The USA might have a new, less blood-thirsty, president in Barack Obama, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be willing to look with a critical eye at the wreckage it’s wrought in the none-too-distant past. In 2007, filmmaker Nick Broomfield released a drama about one of the most shameful episodes of the Iraqi War — the Battle for Haditha. The few Criticker users who’ve seen it have all given it high marks, earning it a spot in our list of Neglected Gems.

Months after war was waged in the western Iraqi city of Hadith, 24 Iraqis — most of them non-combatants, women and children — were killed by a small group of US soldiers. The soldiers were all eventually acquitted, but the incident was internationally condemned, and was another unneeded black eye on the reputation of the USA. The film is based on this event.

Battle for Haditha is not a documentary, but a drama staged and shot in an unconventional manner. Instead of a script, actors were given the setup and general instructions and ad-libbed all the details. Despite the love of the Criticker community and a Best Director award for Broomfield at the San Sebastien film festival, Battle for Haditha won only mixed reviews from US critics. It should come as perhaps no surprise that more conservative media outlets shared the New York Post’s opinion, that it served as an “exposé only of [Broomfield's] senseless contempt for the military.”

Movies which critique military action are too rare, especially when released while the action is still going on. But even though it’d be easiest to leave the moral stain of Haditha forgotten in our collective past, we should be brave enough to keep its memory alive.