DVD: Taxi to the Dark Side
Submitted by The Evil Dr San... on Wed, 2008-11-19 10:48.
Keywords:
DVD Reviewed by The Evil Dr Sanchez, Esq.
Starring: Brian Keith Allen
The winner of 2008’s Best Feature Documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side looks at procedures (see: torture methods) used by the US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The story is framed by the death of innocent Afghan cab driver Dilawar, who was taken into custody at the Bagram Air Base and beaten to death by US soldiers.
Much like director Errol Morris’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Taxi … is a thorough investigation into the ‘anything goes’ methods of torture put into place by the US government after the 9/11 attacks. This is a situation in which suspects are presumed guilty before trial and subjected to all manner of indignities as well as physical, sexual and psychological cruelty that quite clearly go against the Geneva Convention (international standards for the treatment of prisoners of war). To think that the Bush administration was able to pass such directives without international intervention is a scary, scary thing.
Director Alex Gibney (Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson) uses interviews with (amongst others) a released detainee, US soldiers and US Attorney John Yoo as well as news footage and the now infamous Abu Ghraib torture pictures to two ends: in highlighting injustices that have been perpetrated and also to explain how the execution of them came to be sanctioned. Like SOP, Taxi to the Dark Side is a piece of work that will make most thinking people’s jaws drop and heads explode with indignation.
War is hell? It sure is.
