IRAQ: Haditha, from the battlefield to Blockbuster

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‘Battle for Haditha,’ based on the Nov. 19, 2005, incident in Iraq in which Marines from Camp Pendleton killed 24 civilians after a roadside bomb killed one Marine and wounded two, has yet to see widespread release to theaters or television in the U.S.

Maybe it never will. Distributors feel burned by other Iraq movies that have been box-office flops.

But ‘Haditha’ has been shown on Arab television, with subtitles. And now it’s for rent in video stores in the U.S.

Filmed in Jordan by noted filmmaker Nick Broomfield, ‘Haditha’ is a movie, not a documentary.

Some of the facts are dead-on: the terraced look of Haditha, the crowded commercial street, the hard-edged joking of young Marines to cover their fears, the helplessness of civilians caught between two warring sides, the military’s lack of an investigation into the deaths until the brass was embarrassed by a magazine article.

But other facts are either pure fiction or shaped to fit the filmmaker’s intent. The final 15 minutes are a flight of imagination.

The Marines do not come off well, particularly the officers. Neither do the insurgents, who are portrayed as eager to exploit civilian casualties for propaganda.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego