THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Taxi To The Dark Side"
A Cab Driver's Ride To Hell's Inferno
By
Omar P.L. Moore/The
Popcorn Reel
February 8, 2008
Torture 'R U.S.: A scene from Alex Gibney's Oscar-nominated documentary "Taxi To The Dark Side", which expanded its release today in North America. Earlier this week, the CIA's chief admitted that the U.S. military conducted waterboarding torture on Iraqi and Al Qaeda detainees. (Photo: ThinkFilm)
February 8, 2008
Torture 'R U.S.: A scene from Alex Gibney's Oscar-nominated documentary "Taxi To The Dark Side", which expanded its release today in North America. Earlier this week, the CIA's chief admitted that the U.S. military conducted waterboarding torture on Iraqi and Al Qaeda detainees. (Photo: ThinkFilm)
Alex Gibney's outstanding documentary "Taxi To
The Dark Side" opens today in several U.S. cities while continuing in New
York and Los Angeles, and the recently Oscar-nominated documentary
distributed by ThinkFilm tells the deeply harrowing story of Dilawar, a cab
driver in Iraq who was kidnapped, renditioned and killed while in Basra and
suffered the most extreme and inhumane torture at the hands of U.S. soldiers
following orders sent from on high in civilian command.
"Taxi" features meticulously researched data and information that has been out in the cyberspace ether for a long time, but has never been brought to light in such a clinical way. Mr. Gibney soberly chronicles an intense vision of the Bush Administration's policy of torture, even as they publicly state otherwise. He directed "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room" and executive produced the Oscar-nominated documentary "No End In Sight" and now has a more personal dimension to "Taxi", which features his late father, a former military man who implored him to make this documentary and find the truth wherever it led. Mr. Gibney has certainly crafted an undeniably compelling dossier on an issue which has never been dealt with in depth, and he achieves a stunning power and clarity in the way he lays out facts, documented accounts and interviews with higher ups in the administration and with those who administered the torture to Dilawar and to countless other Iraqis.
There are some graphic moments featuring nudity and torture that are disturbing; some of the pictures shown are the same ones that U.S. senators and House of Representatives politicians got to see behind closed doors several years ago -- and until this documentary had not been seen in any U.S. film or news program. The horror of Dilawar's suffering is only the jumping off point for Mr. Gibney's film however, serving as a metaphorical moment for an American administration which unabashedly denied that torture was part of its regimen. (This week, while no-one was paying attention, CIA chief Michael Mukasey admitted before a U.S. congressional committee that his agency practiced waterboarding torture on at least three Al Qaeda detainees.)
Mr. Gibney's documentary uses facts to bully the perpetrators of what would arguably be prosecutable war crimes in any other day and age under the Geneva Convention but which in a post-9/11 America are justified by some as necessary evils. The director has crafted a "Taxi" ride that must be taken, at all costs.
"Taxi To The Dark Side" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for disturbing images, and content involving torture and graphic nudity. The film's duration is one hour and 46 minutes.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2008. All Rights Reserved.
"Taxi" features meticulously researched data and information that has been out in the cyberspace ether for a long time, but has never been brought to light in such a clinical way. Mr. Gibney soberly chronicles an intense vision of the Bush Administration's policy of torture, even as they publicly state otherwise. He directed "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room" and executive produced the Oscar-nominated documentary "No End In Sight" and now has a more personal dimension to "Taxi", which features his late father, a former military man who implored him to make this documentary and find the truth wherever it led. Mr. Gibney has certainly crafted an undeniably compelling dossier on an issue which has never been dealt with in depth, and he achieves a stunning power and clarity in the way he lays out facts, documented accounts and interviews with higher ups in the administration and with those who administered the torture to Dilawar and to countless other Iraqis.
There are some graphic moments featuring nudity and torture that are disturbing; some of the pictures shown are the same ones that U.S. senators and House of Representatives politicians got to see behind closed doors several years ago -- and until this documentary had not been seen in any U.S. film or news program. The horror of Dilawar's suffering is only the jumping off point for Mr. Gibney's film however, serving as a metaphorical moment for an American administration which unabashedly denied that torture was part of its regimen. (This week, while no-one was paying attention, CIA chief Michael Mukasey admitted before a U.S. congressional committee that his agency practiced waterboarding torture on at least three Al Qaeda detainees.)
Mr. Gibney's documentary uses facts to bully the perpetrators of what would arguably be prosecutable war crimes in any other day and age under the Geneva Convention but which in a post-9/11 America are justified by some as necessary evils. The director has crafted a "Taxi" ride that must be taken, at all costs.
"Taxi To The Dark Side" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for disturbing images, and content involving torture and graphic nudity. The film's duration is one hour and 46 minutes.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2008. All Rights Reserved.