Product Details

• Actors: Alex Gibney, Brian Keith Allen, Moazzam Begg, Christopher Beiring, Willie Brand
• Directors: Alex Gibney
• Writers: Alex Gibney
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Velocity / Thinkfilm
• DVD Release Date: September 30, 2008
• Run Time: 106 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001BEK8FQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,667 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Taxi To the Dark Side" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Among the slew of documentaries inspired by the post-9/11 war, arguably none is more important than Alex Gibney's Taxi to the Dark Side. The story it has to tell, with compelling thoroughness and no recourse to rhetoric, should be as disturbing to Americans supporting the war as it is to opponents. In December 2002, Dilawar, a young rural Afghan cabdriver, was accused of helping to plan a rocket attack on a U.S. base, clamped into prison at Bagram, and subjected to physical torture so relentless that he died after two days of it. But Dilawar was innocent--and he'd been denounced by the real culprit, who thereby took the heat off himself and won points with U.S. forces by giving them "a bad guy." Dilawar was the first fatal victim of Vice President Dick Cheney's devotion to "working the dark side"--torturing, humiliating, and otherwise abusing prisoners in the "Global War on Terror." His story, developed in horrific detail with testimony from the soldiers who tortured him, and also from two New York Times investigative reporters, becomes a prism for slanting light onto the "dark side" policy and the mindset behind it. The program at Bagram was deemed such a success that it served as the model for Abu Graibh the following year in Iraq, and both prisons became pipelines to the detainee facility at Guantánamo, Cuba.

The film's impact is powerful and complex. We come to see the very soldiers who broke Dilawar's body and spirit as victims, too--and patsies of a policy that, from Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on down, ignored the Geneva Convention and shrouded itself (and commanding officers) in "a fog of ambiguity" while the grunts took the fall. A lot of these grunts testify here, and the accumulation of their individual perspectives on a shared tragedy is devastating. The latter half of the film features penetrating commentary from critics of torture as a policy (Senator John McCain was still one at the time), all of whom agree that it doesn't work and it only damages us. And for Theatre of the Absurd, there's a PR tour of (a discrete portion of) the Guantánamo facility, which turns out to be kinda like summer camp: "They get ice cream on Sundays." Finally, Taxi to the Dark Side isn't about torture or politics or the justness or unjustness of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gibney is entirely correct when he says, "It's really about the American character and whether we have become something rather different from what we imagine ourselves to be." He's asking; he doesn't want it to be true. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to Watch, Important Polemical Documentary Critical of Torture Used by American Soliders, June 29, 2008

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taxi To the Dark Side (DVD)

Having seen "Taxi to the Dark Side" nearly three weeks ago at a private screening in midtown Manhattan, my mind is still reeling from the harsh, brutal images of torture committed by United States soldiers against suspected terrorists and irregulars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This may be the most important documentary film on the "War on Terror", and while it is a liberal polemic film, it does an effective job of arguing its case by showing its graphic images, instead of having someone like filmmaker Michael Moore seen onscreen ranting and raving. The central saga which runs through the nearly two-hour long film is the last taxi ride of a young Afghan taxi driver, Dilawar, an innocent bystander who was picked up by American troops, tortured, and died from his severe injuries at the American detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan.

"Taxi to the Dark Side" deserves the ample recognition it has earned, and may be remembered as a superb documentary film in the tradition of Edward R. Murrow's "Harvest of Shame". But it isn't perfect for the following reasons. First it accepts as gospel truth, the fact that most of those being held by American soldiers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Cuba are as innocent as Dilawar was. Second it lacks more insightful analysis from the likes of noted military defense attorney Eugene Fidell, who represented my cousin, former U. S. Army chaplain James Yee (Much to my amazement, Yee's filmed testimony was not included at all in the final cut of this film.). Will "Taxi to the Dark Side" change the opinions of many? Hopefully it will force those who've seen it to ask serious, probing questions about inhumane treatment of prisoners by some American soldiers, and perhaps persuade them to convince the Federal political leadership in Washington, D. C. to act more aggressively to avert similar instances of prisoner mistreatment in the future.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have your grunts do your dirty work, March 8, 2010

By 

avid mac user (midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taxi To the Dark Side (DVD)

quote from film, Cheney(working the "dark side") quote:
alot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion... to use any
means at our disposal.(end quote) Basically, the detainees ARE disposable actually seeing and hearing a
bout this in the press once the photos came out, and documentaries such as this one have been made.

