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Taxi to the Dark Side
THINKFilm
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FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for disturbing images and content involving torture and graphic nudity
Taxi to the Darkside, the latest prize-winning documentary from Oscar-nominee Alex Gibney, confirms his standing as one of the foremost non-fiction filmmakers working today. A stunning inquiry into the suspicious death of an Afghani taxi driver at Bagram air base in 2002, the film is a fastidiously assembled, uncommonly well-researched examination of how an innocent civilian was apprehended, imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately murdered by the greatest democracy on earth. Intermingling documents and records of the incident with candid testimony from eyewitnesses and participants, the film uncovers an inescapable link between the tragic incidents that unfolded in Bagram and the policies made at the very highest level of the United States government in Washington, D.C. Combining the cool detachment of a forensic expert with the heated indignation of a proud American who holds his country to a high standard, Gibney’s film reveals how the Bush administration has systematically betrayed the very ideals it professes to uphold. (THINKFilm)
| GENRE(S): |
Documentary
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| WRITTEN BY: |
Alex Gibney
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| DIRECTED BY: |
Alex Gibney
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| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: September 30, 2008
Theatrical: January 18, 2008
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| RUNNING TIME: |
106 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
A triumph not of reporting but of synthesis.
100
San Francisco Chronicle
Tamara Straus
A rage-inducing expose.
100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This movie does not describe the America I learned about in civics class, or think of when I pledge allegiance to the flag. Yet I know I will get the usual e-mails accusing me of partisanship, bias, only telling one side, etc. What is the other side? See this movie, and you tell me.
100
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
It is, at once, among the most riveting and hard-to-watch documentaries of recent years.
91
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Where "No End" is cool and measured, Taxi is hot, anguished, and sometimes as difficult to watch as pictures of torture ought to be.
91
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
As numbing as the drumbeat of downbeat documentaries can be, as hard as it is to even be shocked at the depravities committed in our name, a film like this remains important, both as an indictment of the present day and as a warning to future generations that the ends don't always justify the means.
90
Film Threat
Matthew Sorrento
"Taxi” captures the evil that many men do under the guise of American justice. Just as Bardem's menacing Chigurh approaches his targets in "No Country," American military administrators approached Afghan detainees with shackles and convoluted policy in their pockets.
88
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
The film quickly becomes one of the most powerful, carefully researched investigations of the moral-legal side effects of current American military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's terrifying in a way that sneaks up on you.
88
TV Guide
Ken Fox
What one interviewee calls a "fog of ambiguity" surrounding what was and wasn't officially authorized shielded superior officers and key members of the Department of Defense -- namely Donald Rumsfeld.
88
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
So disturbing, on so many levels.
88
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Gibney also made the Oscar-nominated "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," and he gets remarkable access to people you wouldn't expect to talk to him (including U.S. interrogators charged with crimes at Bagram).
80
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
If recent American history is ever going to be discussed with the necessary clarity and ethical rigor, this film will be essential.
80
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
It’s the equal of "No End in Sight" in its tight focus on the nuts and bolts of incompetence, and it surpasses any recent melodrama in the empathy it evokes for both its victims and--surprisingly--victimizers.
80
The New Yorker
David Denby
Along with “No End in Sight,” this movie is one of the essential documentaries of the ongoing war.
78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Impossible to shake off.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Jennie Punter
Relentless, thorough and devastating.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Bill White
Journeys into a new heart of darkness, the destination of which lies outside the frontiers of humanity.
75
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
Alex Gibney's forceful documentary starts with a single tragedy: the torture of an Afghani prisoner at Bagram Air Base. By the time it's over, he's broadened his focus into a documentary so damning of the U.S. government, it's hard to believe he even got it made.
75
Chicago Tribune
Tasha Robinson
An invaluable document, both for its hard questions and for the sickeningly unflinching interviews that provide the answers.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
As viewers of his Enron film will testify, Gibney is a scrupulous director, and Taxi to the Dark Side is filled with detailed factual information.
70
Village Voice
Nick Pinkerton
Taxi is an impressively blueprinted work. Still images--from autopsy tables, makeshift holding cells, the Oval Office--are selected and deployed to maximum effect.
70
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Taxi to the Dark Side adds something new to our awareness -- interviews with soldiers who served as interrogators in Afghanistan, and in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison, and who, in some cases that ended in courts martial, served prison terms themselves.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Stephen Farber
In the end, this passionate indictment of present U.S. policies stirs both sadness and outrage.
70
Variety
Jay Weissberg
Photos and video of torture at Bagram and Abu Ghraib are the most viscerally disturbing elements of Taxi to the Dark Side, but the way soft-spoken soldiers were transformed into beasts with the tacit approval of the higher-ups is just as profoundly chilling.
70
Washington Post
John Anderson
Although it's tempting to call Gibney's documentary "the one Iraq film you MUST see this season!!!" (which, by the way, it is), it's not just about Iraq. It's about torture as policy.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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