Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
Documentary by Alex Gibney
Studio: ThinkFilms/Image Entertainment TF4940DVD
Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 color
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
Extras: Commentary track by Alex Gibney, Outtakes, Extended Interviews, Theatrical trailer
Length: 106 minutes
Rating: *****
Winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, this hard-hitting and often difficult-to-watch documentary comes from the director of the Oscar-nominated doc, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. It adopts a rigorous, highly documented approach – without exaggeration or humor (as used by some documentarians) – to the story of the torture and killings that have gone on under the supervision of U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.
Using interviews with soldiers at the locations, as well as footage from TV interviews of some of the administration staff involved, the abuses of power and dismissing of the Geneva Convention protocols are explored. The presentation uses as a prime example the story of an innocent Afghan taxi driver, Dilawar, who was somehow pegged as being involved in rocket attacks on the U.S. military, and killed only five days after his arrest. The evidence makes it clear that the atrocities were not due to just “a few bad apples,” but to the present administration’s decision to embrace torture as a proper weapon in the fight against terrorism. The stills taken by the U.S. participants are shocking and more graphic than those seen in most of the media at the time of the scandal. The image quality of the widescreen display is excellent and the often moving soundtrack music supports the images. This is a most important documentary in this era of many worthwhile documentary features.
– John Sunier
