Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Alex Gibney

Writer (WGA):

Alex Gibney (written by)

Release Date:

13 June 2008 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002.

Plot Keywords:

Torture | Afghanistan | Taxi | Guantanamo Bay | Taxi Driver

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 7 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Alex Gibney	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Brian Keith Allen	...	Soldier - New York studio shoot reenactment
Moazzam Begg	...	Himself - Torture victim (as Moazzam Beg)
Christopher Beiring	...	Himself - Captain
Willie Brand	...	Himself - Military police
George W. Bush	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jack Cafferty	...	Himself (archive footage)
Brian Cammack	...	Himself - Military police
William Cassara	...	Himself - Attorney
Doug Cassel	...	Himself - Professor
Dick Cheney	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jack Cloonan	...	Himself - Former FBI agent
Damien Corsetti	...	Himself - Military interrogator
Thomas Curtis	...	Himself - Sergeant, military police
Greg D'Agostino	...	Soldier - New York studio shoot reenactment
Lynndie England	...	Herself (archive footage)
Tommy Franks	...	Himself - General (archive footage)
Carlotta Gall	...	Herself - New York Times reporter
John Galligan	...	Himself - Attorney
Frank Gibney	...	Himself (as Frank B. Gibney)
Tim Golden	...	Himself - New York Times reporter
Alberto Gonzales	...	Himself (archive footage)
Charles A. Graner	...	Himself (archive footage)
Gita Gutierrez	...	Herself - Attorney
David Hayden	...	Himself - Colonel (archive footage)
Donald O. Hebb	...	Himself - Behavioral Psychologist
Scott Hennen	...	Himself (archive footage) (voice)
Jay Hood	...	Himself - Brigadier General
Scott Horton	...	Himself - President of the International League for Human Rights
John Hutson	...	Himself - Rear admiral, retired
Maan Kaassamani	...	Detainee - New York studio shoot reenactment
Anthony Lagouranis	...	Himself - Military intelligence (as Tony Lagouranis)
Eric Lahammer	...	Himself - Military interrogator
Carl Levin	...	Himself - Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee
Steven Loring	...	Himself - Sergeant
John McCain	...	Himself (archive footage)
Alfred W. McCoy	...	Himself - Professor of political history
James McGarrah	...	Himself - Rear Admiral
Dan McNeill	...	Himself - General (archive footage) (voice)
Geoffrey D. Miller	...	Himself - Major General (archive footage)
Alberto J. Mora	...	Himself - General Counsel of the US Navy, retired
Anthony Morden	...	Himself - Sergeant, military police
Dan Mori	...	Himself - Major
Richard Myers	...	Himself - US Chief of Staff (archive footage)
Karyn Plonsky	...	Soldier - New York studio shoot reenactment
Colin Powell	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jack Reed	...	Himself - Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee (archive footage)
Condoleezza Rice	...	Herself (archive footage)
Donald Rumsfeld	...	Himself - U.S. Secretary of Defense (archive footage)
Selena Salcedo	...	Herself - Sergeant
Randall M. Schmidt	...	Himself - Lieutenant General
Clive Stafford Smith	...	Himself - Lawyer
Glendale Walls	...	Himself - Military intelligence
Lawrence Wilkerson	...	Himself - US Army colonel, retired
Tom Wilner	...	Himself - Attorney
Carolyn A. Wood	...	Herself - Captain (archive footage)
John Yoo	...	Himself - US Department of Justice

MPAA:

Rated R for disturbing images, and content involving torture and graphic nudity.

Runtime:

106 min | Finland:53 min (TV)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Argentina:13 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba) | Canada:R (British Columbia) | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:18A (Ontario) | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Yakubi, Afghanistan

Company:

Discovery Channel

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2008-02-23)" (2008)

The award-winning documentary you're not going to see

... at least not on Discovery Channel.

Said director Alex Gibney recently (on DemocracyNow): "Well, it turns out that the Discovery Channel isn't so interested in discovery. I mean, I heard that — I was told a little bit before my Academy Award nomination that they had no intention of airing the film..."

Discovery Channel has bought the exclusive TV rights for the next 3 years, but Gibney hopes they can be persuaded to sell them "for a profit".

And it is a powerful film. Although it reveals nothing new about the torture and degrading techniques we've become accustomed to over the last three years, it puts politician's faces and statements in context with a "real" victim and a name: young Afghan Taxi driver Dilawar, who was arrested at a checkpoint for alleged involvement in a rocket attack. Five days later he died at Bagram, after two days of continuous beatings, standing up in chains inside his solitary confinement cell. The American coroner checked "homicide" on his death certificate and handed it with the body to his family, who couldn't read English.

The film then takes us along the ride from Afghanistan to the present day. Dilawar was only the beginning, and one of two detainees who died from torture roughly at the same time. Today, about 180 people have died in custody, 38 with "homicide" on their death certificates. Dilawar's torturers tell their story. They took the rap, they repent, but is this justice? What's the bigger picture, the one that's usually glossed over, and the reason Discovery deems this documentary "controversial"?

Alex Gibney dismantles "Torture the American way" just like he did the Enron scandal in "Enron: The smartest guys in the room", from the inside to the bigger inside, like a Russian doll. You will hear the words "war crimes", see the infamous torture memo, Abu Ghraib photos and film, Kiefer Sutherland torturing with electric wires, Guantanamo, Cheney, Rumsfield, Bush and their lawyers wriggling around the t-word and egging on that "we must take our gloves off". "We have to work the dark side, if you will. We're going to spend time in the shadows", says Cheney.

"But... is the dark side stronger?"

"No. Quicker, easier, more seductive. Anger, fear, aggression, the dark side are they.

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."