Taxi to the Dark Side

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
Directed by Alex Gibney
***1/2

Careful
In the world of documentaries, it's a priceless gift to find a director who is careful with the facts. After all, most people make documentaries because they're so impassioned about an issue that they're almost certifiable. After seeing Alex Gibney's first documentary a couple years ago, I realized things could be different. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room was so well crafted, and yet so thorough and fair, that I put in on my Top 10 list for 2005. Then, when I heard a few months ago that his second film was on its way out, I didn't care what it was about — I needed to keep supporting this guy, one of the most gifted documentary artists out there. Needless to say, he did it again.

Outrageous
Taxi to the Dark Side isn't propaganda. It's a responsible work of art, whose director believes it had to be made. The world needed to know the truth about what American soldiers have been doing in prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and now Guantanamo Bay. The center of the story is the story of Dilawar, a taxi driver from Afghanistan who was turned over to the US military by Allied forces. He was eventually transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where he was tortured and died from his injuries.

The gutsy brilliance of the film is that the primary interviewees are the people responsible for his torture. This is no second-hand account of outrage — this is a retelling of the events from many of those who perpetrated them. Each is clearly struggling with the guilt, but also with the overwhelming sense that they were pushed by their supervisors to such egregious actions. And those supervisors, ultimately, were being steered by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, who redefined the word torture to suit their purposes, in blatant violation of the Geneva Convention. On top of that, the two men had wording inserted into their anti-terrorism bill which will keep them from ever being charged by the US with war crimes.

Disquieting
But truly—and sorrowfully—war crimes are actually what these men seem to be guilty of, as are the Army commanders who passed the mangled rules down to their  units. The soldiers who tortured prisoners, who took gloating, disgusting pictures of their crimes (the ones I show are, unfortunately, the milder ones)—these soldiers deserve to be tried and sentenced. And many were. But the true criminals in this calculated human rights violation have yet to be tried. Another sad addition is that in many cases, tortured prisoners had no connection to terrorism and were not even captured by US forces; they were turned over to the US by coalition forces, in exchange for financial reward. In both cases (money-baiting and prison torture), it's a criminal culture which has been encouraged by the people at the very top—and not unfortunate deviation by disturbed grunts. I admit there is no doubt more information which may come to light and clarify responsibility here. But as much as I grieve to admit it, future generations may need to pursue wisdom by allowing these men (Pres. Bush, VP Cheney) to be tried in the world court.

Despite what anyone says, or how patriotically they say it, there is never any justification to torture a human being. That a centuries-old torture technique like waterboarding would even come to be a grey area, is a sign that judgment has lost its moorings. I don't believe any film is a must-see film, but if you'd like to learn more about this facet of the war on terrorism, this is as conscientious a look as you're likely to get. Note: If it's not already clear, this film may be disturbing and is not recommended for all.

Comments

[Will]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080402/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/torture_memo

Looks like the US government is now admitting that the Bush administration's policies are indeed in violation of the Geneva convention.
Hmm...