Wednesday, May 14th

This article was published in the May 12, 2008, edition of The New York Observer.

P.S. there’s a war going on, and British documentarian Nick Broomfield, auteur of screen gems such as Kurt & Courtney and Biggie and Tupac, not to mention Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer (no, that wasn’t the one with Charlize Theron), has released Battle for Haditha, his fictional account of the events leading up to a 2005 massacre of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines. “The most surprising thing is that it was really hard to blame anyone,” said Mr. Broomfield, calling from London. “I think when something like this happens, you want to go around blaming someone, but it’s hard to blame traumatized 17-year-olds, or people who joined the Marines at 17 who really are kind of cannon fodder, and no one’s really looking after them. It’s hard to blame them, actually, once you meet them and you see who they are and what they’ve been through.”

[Battle for Haditha at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, May 7 through May 20, www.filmforum.org for showtimes]

http://www.observer.com/2008/wednesday-may-14th

Copyright © 2008 The New York Observer. All rights reserved.

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