This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

All films are the end product of someone's subjective bias. Who you give voice to, who you leave out, who you demonize, who you valorize - it's all subjective. What is authentic and closer to objectivity is a process where you make ethical, humanist choices. BfH does this by showing more than one side, having the Arab character's speak in their own voice, and suggesting culpability lies not only with individuals, but with political and ideological processes. The absurdity of having young, ill-informed, emotional Americans on the frontline of a battle they do not understand and are not invested in is clearly depicted. War was ever thus. The culpability of the viewer is also raised, in our mindless acceptance of the official view of these events that is heavily manipulated. It also asks us to read again films like 'Black Hawk Down' and question their simplistic propaganda message. The filmmaker's docudrama approach is straightforward and effective. Battle for Haditha is a difficult watch, but perhaps a necessary one to understand how we in the West have ended up in our current messed up times.

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!

I just saw this movie and found it very moving. I have spent some time with Iraq veterans and I feel this movie did a very accurate job portraying what they went through.I think it's important to point out that 12 of the actors, including Ruiz, who plays Corporal Ramirez, are themselves Iraq veterans. Here are some quotes from Ramirez: "I was 17 when I was sent to Iraq, during the initial invasion. We pushed all the way up to Tikrit and I ended up being wounded, I almost lost my life. It's crazy, people don't know the type of things that we go through. That's what I like about the film, it shows that." The concept of taking Iraq refugees and ex-marines to make a movie with no script is brilliant. I felt the improvisation from these actors was likely better and more realistic than anything professional actors could have pulled off. I was also impressed with the production values, especially since no US funds were available for a fair and honest portrayal of such events.

Great little film, interesting to see actions from both sides and the consequences of their actions. The fact that Nick was previously a documentary filmmaker is evident in the "keep it real" style of the film which doesn't pick sides and shows the eye for an eye war that it is based on, however i actually think that it is better than the 20-30 years of Broomfield's documentary film making that i have seen a sample of. For those interested in seeing this and a sample of some of Nicks best work including the other one of his feature films, which is also great, Ghosts, see 4od where about 10 of his films can be seen totally free. Thats what i did.