Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

As a film about war, this was a good one. It was low budget and shot in a stylized way. The acting is really well done and it comes off almost as a documentary film (I will get to that in a moment). The filming locations are great (Jordan) the equipotent used in the movie is also pretty true to form. It was a low budget movie with no real known stars, and I give the whole crew, cast, director and everyone involved props for putting together a great movie.Now for the bad news. It is just an anti-American, anti-war propaganda film. That is it. It is a convincing one and they worked really hard to try and make it look as close to a documentary as they could, but it is just propaganda. These events did occur, and I have no real doubt that some Marines may have been guilty of some form of Geneva Convention crimes, but this film sets out with a clear agenda in which a lot of time and effort is put into justifying the actions of insurgents, and trying to give the civilian populations a pass on not reporting insurgent activity. They seem to ignore a lot of what the Marines involved said and pretty much took the Iraqi civilians' words as the honest truth.Towards the end, in order to not make to many fighting men and women angry they even try the new anti-war tactic of trying to pose one of the Marines as a victim. The Anti-war movements choice of spitting on American Soldiers in Veitnam doesn't work anymore so they try to paint our soldiers as victims now.Unless you were there, witnessed what happened, and have no feeling toward one side or the other, don't represent something as fact when to this day we only have conjecture.

After reading through some of the reviews I felt I had to chime in, though I am sure almost no one will read this. Before I give my observations on the movie itself I would just like to point out that many who stated this movie was an accurate portrayal clearly has no experience or expertise that would qualify them to make the statement. Something I hope people keep in mind when reading other reviews. As a Marine who actually served in Haditha as well as many other locations, reading many of the reviews sickened me because it shows how little people actually understand, just as I usually wear a long sleeved shirt because my USMC tattoo brings on questions, praise, or derision from the clueless masses who for some reason believe they have some insight to any reality outside their own convenient world.That said, I feel this movie is much better then most. The film clearly had an agenda and bias, and completely off the mark in terms of representing military tactics, equipment, etc... that is pretty much standard for any movie. I appreciated how the movie wasn't overly dramatic when showing issues faced by and actions of the various parties. One thing I wish the movie did take in to account is bullets pass through those walls like paper. I would wager that a large number of civilians were killed simply during an exchange of fire between the Marines, fighters, and then civilians who may have just seen a loved one fall. I have seen this happen often and I hope one day that reality is brought to light rather then showing young Marines on a blind rampage. However, no one knows exactly what happened except those who were there, and even that "reality or truth" depends on the perspective and state of mind of the observer. Another positive is how the movie doesn't really show any right or wrong, good or bad, that things just are and "sh!t happens". If anything, I do think that is the true agenda of the movie even if there was a bias in its portrayal. Also, I appreciated the use of Iraqi dialect of Arabic instead of modern standard, Egyptian, Syrian, etc. Another accuracy plus was how close the town/city looked compared to cities of the region. Though clearly not Haditha, I have not seen any movie closer to the truth in that regard.On a personal note, I think many of the comments made by Cpl Ramirez were spot on if a bit staged. I am not going to comment on any particular comment because you either understand or you don't. Also, and I know this is a bit of a stretch, but I refuse to give credibility to any one who may seek to either attack or defend (verbally) our war fighters because context is everything and the most people don't have or understand the context.I recommend this movie to anyone who is able to take if for what it is worth by dropping the expectation of realism while not adding meaning where there is not. Also, I hope people realize that no matter how many actual Marine veterans or Iraqi's (most westernized), the film is a product of the film maker and subject to their interpretation. I only wish I could have had my say about the movie sooner, if only to plant the seed that people should take this movie, and the other reviews including mine, with a grain of salt.

I put watching this movie off for so long because I basically knew I was going to have mixed feelings about it. This movie means a little more to me (and my family) than most people seeing I am a sibling of someone depicted in the movie. Granted this was just a movie and everyone is entitled to their opinion...it just upset me to see how my sibling was depicted in the film. From knowing my sibling, the director wasn't even close. Pretty sure he would feel the same way if someone depicted one of his family members incorrectly just to make a buck. I find exploiting horrible events to make money disturbing and disgusting. Movie says (synopsis of movie on back of the DVD case) that it was told from different perspectives...I want to know where my sibling and his comrades perspectives were in this movie?! Sigh..some will do anything and everything to make a name for themselves.

While the Iraq War certainly deserves its fair share of scrutiny, and history will surely paint a less than stellar picture of the politics behind the war and those leaders, Republican and Democrat, who led the United States into that war, those who served in it deserve at least the smallest measure of dignity in their portrayal. And filmmakers attempting to portray them owe them a small amount of integrity in their work.Nick Broomfield's film has no such integrity. It misrepresents, lies, and sensationalizes at every turn, creating wholly unrealistic situations, and even making bald faced lies about Marine Corps policies, as well as tactics techniques and procedures (TTPs). The film claims to have used veterans of the United States military, however any of the "actors" used in this film who are prior service should be ashamed for participating.It is the Iraq War critic's dream film: where every preconceived notion of what is wrong with the American occupation is true, every injustice levied against our troops by their own government is true, and every hyper-violent, baby killer, traumatized stereotype of the American fighting man is also true. The film describes an endless series of falsehoods before it even reaches the half way point in its run time. A Marine is told he cannot visit a doctor until after he goes home, and then only on his leave. This has never, ever been true. And while there is often peer pressure or doctrinal conditioning, and even sometimes situational factors that prevents Marines from seeking immediate mental help, none would ever be outright denied that help, let alone told that he could not receive it in theater. The film also shows a man clown up by a UAV for simply walking down the street with a shovel. This is also patently against US Rules of Engagement, and would never happen. Broomfield even chooses to sensationalize it more by showing moments before that the man had the shovel to plant a tree at a celebratory party, making the scene all the more despicable to include in the film. Marines are shown threatening prisoners by claiming to hold their families hostage.If there is even the possibility that the events of November 19th 2005 were an atrocity, it can be said with certainty that this film is one. In his rush to capitalize on, and sensationalize, Nick Broomfield abandoned any pretext of credibility, and any sense of integrity. This film is disgusting. Whether you believe the war in Iraq was merely misguided, or you believe it was an outright lie and detestable, this film serves no purpose as a piece of war criticism. One does not have to lie to shown wrong in war. And Nick Broomfield is a liar. He's lucky that he cannot be sued for libel and slander by the Marine Corps. To refer to his film as a docudrama is a sick joke. There is no "docu" present here at all. A note to filmmakers: Please, by all means explore criticism of the war in Iraq. It is important for future generations that Americans no longer blindly support military action and not get caught up in surges of war hysteria and revenge driven blood lust. But when you do it, do it honestly, or it makes you even bigger liars than those you seek to condemn.