by David Allender
March 18, 2008 — Director Nick Broomfield’s film, Battle for Haditha, received its world television premiere last night in England–and finished dead last in its time slot.
While nearly six million viewers tuned into The Fixer last night, less than a million tuned to Channel 4’s presentation of Battle for Haditha. Those viewers represented less than five percent of the viewing public in England, and is equivalent to the audience for a bottom-rated cable news show, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on MSNBC, in the United States.
Popular Monday night soaps, Coronation Street and EastEnders, drew nearly 11 million viewers each.
Late last year, Broomfield lost his U.K. distributor, Metrodome Distribution, after the movie failed to generate interest on the festival circuit. North American distributors stayed away completely.
Broomfield based his film on second and third-hand accounts of the incident and falsely claimed it was based on the stories of Marines “who were there”.
Source: Digital Spy, Ratings Round-Up, March 18, 2008.
__________________________________________
Discussion threads on “Battle for Haditha”:
Broomfield to dramatise alleged Iraq massacre (a movie about Haditha already), The Guardian, September 25, 2006.
Mr Wry gets serious [Leftist Makes Haditha Marine Movie], The Guardian, April 9, 2007.
New role for ex-Marine [Actor in “Battle for Haditha” film], Journal News, June 15, 2007.
Marines, like insurgents, just want to “provide for their wives and kids”, Defend Our Marines, July 3, 2007.
“It’s a movie, so it’s not true-true, but the basics are there” [says nitwit in Haditha movie], Defend Our Marines, September 8, 2007.
Not all war films created equal, Hollywood Reporter, September 27, 2007.