Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

Alex Gibney exposes the haunting details of the USA's torture and interrogation practices during the War in Afghanistan.

Director:

Alex Gibney

Writer:

Alex Gibney

Stars:

Alex Gibney, Brian Keith Allen, Moazzam Begg

Won 1 Oscar. Another 10 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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

Storyline

Using the torture and death in 2002 of an innocent Afghan taxi driver as the touchstone, this film examines changes after 9/11 in U.S. policy toward suspects in the war on terror. Soldiers, their attorneys, one released detainee, U.S. Attorney John Yoo, news footage and photos tell a story of abuse at Bagram Air Base, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay. From Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Gonzalez came unwritten orders to use any means necessary. The CIA and soldiers with little training used sleep deprivation, sexual assault, stress positions, waterboarding, dogs and other terror tactics to seek information from detainees. Many speakers lament the loss of American ideals in pursuit of security.

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Plot Keywords:

afghanistan | cia | waterboarding | rocket attack | screaming | 

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Taglines:

In 2002, a young cab driver picked up a few passengers near his home in Afghanistan... He never returned.

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Genres:

Documentary | Crime | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 January 2009 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Kurs do Krainy Cienia

Filming Locations:

Yakubi, Afghanistan

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$13,656, 20 January 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$274,661, 1 June 2008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Discovery Channel,Jigsaw Productions,Tall Woods

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min 53 min (TV)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Scott Horton - President of the International League for Human Rights: It's very clear that it starts in the office of Vice President Cheney. He had a very strong view that we were not as aggressive and dealing with people in interrogation as we could or should be.

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Connections

Features 24 (2001)

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Soundtracks

In My Little Corner of the World
Words by Bob Hilliard Music by Lee Pockriss
Published by Better Half Music (Division of Bourne Co.)
and Emily Music Corporation
Performed by Yo La Tengo
Courtesy of Matador Records

User Reviews

Familiar yet essential information about American policy post-9/11

Taxi to the Dark Side doesn't contain anything wholly new, just more complete detail and important clarifications, such as the fact that Guantanamo uses very much the same basic methods to Abu Ghraib, though the location is cleaner and of course was not formerly used by Saddam Hussein. Dilawar, the Afghan taxi driver, was essentially beaten to death by American soldiers in the Bagram prison. He did not live long once his ill-trained but plainly-directed captors got hold of him, but his final hours were terrifying and horrible. They kicked his legs till they turned to pulp and would have had to be amputated, had he lived. A heart condition caused an embolism that went to his brain and was the cause of death, which on the official US papers given to Dilawar's family, in English so they did not know what they meant, was "homicide," but the officer in charge of the prison denied this when queried. Gibney, who was responsible previously for the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, presents interviews with some of the American soldiers responsible for Dilawar's death. They were, of course, only following orders. Other talking heads clarify the fact that the "gloves are off" policy by US authorities following 9/11/01 goes back to Cheney, approved by Bush, carried out with gusto by Rumsfeld, and sent directly down the line to the low-ranking and inexperienced people whose behavior after the Abu Ghraib scandal emerged was claimed by authorities to be that of people on the "night shift" or "a few bad apples." This film thoroughly disproves that claim.

Gibney shows how the US administration has become willing to blatantly disregard the rule of law, domestic as well as international, to fight their "war on terror" in ways that involved extreme cruelty and murder. In doing this they had the assistance of various corrupt or immoral--or, if you prefer, simply very misguided--men of the law and the judiciary.

The practices have been illegal. They may also have been variously unwise. The photos of Americans mistreating Muslim prisoners at Abu Ghraib are good recruiting material for anti-US terrorists. But torture also simply doesn't work, accomplishes nothing useful. Much time is given to Alfred McCoy, author of a book called 'The Question of Torture' and a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin. McCoy recounts that the CIA has been working on methods of coercion for all the decades of its existence, but their experiments have yielded little except lawsuits from victimized guinea pigs. Another authority, a former CIA operative, asserts that the best method to obtain information is to gain the confidence of the prisoner and convince him you can help him.

But post 9/11 "high value" prisoners were clearly tortured with anything their captors could think of--and then confessed to anything they could think of. The film clarifies that psychological experiments by Donald Hobb at McGill University in the Seventies proved sensory deprivation is the most effective means of torture; at least according to Hobb it can induce psychosis within 48 hours. The film shows that basically all "terrorism" suspects here and abroad have been subjected to sensory deprivation. That is what covering the ears, head, and hands does; and it was and is standard treatment to continue this for hours and days. This is more effective than pain. But effective at doing what? Breaking down the prisoner, not obtaining reliable information, or any information, for that matter.

Hence the widely spread US policies are not only harmful, dangerous, immoral, and illegal, but stupid and, in intelligence-gathering terms, worthless.

The "extraordinary rendition," waterboarding, sensory deprivation, etc. don't work in practical terms, but they have a political purpose. They convince people that the US is "getting tough" on its enemies. But the US has not been holding real enemies. If it were, the useless prisoners or wrongly captured would be filtered out, as Dilawar ought to have been. He was innocent. And now the US authorities are in a bad position. They cannot acquit even those few Guantanamo prisoners they are putting up for show trials, because to do so would reveal that they had been held for six years for no reason. That would look bad. Varieties of Orwellian terminology have been devised to describe these prisoners. The film also shows "tours" of Guantanamo and deflates the claims of the tour guides.

One reason for all this is who's been in charge: a group of draft dodgers who never served in a war. Senator McCain is shown in the film as a man who opposes torture for good reason: because he experienced it during his years in a North Vietnam prison.

Another issue: American has a developed a culture of guilty-as-charged, of hysterical attacks on imagined enemies. An example: the popular jingoistic TV program "24," starring Kiefer Sutherland as a CIA agent who "saves" millions by torturing mad terrorists with ticking bombs in Times Square. A Dark Side talking head says that there has never been such a person captured, and suggests that if there were, such a person would have the commitment to die rather than reveal information about his plot.

I do not know if torture never gets you information, though the assertion that insinuating oneself into the confidence of a prisoner is more effective makes sense. What is clear enough from Gibney's powerful and disturbing film (which contains many images not for the squeamish) is that the torture and wrongful imprisonment and lawlessness of the US as a nation post-9/11 indicate a country that has become very cruel and very stupid.

Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com recounts that at a post-screening Q&A when Gibney was asked what he would like his film to accomplish, he said "I hope it provokes some rage." "Well," says O'Hehir, "it worked on me." May it work on everyone who sees it.