by NICK BROOMFIELD
Certificate 15

THEY'RE coming thick and fast – Hollywood’s take on Iraq and Afghanistan that remind us inevitably of the string of movies that were unleashed after Vietnam.
In this powerful reconstruction of one of the most unsavoury episodes of the Iraq war, director Nick Broomfield pulls no punches as he focuses on the revenge killing of civilians by US Marines in November 2005 in the hotbed city of Haditha following a roadside bomb attack on their patrol.
Broomfield plunges us headlong into the action as we follow three separate strands of the story for 24 hours leading up to the tragic climax: a platoon led by Corporal Ramirez (Elliot Ruiz), a local family headed by the wife Hiba (Yasmine Hanani) and insurgents Ahmad (Falah Flayeh) and Jafar (Oliver Bytrus) who plant their bomb just outside her compound while mother and children watch helplessly from the windows, terrified to interfere.
When the explosion kills one Marine and injures two others, their unit goes on the rampage, blaming everyone in the building where the insurgents detonated the device. The result is a slaughter of the innocents.
Broomfield seeks to open our eyes not just to the everyday dilemma facing Iraqis trying to cope with a civil war where they face death from both sides, but to the way the troops follow orders blindly from their blinkered top brass and their enemy are likewise influenced by local firebrand clerics.
Nobody comes out of this with any distinction, not least the corporal who is awarded a bronze star and promoted on the spot by his colonel, only to be put on a charge of mass murder at the official inquiry.
With its grainy realism, and moments of humanity contrasting with gut-wrenching suspense, Broomfield’s thought-provoking anti-war drama recalls the 1965 Gilles Pontecorvo classic Battle for Algiers.
But this one is strictly for strong stomachs.

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment:

» Film Times
» Film Reviews
» Buy DVDs
» Rent DVDs