Taxi to the Dark Side

Taxi to the Dark Side

Directed by: Alex Gibney

Starring: Dilawar

Genre: Documentary

Run Time: 106 min.

Release Date: April 2007

On The Web: Official Site

Teaser: Movie Trailer

Reviewed by Byron Merritt

I often complain about the lopsidedness of documentaries. And more often than not, whenever I mention this, people pepper me with insults because they believe "that’s what documentaries are designed to do." I beg to differ. Let me show you what I mean.

There are some seriously stilted documentaries that look at one side (and ONLY one side) of an issue and never give credence to the other. How about an interview with someone who opposes the views that the documentarians are putting forth? How about some information that might refute what is being told? This one-sidedness is just too easy to find. Things like AFTER INNOCENCE, THE FUTURE OF FOOD, and RELIGULOUS are prime examples (there are tons more but I don’t have the time nor inclination to mention them).

Occasionally – if not extremely rarely – a documentary will come along that allows both sides to speak. And such is the case with the Academy Award winner TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE.

The story starts and ends with the murder of Dilawar, a taxi cab driver in Afghanistan who is mistakenly picked up by U.S. forces and sent to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for interrogation. Once there, he soon dies from injuries sustained at the hands of his captors. The middle of this documentary is the meat and potatoes of what went horribly wrong with the U.S.’s war on terror. It’s a serious eye-opener. Not because it focuses on the problems the U.S. had with its detainees after 9/11, but because it allows everyone to speak about the successes and failures of torture. Yes, torture.

From the men on the ground (staff sergeants and privates) to the President’s advisory attorney at the U.S. Dept. of Justice (John Woo), we get to hear from just about everyone on the topic of the incarcerated detainees and their treatment at the hands of untrained and unprepared interrogators. It is astonishing, too, to learn that not a single person above the rank of sergeant was punished for the death of Dilawar (nor any other detainee who was abused). You mean to tell me that these grunts were responsible for ...everything? Give me a break!

I don’t delude myself any longer. The U.S. (either overtly or covertly) now uses "enhanced interrogation techniques" (e.g. torture). Make no doubt about it. We do it because we want to protect ourselves. But at what cost to our own moral compass? We claim to follow The Geneva Convention, but do we? Not as far as I can tell. And don’t take my word for it. Watch ALL of the people in this documentary talk about this very subject and come to your own conclusions.

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Image from Taxi to the Dark Side

Suspected terrorists are held by U.S. forces in the Middle East