Battle for Haditha.

"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."

Updated through 5/11.

"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."

"Broomfield understands that insurgents are in the business of creating martyrs as surely as military authorities are in the business of creating scapegoats," writes Fernando F Croce in Slant. "In viewing them primarily as fodder for gunfire, however, Broomfield reduces the characters to lambs sacrificed in tensely directed but subject-cheapening action sequences."

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with Broomfield "about his shift to fiction filmmaking, the current political malaise and his aborted attempt to make a funny film about a tax office."

Earlier: David D'Arcy.

Updates: "Not since Gus Van Sant's Elephant, a much more sophisticated sculpted-in-time requiem, have I been so moved by the spectacle of impending loss," writes Steven Boone. "Elephant made the ambient light and teen cacophony at play in the halls of a suburban high school as soothing as a pastoral song. Battle for Haditha has similar regard for light and life (if not so gentle a touch)."

Also at the House Next Door, Lauren Wissot: "Since the Iraq war fatefully began half a decade ago, its fallout has inspired a slew of thoughtful, well-crafted narrative, documentary and docudrama films such as Stephen Gaghan's Syriana, Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight and Michael Winterbottom's The Road to Guantanamo, respectively. In Battle for Haditha... Nick Broomfield attempts to join this deep onscreen conversation but achieves something much more dubiously unusual - the first Iraq war B-movie."

"At this point, the rollover of traumas and injustices in Iraq seems to put impossible pressure on meaningful dramatization of the subject," writes Nicolas Rapold in the L Magazine. "As a vote for clarity and restraint, Battle is laudable, but it might strike the under-moved as best appreciated at a later, less benumbed date."

"With its barrage of blood and dust, Battle for Haditha attempts to present a ground-level and largely unmediated perspective on the motivations of the players involved, including the insurgents who instigate the skirmish and the Marines whose reaction yields devastating consequences," writes Leo Goldsmith at indieWIRE. "With actors often speaking in candid soliloquies adapted from their real-life experiences, the film's improvisatory style wavers between credible and histrionic, but the overall effect is undeniably powerful."

Aaron Hillis talks with Broomfield for the IFC. Broomfield: "What cinema can do is stand back from the plethora of information we get from the television - which tends to become very inhuman after a while — and establish a sense of humanity. Put a face on the Iraqi people. You're never going to achieve a peace or a lasting solution until you have some respect - you need to personalize the Iraqis as one needed to the Vietnamese."

Updates, 5/8: "It might just be the movie this war has been waiting for," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "No doubt there will be complaints from various quarters about Battle for Haditha. Some people may suggest that Broomfield is apologizing for the Marines' behavior by humanizing them, while others will say he is prejudging them unfairly. But his film is based on extensive research; he sticks closely to the known circumstances of the Haditha incident, and his inventions, such as the character of Ahmad, are entirely plausible."

"To its credit, Battle for Haditha balances multiple perspectives, effectively demonstrates how torn are the motivations of individuals caught in the machinery of war, and in the process admirably attempts to flesh out its schematics with an organically constructed realism," writes Michael Joshua Rowin in a piece for Reverse Shot that takes many of the recent Iraq war movies into consideration as well.

Armond White in the New York Press: "While De Palma's Redacted, Errol Morris's Standard Operating Procedure and Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss went disastrously wrong, Broomfield's sophisticated balance of fact and fiction in Battle for Haditha illustrates exactly how the Iraq War will enter popular memory - as legend."

Eric Kohn talks with Broomfield for indieWIRE.

Updates, 5/9: "Battle for Haditha is a genuine achievement," declares the WSWS's David Walsh, who talks with two of the former marines in the film, both of whom "praised Broomfield. [Elliot] Ruiz said, 'Working with him was wonderful. He stepped back and just let us be us. And that's what brought the authenticity to the film.'"

"Former Iraq War soldier Elliot Ruiz's portrayal of the tormented Corporal Ramirez is an utter revelation and one of the most nakedly riveting performances of recent memory," writes Michael Tully at Hammer to Nail. "His breakdown scene is worth the price of admission alone. Ruiz's ability to express such a wide range of conflicting emotions is staggering. It's as if we're watching an actual soldier grapple with his terrible predicament. That's because we are. It's a shame that Ruiz most likely won't be remembered come awards season, for his performance is utterly phenomenal and deserves to be recognized. It makes a good film even better."

For Nathan Rabin, writing at the AV Club, Battle "ultimately derives much of its primal power from its bluntness and simplicity. Like Broomfield's documentary work, it stumbles purposefully onto harsh truths about the ugliness of human nature."

"I figure that people who appreciate war films for the action aren't really being targeted, and so I feel it must be pointed out that this is indeed an awesome war film and not another depressing Iraq War film," writes Christopher Campbell at the SpoutBlog.

Update, 5/11: "No argument that those who give the orders ought to be, and aren't, held accountable along with those who carry out the orders, but does that mean that those who carry out the orders should be let off the hook?" asks Phil Nugent. A recommended read.

Posted by dwhudson at May 7, 2008 1:05 AM