thedrifter
07-03-07, 06:11 AM
Black day in Haditha
Photographer Barney Broomfield admits that his feelings about the war in Iraq, and about war in general, have become much more complicated in the last few months. In March and April Barney worked with his father, filmmaker Nick Broomfield, on The Battle for Haditha.
The film, now in post-production, is a dramatised account of the terrible events that took place in the Iraqi town of Haditha on November 19, 2005. By the end of that day, one American marine and 24 Iraqis, including women and children as young as three, lay dead.
First reports suggested that most of the Iraqis had been killed by a roadside bomb, but a Pentagon investigation concluded that they were in fact massacred by the US Marines, in retaliation for the death of one of their comrades when a Humvee was destroyed by an
The terrible events of Haditha have been re-enacted for a new Nick Broomfield film. christopher goodwin reports from LA
insurgent's bomb.
It remains the most deadly such incident of the war and the Marines alleged to be responsible are due to be tried in the coming months.
Nick Broomfield used a dozen ex-marines, as well as a few actors, to play the marines involved in the Haditha incident. His son Barney gained his new perspective on warfare because he barracked with the men during the seven-week shoot in the old Roman town of Jerash in Jordan.
Barney not only took the stills which accompany this article, but was shooting second unit video footage of the daily lives of the marines, the kind of footage many young soldiers now shoot themselves and even post on YouTube.
"I had to go through various degrees of hazing to gain their trust," says Barney. "The first was
the ritualistic shaving of the head. They buzzed Nick's hair completely off. They shaved every other male on the production. I got a Mohawk.
"Then I had to go through all sorts of trials and tribulations for them to really trust me and to say things to me on camera. There's an unwritten code among marines who have actually seen action: they talk about their experiences only with other marines. They don't openly talk about killing people; it's very hard for them.
"As I got to know them, what surprised me most was that they are kids," says Broomfield, who is 26. "They were very young and naive. Some joined when they were 17 or 18. They have left their own families and friends and in the marines they form a new family. So, when one of their own gets hurt or killed - as happened on that day in Haditha - they respond as a family would.
‘The marines are fighting for the same reasons as the people who have joined the insurgency in Iraq’
"Spending so much time so close to these guys I realised it is much harder to blame the troops for some of the things that happen in war," Broomfield concludes. "It's much harder to point the finger when you know these are just young kids who are, usually for financial reasons, going out and fighting a rich man's war.
"In many ways, the marines are fighting for the same reasons as the people who have joined the insurgency in Iraq are fighting. Many of them were pushed onto the streets when the Iraqi army was disbanded, and they had no work or money.
"Just like the marines, they want to be able to provide for their wives and their kids. For most people, I came to understand, that is the reality of war."
'Battle for Haditha' will be shown at cinemas and on C4 later this year
FIRST POSTED JULY 3, 2007
Pix's
www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=7555&print=print
Ellie
Photographer Barney Broomfield admits that his feelings about the war in Iraq, and about war in general, have become much more complicated in the last few months. In March and April Barney worked with his father, filmmaker Nick Broomfield, on The Battle for Haditha.
The film, now in post-production, is a dramatised account of the terrible events that took place in the Iraqi town of Haditha on November 19, 2005. By the end of that day, one American marine and 24 Iraqis, including women and children as young as three, lay dead.
First reports suggested that most of the Iraqis had been killed by a roadside bomb, but a Pentagon investigation concluded that they were in fact massacred by the US Marines, in retaliation for the death of one of their comrades when a Humvee was destroyed by an
The terrible events of Haditha have been re-enacted for a new Nick Broomfield film. christopher goodwin reports from LA
insurgent's bomb.
It remains the most deadly such incident of the war and the Marines alleged to be responsible are due to be tried in the coming months.
Nick Broomfield used a dozen ex-marines, as well as a few actors, to play the marines involved in the Haditha incident. His son Barney gained his new perspective on warfare because he barracked with the men during the seven-week shoot in the old Roman town of Jerash in Jordan.
Barney not only took the stills which accompany this article, but was shooting second unit video footage of the daily lives of the marines, the kind of footage many young soldiers now shoot themselves and even post on YouTube.
"I had to go through various degrees of hazing to gain their trust," says Barney. "The first was
the ritualistic shaving of the head. They buzzed Nick's hair completely off. They shaved every other male on the production. I got a Mohawk.
"Then I had to go through all sorts of trials and tribulations for them to really trust me and to say things to me on camera. There's an unwritten code among marines who have actually seen action: they talk about their experiences only with other marines. They don't openly talk about killing people; it's very hard for them.
"As I got to know them, what surprised me most was that they are kids," says Broomfield, who is 26. "They were very young and naive. Some joined when they were 17 or 18. They have left their own families and friends and in the marines they form a new family. So, when one of their own gets hurt or killed - as happened on that day in Haditha - they respond as a family would.
‘The marines are fighting for the same reasons as the people who have joined the insurgency in Iraq’
"Spending so much time so close to these guys I realised it is much harder to blame the troops for some of the things that happen in war," Broomfield concludes. "It's much harder to point the finger when you know these are just young kids who are, usually for financial reasons, going out and fighting a rich man's war.
"In many ways, the marines are fighting for the same reasons as the people who have joined the insurgency in Iraq are fighting. Many of them were pushed onto the streets when the Iraqi army was disbanded, and they had no work or money.
"Just like the marines, they want to be able to provide for their wives and their kids. For most people, I came to understand, that is the reality of war."
'Battle for Haditha' will be shown at cinemas and on C4 later this year
FIRST POSTED JULY 3, 2007
Pix's
www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=7555&print=print
Ellie