...all the more effective for its lack of hysteria. It isn't a finger-pointing song so much as a lament for the death of character - the quality that permits us to follow our principles despite our fears.
Taxi to the Dark Side (2008)
Genre: Education/General Interest
Screenwriter: Alex Gibney
Producer: Alex Gibney, Eva Orner, Susannah Shipman
Composer: Ivor Guest, Robert Logan
Reviews
Like a stomach-churning human-interest sidebar to the Iraq War overview of 'No End in Sight.'
For those willing to go along for the ride, it is a harrowing experience, as Gibney makes his case that the United States, in its haste to retaliate for the atrocities of 9/11, has itself crossed a bloody line in the sand.
The film should be applauded for being so thoroughly assembled and well-researched.
There seems to be far more shrouded in darkness than Gibney's flashlight reveals.
[Gibney] raises an alarm to America's conscience, angrily asking why we the people have allowed our values - and even our safety - to be compromised by such secret policies.
A film like this remains important, both as an indictment of the present day and as a warning to future generations that the ends don't always justify the means.
For all its brilliant dissecting of U.S. policy, practice, and cover-up, the movie closes with an effort to make Dilawar visible once again.
Taxi to the Dark Side is a stunning indictment of torture as policy, a brilliant documentary whose arguments are so well-supported and reasonably made that you can't ignore them.
'America -- when she is right, to be kept right. When she is wrong, to be put right.' If that's your idea of patriotism, take time out to see Taxi to the Dark Side.
Not a pleasant experience, but just as not every film needs to be 'important,' neither does every film need to be empty escapism.
How dark? You've probably already had some inkling but decided you didn't really want to know. The movie made me physically sick.
Along with No End in Sight, this movie is one of the essential documentaries of the ongoing war.
An astonishingly comprehensive look at the use of torture (or whatever euphemism you prefer) in the war on terror.
[Director] Gibney posits that reliable but time-consuming interrogation techniques, which required skill and patience, have been replaced by procedures one person describes as 'this side of the Marquis de Sade.'
[D]oes what it does so damn well, and... what is does is so sadly so vitally necessary, even if you wish it weren't...
Taxi to the Dark Side joins a growing list of outspoken documentaries that question the rationale and conduct of America's presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our willingness to destroy freedom in order to save it.
Utterly engrossing and captivating in its inquisitive scope. Provocative and polarizing, Taxi invites us to eavesdrop on a movement of mistrust and mischievous mayhem
I couldn't articulate my devastation. This film remains with you like a wound bleeding truth.
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