The Documentary, "Taxi to the Dark Side" was created by the BBC World Service and produces by the Discovery Channel. The directory and the writer Alex Gibney takes an investigative journey to show the disturbing details concerning how the United States' military were working with 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. The paper would show why I view this movie as an excellent documentary.
Over the years since the "war on terror" began hundreds of prisoners, who have been alleged to be terrorists have been dying in suspicious circumstances. "Taxi to the Dark Side" takes into an account of the reckless abuse of power by the United States' military and intelligence personnel during the time of Bush Administration. Although the story focuses on the torture and murder of Dilawar, it also features various allegation of the prisoners' torture. His villagers considered Dilawar as a straightforward and kind man, and this raised the question of why the man was detained even before given a trial. It is so unfortunate that five days after Dilawar was arrested, he died in his prison a week later after another detainee was tortured to death in the same detention center. The investigation as provided by the documentary shows that Dilawar died after sustaining injuries that were inflicted by the soldiers in the arresting center. After a medical examination, massive tissue damages were discovered in his legs, illustrating that he was subjected to torture (Gibney 18').
I enjoyed the suspenseful, creative and surprising plot of the documentary that enabled me to follow every detail of this movie. 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 suffered 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. Therefore, there were some people who were commissioned to work on the reputation of the media, and it was Written and Directed by 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.
Analyzing the above elements, Alex Gibney has creatively revealed the dark side of the war on terror. Various articles and books have been published to justify the allegation of torture, murder, and abuse of the prisoners in the detention centers. For instance, Miles verifies the claim made by Gibney's documentary concerning the suspicious death of Dilawar. Similar to the documentary, Miles reveals the contradictory statement by General Daniel McNeil, a U.S. force commander in Afghanistan. General McNeil claimed, "Dilawar died of natural causes and that 85 percent of his coronary artery was obstracted." (Miles 69). However, the reporters managed to access the death statement from the family indicating that he died of homicidal injuries, which was contradicting discovery.
The claim made by Miles and Gibney raises the question on the legality and efficacy of the interrogation tactics during the Bush administration. Incorrect decisions that were made during the interrogation processes resulted in brutal and inhuman deaths such as Dilawar's death. However, the officials such as General McNeil have been in the frontline to cover the truth. For instance, General McNeil claims that Dilawar acquired his injuries before he was arrested. However, this information is suspicious because if he had acquired injuries, where were the doctors. According to Miles, "it is about the professional duty to promote the well-being of imprisoned patients. Medical complicity with torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of prisoners is nor a "political" issue." Therefore, if the claims were true, the medical ethics were not put into place to save Dilawar's life.
Holding the claims, that Dilawar death was as a result of brutal torture, exposes the interrogation unit of having ‘rogue' agents and interrogators during the Bush regime. The documentary suggests that the interrogators were using tactics such as hypothermia, dog barking, sleep deprivation, and extreme stress positioning. Besides the fact that such tactics result in immense pain to the victims, it is evident that they cause serious harm and even result in death as shown in the case of Dilawar. As long as we consider those tactics to violate human rights and consider them ‘torture' when utilized by others, we should agree there are ‘rogue' agents and interrogators.
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 in the prisoners of war who were detained by the U.S. Military. These claims are also supported by various scholars such as Steven Miles, who reveals that hundreds of prisoners have died of torture executed by the military personnel and approved by the high-ranking officials in the government.
Works Cited
Taxi to the Dark Side. Dir. A Gibney. Discovery Channel, 2007. DVD
Miles, Steven H. Oath Betrayed: America's Torture Doctors. Berkeley: U of California P, 2009. Print.
