Review of Taxi to the Dark Side (2008) by Paul J — 10 Feb 2008

Just saw it last night. I would definately recommend it. basically, it is our duty to see it if we don't want to be remembered as "good germans" who plead ignorance to what is happening in our names. if we can remember the principles we supposedly represent - the constitution and the bill of rights - it will be abundantly obvious that the ramifactions of our torture policy since 2001 reflect very badly on the american people as a whole. If we are "the good guys," in this global war on terror, we have to have the courage to reclaim the moral high ground. We can't just say we're the good guys. We have to BE the good guys in comparison to our enemies. Not only is torture unethical, it's just plain ineffective as an interrogation tactic and vastly stupid as a strategy in the more important battle of public opinion that we will have to win in the countries where the extremist fanatics recruit the suicide bombers that will be targeting us. If they already hated us to begin with, why give them such easy ammunition to use against us in their own propaganda efforts to demonize 'The Great Satan'? Well, that's the political side of this review.

As far as how I would rate it as a film, I would still give it four stars for skillful documentary technique. Actually, it is a better example of effective documentary than the majority of documentaries I've seen.

P.S. watch for errol morris's new film coming out later this year called, "Standard Operating Procedure." As far as I know, it will be revisiting the details of Abu Ghraib with great scrutiny. Errol Morris is definately an auteur, and will have a very "artsy" spin I'm sure on his presentation of the material.