History Film / Redacted

* ActingForTwo: Kel O'Neill plays Gabe Blix and a CID agent.

* HateSink: Rush and Flake are completely disgusting and, unlike the other Marines, have zero positive qualities or even hobbies besides being bastards. Additionally they aren't even good soldiers, Rush is very overweight, spends foot patrols eating chocolate, lets a fellow soldier get kidnapped practically right next to him, and Flake falls asleep at his post and awakes only to immediately gun down an unarmed pregnant woman. Rush and Flake are portrayed as being almost entirely responsible for the rape and killings in the film's climax, probably to spare the other characters from the MoralEventHorizon.

* FatBastard: The character Rush was seemingly made to invoke this trope, along with FatIdiot. Rush is well into the obese range and far heavier than any deployed infantry Marine would be during a deployment, so it seems that including an unflattering American Stereotype was more important than verisimilitude.

* FatBastard: The character Rush was seemingly made to invoke this trope, along with FatIdiot. Rush is well into the obese range and far heavier than any infantry Marine would actually be allowed to be during a deployment so this it seems that including an unflattering American Stereotype was more important than verisimilitude.

* NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed: The character of Lawyer [=McCoy=] appears to be based on SPC Justin Watt, and Flake is based on Steven D. Green. The battalion commander LTC Ford, is based on COL Thomas Kunk, and like in the movie, would often verbally abuse his soldiers.

* MoralityChain: Master Sergeant Sweet. He helps keep the men disciplined and in line. After [[spoiler:he is killed]], the platoon goes downhill.

** The insurgents kidnap and behead a U.S. soldier who (coincidentally) accompanied the rapists at the house during the murders, as retribution for the murder. In real life, two soldiers were kidnapped instead of one and neither of them were present at the house. Also, the insurgents did not know about the murders as being perpetrated by U.S. forces (many Iraqis initially had thought other Iraqis had done it) until after the Associated Press broke the story about the Army investigating it as such.

* CompositeCharacter: Various.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The use of the classical composition "Sarabande" on a 21st century war film.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: Inverted. The Jim Frederick book ''Black Hearts'', released a few years after this film, is basically the book version of it.

** The insurgents kidnap and behead a U.S. soldier who (coincidentally) accompanied the rapists at the house during the murders, as retribution for the murder. In real life, two soldiers were kidnapped instead of one, neither of them were present at the house. Also, the insurgents did not know about the murders as being perpetrated by U.S. forces (many Iraqis initially thought other Iraqis had done it) until after the Associated Press broke the story about the Army investigating it as such.

** [=McCoy=] (based on SPC Justin Watt), while video conferencing with his father about what to do about the murders, is told not to report it. In real life, the father was supportive of him and encouraged him to report it. Also Watt in real life did not go with the group to the house, but heard about what happened afterwards from another soldier, which led him to report it.

** The insurgents kidnap and behead a U.S. soldier who went to the house during the rape as retribution for the murder. In real life, two soldiers were kidnapped instead of one, neither of them were present at the house, and the insurgents did not know about the murders as being perpetrated by U.S. forces (many Iraqis initially thought other Iraqis had done it) until after the Associated Press broke the story about the Army investigating it.

** The insurgents kidnap and behead a U.S. soldier as retribution for the murder. In real life, two soldiers were kidnapped instead of one and the insurgents did not know about the murders as being perpetrated by U.S. forces (many Iraqis initially thought other Iraqis had done it) until after the Associated Press broke the story about the Army investigating it.