Academy Award winner for Best Documentary Feature, this Alex Gibney film probes into the use of torture by the US as part of their War on Terror. The title comes from the humble occupation of one Afghani who died at the hands of his US torturers, with the overhanging question being how many other innocents have also suffered. While the documentary comes off as incredibly one-sided, never mentioning useful information gained during torture and making it seem like every single person ever tortured by the US was innocent, it is still compelling stuff, exposing some scary systematic issues with the approach to torture taken by the US. At the film's most shocking, we see how some soldiers chose to take things "one step too far... have some fun and take some photos", with the fine line between torture and sadism highlighted. The individual soldiers are not demonised alone though, with the film often mentioning how much pressure was placed onto them to gain useful intelligence; it is almost no wonder that some took things so far. The film additionally looks at an intriguing range of torture processes, with a fascinating "sensory deprivation" method that many soldiers found more effective than physical pain. This is not the easiest film to watch with its candid insight to inhumanity in the face of incredible pressure, but it is thought-provoking stuff, biased as it may be.
Review of Taxi to the Dark Side
