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Taxi to the Dark Side Play Trailer

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 91
Fresh: 91 | Rotten: 0

Taxi to the Dark Side is an intelligent, powerful look into the dark corners of the War on Terror.

100

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 28
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 0

Taxi to the Dark Side is an intelligent, powerful look into the dark corners of the War on Terror.

audience

87

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 5,913

My Rating

Movie Info

From the producer of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Who Killed the Electric Car? comes a documentary that takes a critical look at the Bush administration's policy on torture by investigating the death of an Afghan taxi driver who, after being taken into the custody of American soldiers at Bagram Air Force Base, suffered fatal injuries at the hands of U.S. soldiers. In 2002, American soldiers accused an Afghan taxi driver of taking part in a deadly rocket attack. Five days after being

R,

Documentary, Special Interest

Alex Gibney

Sep 30, 2008

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All Critics (91) | Top Critics (28) | Fresh (94) | Rotten (0) | DVD (8)

Like the Iraq war documentary No End in Sight, this movie about the U.S. military's systematic torture of terror suspects is a triumph not of reporting but of synthesis.

August 29, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Certain to inspire both outrage and sorrow, Alex Gibney's harrowing documentary -- about the torture and abuse of suspected terrorists in U.S. military prisons -- ranks among recent cinema's more excoriating moral indictments.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: NPR.org
NPR.org
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

March 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic
Arizona Republic
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Along with No End in Sight, this movie is one of the essential documentaries of the ongoing war.

March 17, 2008 Full Review Source: New Yorker
New Yorker
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

March 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film certainly makes its case, tracing a chain of abuse from Bagram to the notorious Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib, to the cells of Guantanamo.

February 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Filmmaker Gibney, whose involvement with anti-establishment exposés could conceivably mark him for his own eventual rendition by the forces of freedom, carefully guides us up the chain of command to the policy level.

April 28, 2011 Full Review Source: East Bay Express
East Bay Express

Consciously depressing, draining and damning. A dizzying, disorienting tone befits indictments against vulgarly abused power, and Gibney avoids judging soldiers already punished in accordance with a system of blame shamefully traveling down, never up.

October 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com
Suite101.com

A shocking expose about the American military's use of torture to get confessions--not always truthful ones--from prisoners suspected of terrorism. This is the kind of film that can make a difference!

May 26, 2009 Full Review Source: About.com | Comments (2)
About.com

[An] assiduously investigated, brilliantly argued documentary.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix
Boston Phoenix

Nails the fact that murder, injuries, sexual abuse, humiliation and degradation of prisoners was covered up and condoned at the highest levels of the Bush Administration.

March 19, 2009 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope
Laramie Movie Scope

A comprehensive movie, an everything-you-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask film, engaging, paced well, informative, and professionally polished.

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies
Window to the Movies

This is a deservedly acclaimed film; it's confronting and deeply saddening, but essential

November 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

Alex Gibney won best documentary Oscar for this gruelling, angry movie.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

An unflinching documentary that exposes one of the darkest chapters in American history.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

Gibney asks us to ponder the likelihood of getting good information from suspects turned in by bounty-hunting locals (more than 90% of those jailed for terrorist activity or connections to terrorists were fingered for a reward).

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan
San Diego Metropolitan

It's very powerful but disturbing stuff.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Yet another powerful indictment of actions connected to the war on terror.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Boston Herald
Boston Herald

A consistently strong piece of filmmaking with some breathtaking work by cinematographers Maryse Alberti and Greg Andracke.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Bullz-Eye.com
Bullz-Eye.com

Impossible to shake off.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle

Every voting adult concerned about the damages created by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11 should watch it. So should those who steadfastly believe that no real or lasting damages have been made by that administration.

October 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Bangor Daily News (Maine)
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Released on DVD just in time for the presidential election, Taxi to the Dark Side should enrage even more people than it already has.

September 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment (1)
Slant Magazine

Audience Reviews for Taxi to the Dark Side

"In 2002, a young cab driver picked up a few passengers near his home in Afghanistan... He never returned."

An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002.

REVIEW
Too few have heard of Dilawar. Those who have will probably never forget him. Alex Gibney certainly will not. His latest film starts and ends with this poor innocent taxi driver who, in 2002, was taken to the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan. Five days later, he was dead. Dilawar's death was the spark which ultimately led to the international awareness of what the Bush administration was doing to its detainees in the war on terror. Gibney's film, however, decides to look up the tree, not down, to discover who was really responsible for these unpleasant developments. Gibney's film is bolstered by frank and interesting interviews with some of the troops on the ground. Their remorse is clear, as is their disgust. And disgust is the right word. This is, by no means, an easy watch. The use of the appalling footage which has been generated by the recent conflicts is necessary because, if anyone is in any doubt about how morally reprehensible these tactics are, this film will make it abundantly clear.

However, this film's real strength is the structure of its attack on the tactics that are employed. Gibney demonstrates that the tactics used are hopelessly inadequate and never yield effective information. There is a cutting and brilliant comparison with the old techniques and the new where an interviewee, a former FBI interrogator, uses his old tools of interrogation ? words ? and you can feel yourself being persuaded. This is not just a polemic. It is a human story and a powerful and well-constructed argument. It should be essential viewing as what has happened at Guantanamo, Bagram and Abu Ghraib should never be forgotten. This is excellent, important film-making.
March 16, 2010
LorenzoVonMatterhorn
Lorenzo von Matterhorn

Super Reviewer

Persuasive film about military conduct and the ideologies that led to the torturing and eventual death of one man in particular, and how his story is a microcosm for what led to the Abu Ghraib scandal. Powerful material, to be sure, and the one man's tragic tale is affecting, but at the same time the film often feels one sided in it's presentation. For all the sanctimonious attitude, it never really offers up suggested solutions or alternatives for these complex problems. Nor does it differentiate between innocent prisoners and the guilty ones. By the end of the film, I felt there was no way of avoiding this scenario in the future. Cheery thought from any angle.
March 8, 2008
Beefy
Steve K

Super Reviewer

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