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GreenCine Daily - ”With Battle for Haditha, British documentarian Nick Broomfield brandishes his verité techniques for a fictional recreation of the November 2005 killing of 24 Iraqi civilians by US Marines,” writes Nick Schager at Cinematical. “Aspiring to be a modern Battle of Algiers, the film falls far short of that lofty goal, hawking standard-issue characterizations and leaden cause-effect analysis to humdrum effect.”
“Somewhat surprisingly, given how subjective his documentaries skew, Battle for Haditha isn’t a jeremiad against the war, the American administration or even the quick-triggered marines,” writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. “Even as he creates an almost unbearable level of tension in his film - mostly through deft parallel editing that draws the marines, the victims and the insurgents inexorably together - Mr Broomfield maintains a level of cool detachment throughout.”
“Veterans of Iraq War cinema might recognize some familiar elements - the heavy-metal machismo of Gunner Palace, the confessional testimonials of The War Tapes, the cri de coeur of Stop-Loss,” writes Anthony Kaufman in the Voice. “When the shit finally hits the fan, though, the results are more emotionally bruising than many of Haditha’s predecessors.”
“[E]ven when the dialogue is stilted, the acting and directing take the starch out of it,” writes David Edelstein in New York. “Battle for Haditha has some of the raw energy of Sam Fuller’s war pictures, which weren’t subtle but left you energized by their ambivalence (there was no good or evil). It’s a hell of a picture.”… [Full Story]
