Battle for Haditha

Famed documentarian Nick Broomfield makes his first foray into the world of fictional features with Battle for Haditha, although, as becomes clear almost immediately, there’s little doubt that he’d better stick to his day job. The movie, which follows a real-life event that occurred within the Iraqi city of Haditha, has been infused with a distinct lack of authenticity by Broomfield, with the distinctly amateurish cast only exacerbating the film’s many problems. Broomfield’s inability to offer up a single sympathetic character (ie the soldiers are all type-a, macho jerks, while the Iraqis are portrayed as either religious nutjobs or impossibly content victims-in-waiting) makes it virtually impossible to care about their respective fates, and one ultimately can’t help but question the veracity of this tale (ie did the soldiers really open fire on innocent women and children?) The lack of subtlety within the screenplay, as evidenced by the heavy-handed bursts of speechifying, lends the proceedings a black-and-white feel that undeniably does a disservice to the complicated (and heartbreaking) subject matter, and it’s clear that Broomfield would’ve been far better off had he just stuck to what he knows best (ie this could’ve been a searing documentary).

* out of ****