Taxi to the Dark Side

On DVD and HBO

This won the Oscar for Best Documentary a few months ago and traces the origins and full extent of America’s post 9/11 torture policy. It centers on Dilawar, an innocent Afghanistan taxi driver who died in US military custody in 2002. The film logically transfers the abuses in Afghanistan to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay and makes a pretty good case that approval came from the very top levels of the Bush Administration . . .

Writer-director Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) interviews military personnel involved in the abuse who are so relaxed and soft-spoken that you can’t imagine them abusing a helpless, bound, unarmed man. Gibney clearly sides with the troops, insisting it’s the atmosphere created (not the people) that is the problem. And those people who create the atmosphere are the blame. Gibney connects Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld a little too simply to the abuses, but does show why America’s stature around the world has fallen so far.

One of the most startling facts presented is that one of the main witnesses who connected Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda in late 2002 was tortured before giving up that information. He was later determined to be an unreliable witness. I’m not sure I agree that only 1% of Guantanamo’s detainees have actually been terrorists, but the arguments against torturing are convincing. John McCain is featured prominently speaking out against torture. The Abu Ghraib photos are unedited and there’s probably too much full frontal male nudity for even Madonna to deal with, but the shock value is effective. This is a difficult film to grade since it completely succeeds with its goals, but it’s doubtful I will ever watch it again. But like that other great 2007 documentary No End in Sight, it should be seen a large audience. B+