Theatrical Review of Taxi to the Dark Side

---

Tools:
Send to a friend »

---

When asked if he was concerned about that the prisoners at Guantanamo would receive justice, George Bush had a definitive reply: "No, the only thing I know for certain is that these are bad people."

It´s nice to be certain, but I suppose that´s one of the privileges of being The Decider. Just in case you share this certainty, I offer you a surprising statistic. Of all the prisoners housed at the Bagram Internment base in Afghanistan, only 7% were captured by U.S. authorities. The other 93% were captured by Afghan militia forces and bounty hunters who, in many cases, collected a hefty reward for each prisoner handed over to U.S. forces. Perhaps President Bush isn´t as "certain" about the prisoners at Bagram as he is about the Guantanamo inmates, but then again we already know that our executive-in-chief doesn´t like to deal in "nuance."

In his Oscar-winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," Alex Gibney (director of 2005´s superb "Enron: The Smartest People in the Room") tells the story of one of the 93%, an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar who was apprehended by Afghan militia at a security check point and rushed, along with his passengers, to Bagram. Five days later Dilawar was dead. The military initially stated that he died of "natural causes" which, as it turns out, wasn´t entirely true. In fact, it wasn´t even slightly true. New York Times reporters Tim Golden and Carlotta Gail discovered that the military coroner had actually ruled the death a homicide resulting from severe blunt trauma to the lower body.

Once the story hit the mainstream media, the administration and the military coordinated efforts to point the finger at "a few bad apples" who were a little overzealous in their interrogation techniques. Unsurprisingly, the scapegoats were rank-and-file soldiers rather than officers or politicians. Gibney´s film digs much deeper into the story, and demonstrates in meticulous and uncomfortable detail just how systematic the use of torture by U.S. interrogators really is. And what he discovers will challenge even the hardiest constitutions. Hint: it´s not just a matter of "a few bad apples."

In the documentary´s most memorable and excruciating sequence, Gibney uses actors to recreate the various interrogation techniques officially approved by the administration for use in the field. Gibney never gets excessively graphic; he doesn´t need to. Besides, how could he offer anything more graphic than the now-infamous Abu Ghraib photos? In a way, it´s easier to understand the use of physical torture; it´s simple, it´s brutal, and everyone is capable of it. But it takes a truly twisted and sadistic mind to come up with some of the psychological techniques employed at Bagram, Abu Ghraib and, possibly, other sites. A short list includes prolonged sleep and/or sensory deprivation, sexual humiliation (including forced masturbation), the use of stress positions, and threats of imminent execution.

Gibney adopts a much more sober approach than his (currently) better-know peer Michael Moore. Though he uses recreations (clearly indicated as such in the film), he doesn´t rely on overwrought montages or cheap-shot jokes. In the recreated torture sequence, Gibney does nothing more than follow an actual log from one prisoner´s prolonged interrogation. This particular prisoner eventually cracked, making the interrogation a success if you ignore the minor fact that all the information he provided was completely false. That´s one of the niggling problems with the use of torture. While it fuels the macho sense that we´re "securing" America, it seldom, if ever, produces any reliable results. As much as this might shock you, it appears that people will say anything in order to stop being waterboarded. Unfortunately, Dilawar never even got the chance.

Gibney follows the paper trail, finding several military officers to blame along that leads inevitably to head honchos Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Rumsfeld´s signed the dotted line on many documents approving various torture techniques while an unapologetic Dick Cheney continues to vocally support methods such as waterboarding. It is Dick Cheney´s post-9/11 pronouncement that we have to "work the dark side" that forms part of the film´s title. I can understand why Cheney might say that, but does he have to sound so damned excited about the whole thing?

Of course, there´s plenty of blame to go around. I don´t know precisely who in the administration deserves to be held most responsible for the atrocities currently being committed in the name of "the Land of the Free." Is it Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, or somebody else? I don´t know. The only thing I know for certain is that these are bad people.

8/10 on the DVDTown scale.

---

---