The Documentary, "Taxi to the Dark Side" was commissioned and broadcasted by the BBC World Service and produces by the Discovery Channel. The directory and the writer Alex Gibney takes an investigative journey to expose the disturbing details concerning how the United States' military torture and interrogates their subjects during the period of War in the Afghanistan. The documentary focuses on the detention center called Bagram that is located in the southern Afghanistan. With this light, this paper utilizes various criteria to determine why I view this documentary as an excellent and distinctive documentary.
I enjoyed the suspenseful, creative and surprising plot of the documentary that enabled me to follow every detail of this documentary. The authoritative power of the director and the narrator allowed me to follow the plot and get to know the torture, murder, and abuse of the Dilawar, a taxi driver who was tortured to death at the US military base. For me, a good and creative plot should utilize authoritative elements of the director of the filmmaker such as credibility, reputation, trustworthiness, reliability and authenticity. This documentary can be, therefore, considered to adhere to such elements given that a reputable media commissioned it, and it was Written and Directed by a well-known filmmaker, Alex Gibney. Furthermore, the documentary won Oscar award in 2008, hence giving me the appetite to discover the secret to its success.
Another element of the movie that captured my attention is how the audience can quickly determine the objectivity of the filmmaker. With the use of the authentic sources of information from the military police at the beginning of the film, I was able to capture the intention of the filmmaker. It is clear from the start that the intention or the objective of the filmmaker is to conduct an investigative report that exposes how U.S. military are abusing prisoners and the suspects of terror. It is interesting how the documentary discovers whether the abuse and torture were the work of few military personnel or the orders came from the high authority. With this light, the documentary captures interviews with soldiers that were conducting the Dilawar's torture. Such soldiers involve, Sgt. Anthony Morton, Sgt. Thomas Curtis, Private Willy Brand, and Private Damien Corsetti. I also got the primary information from people such as Tim Golden, who is a New York Times reporter and John Yu, who is among the principles who drafted the United States' interrogation Policy after the 9/11 terrorist attack.
I was also impressed by the format and the documentary techniques of the documentary. In my opinion, the film art and the format of the documentary are quite set and regimented. The documentary captures several experts and soldiers who were involved in the torture of the taxi driver. At times, the narrator, Alex Gibney tells some parts of the story and then at some parts experts who are protagonists narrates the story. The documentary does not involve much background noise, and the sound of the narrator is audible. On the other hand, the visual effects of the documentary are arresting. For instance, the documentary has integrated fill light especially on the interviewers' faces that fill in the shadows that are not cleared by the key light.
In conclusion, the "Taxi to the Dark Side" documentary is very forthright and informative. I liked the way it provided an account of what was happening during the war in Afghanistan. The documentary has given me a clear sense of the events that were occurring to the prisoners of war who were detained by the U.S. Military.
Works Cited
Taxi to the Dark Side. Dir. A Gibney. Discovery Channel, 2007. DVD