The film focuses primarily on the interrogation practices(leading to deaths), especially following
how a taxi driver: Dilawar gets pulled into the hell of it all and what he and others went through
during their tortures at bagram. One man is seen on video smashing his head on a steel door to end
the torturing, both physical and psychological torture - leading to many of their deaths.

After seeing this documentary on the truths of what was going on, other questions begin to arise: what
was/is the responsibility of of Dick Cheney, Bush, Powell, Rumsfield? The superiors in charge of the
soldiers interrogating? The conscience of the soldiers performing these humiliating and beatings
leading to their deaths? Their manual for interrogation rules are pretty much: anything goes, out of
sight - out of mind, new rules neatly wrapped around propaganda. (war on terror cannot be defined,
it's ridiculous... it's propaganda to evoke emotion/fear). The Geneva Convention rules were thrown
out here at bagram, (and Guantanamo). Cheney's way of "spending time in the shadows" i guess, eh?

How many people taken into custody are really a threat or just people scape-goated out? Guilty by
association, then having no rights, no jury (i.e.-like we use in America) and then just tortured and
beaten to death After watching this, I felt angry and disgusted by our war profiteers in Washington.

Are Rumsfield, Bush, Cheney, and others in high command not the true definition of terrorists
highjacking the rights of americans, slowly destroying and re-writing the constitution in favor
of profit and power and deciding war policy which includes anything goes when it comes to human life -
as long as it pushes their own interests(money & power) forward? These are the questions i personally
asked myself after watching and absorbing this film. see it.

More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist
attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East,
according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the horror, September 29, 2008

By 

2 cents "meaningless memes" (chain stores road way USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taxi To the Dark Side (DVD)

"Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one."
Friedrich Nietzsche

Well that quote came to mind as I watched this depressing 2007 Academy Award Winner directed by Alex Gibney (ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM -also excellent). This time Gibney explores America's journey into darkness that is the so-called "war on terror" (BTW people, when you hear the words "war on" before anything you can bet it is a total disaster.). I was reminded of Nietzsche's warning and then of other lines from that great source of dark and enigmatic quotations..."Man is the cruelest animal." "Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." But back to the first quote, I think the men that got us into this situation already were nihilistic, souless beasts and so hardly did much changing. What we should realize is that *they changed America.* I am well aware of America's "mistakes" and sins of the past but things are different now... and many of us feel it. On top of that -and more importantly- sadly many, all too many, of the people they chased after weren't monsters at all, but just people. Regular people in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Take the story of "a young rural Afghan cabdriver", named Dilawar. Turned out he was falsely accused of helping to plan an attack on American troops. Dilawar was tortured for about two days and died. He is presented here as "the first fatal victim of Vice President Dick Cheney's devotion to 'working the dark side'--torturing, humiliating, and otherwise abusing prisoners in the 'Global War on Terror.'" We are told his story by the very soldiers that killed Dilwar, themselves shown to both tools and victims of the implementation of the Bush policy. And we hear from two New York Times investigative reporters who do a fine job of exposing this darker side of American power -- a darker side the New York Times I cannot help but remember helped in their ways to bring us to.-- Ohhh I hope you are aware of that?! You didn't forget did you? That drum beat for war was pounding so very loudly at the NYT. The name Judith Miller ring a bell? Well, she's just *one* of 'em. The whole mainstream media let us down and let us NEVER FORGET it. The film also details what methods are used in torturing prisoners: you won't ever let a right-winger or Rush Limbaugh "Dittohead" trivialize torture and Abu Graibh and the prsion camp at Guantánamo.

Buy this or at least rent it and get others to see it too. While it is depressing it is fascinating to anyone with any interest in foreign policy and concern for our country and it's future. It is NOT to be dismissed as a mere anti-Republican, anti-Bush diatribe à la Michael Moore. This is an objective, sober documentary about a subject every American absolutely regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum should be in touch with and have intimate knowledge of. It is our business what our government does in our name and the blood is not only on their hands.