Tcarts76 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.

meshhead10830-335-710074 There are so many major compromising factors and inaccuracies, I have lost count. The movie in it's essence is fictional in every way. If you do you your research on Haditha you may end up being extremely disappointed at how upside down this movie is.In regards to the undertones of sympathy. The movie does portray actions and reactions from both sides. This is an innocent approach, if it were accurate! You must take into consideration that at the time, the attacks against the marines were conducted by LARGE groups of insurgents. The fabricated thought of a massacre initiated by two insurgents' IED is just obviously unrealistic. This has more sympathetic undertones to the two insurgents as opposed to the marines. Again, this would not be a bad thing if the movie was accurate. All in all it tends to be more sympathetic to the struggles of the insurgent.Another important factor is the over simplification of the story. It is the portrayal of a reaction from one event. Haditha had several events that lead to the mass influx of counterinsurgency. There's a reason why its called the "Battle of Haditha", because it was a battle! Not a little post-IED ambush. There were HUGE amounts of Insurgency and Coalition, hence why it is often compared to Fallujah. The story of Haditha is much more complicated, and it's frustrating that the director summed it up in such a black and white-tunnel visioned fashion.And here's me losing my composure.... For crying out loud people! Don't assume it's factual! It's really not a fair insight. It almost portrays U.S. forces as blood thirsty murderers at the same level as the SS. That's really not the case. Take it from an OIF veteran and just look it up! You didn't have to be there to know how extremely wrong this movie is!

afed5 First of all, I'd like to question as to why this film is so unheard of? Even my friends who are avid movie fanatics haven't heard of it. I think it is a very intellectual movie. Not that it is very graphic, but I personally think its a topic only to be dealt with mature audiences. Obviously this is my opinion and up to you to decide. I just strongly believe that you watch this alone or with someone who you know is able to handle ethical discussions in a mature manner. Now the reason I say that is because this movie dives deeply into the ethics of the military and the events that really happen in Iraq and overseas in general. Now this doesn't mean its all everyday events but I just find it to be a new way of looking at the affects that war has on people. There are 3 perspectives which this film shows in depth. The first being the young soldier who seems greatly affected by the shock and awe of war. The next being the terrorists themselves, portraying them as normal citizens with a low moral standard and the need for money to get by. The third being the citizens and people just living everyday life. It is amazing to me how they tied the three together in the storyline.Now after I say all that, it isn't a perfect movie. The actual military part of it has tendencies to go off course compared to what really goes on. Now clearly this is based off a true story so things do happen. But, for someone who isn't as knowledgeable on military topics could misinterpret this and think about how awful the U.S. Military is. In general they are a lot more disciplined then is show in the film and at times I think they don't stress enough the importance of respect and honor on the battlefield which we do have. I do enjoy this movie greatly and I appreciate the new perspective I have when thinking about the concept of war and how it affects everyone, not just those fighting. I highly suggest this movie for those who liked the movie Jarhead. And if you haven't seen Jarhead then you should see this then go watch that. They are both good for looking at the moral/ethical practices of war. I like these concepts and I think it can cause some intellectual conversation to erupt. I truly loved the actors, although they were unknown to me before I saw this film. They played the roles well and the music was amazing. Last of all, I'd like to say that they had some really amazing shots of the desert and cool camera angles, well done on a film perspective. Well, overall I suggest it, but I wouldn't say its the best film ever made or my favorite.

afdan2321 I had to turn this movie off 3/4 of the way through. No joking. It is brutal to watch and the depiction of the Marines in this movie is horrifying. I understand some of the buildup "discussions" they have in the movie almost as if it was some documentary type, but of course they're still acting. Either way, there are major generalizations being implied in this movie. Very poor acting and phraseology if you wanna call it that.I read in earlier reviews some of the people talking about the lacking factual basis of the military scenes and I'm not even concerned with that. It just seems so fake to me with all the acting. That's on the side of the marines and insurgents as well. I would definitely NOT recommend watching this movie..