Erik Moe: Critic at Large

At last night’s Oscars, Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side won the Best Documentary prize. I finally had a chance to catch the film late last week at the National Archives* and think that (for once) the best – and most important – of the nominated films definitely won. Taxi is a well-researched and troubling look at the expanding use of torture in the U.S. military since 9/11. Gibney builds a strong argument that very specific methods of torture have come into use through a carefully orchestrated fog of conflicting demands, intentionally leaked documents, and purposefully vague orders from the Department of Defense and the White House. These indirect orders leave low-ranking troops vulnerable to court marshalls while shielding top level officials from war crimes trials. The film takes its title from the case of an innocent taxi driver named Dilawar who was captured along with his passengers at an Afghan army checkpoint and eventually died as a result of repeated beatings while in U.S. custody at Bagram Air Base. Taxi goes on to explore the suspension of habeas corpus rights – unprecedented in U.S. history – that make it impossible for detainees to find out why they are being held and tortured. The film can be tough to stomach for its use of footage of physical abuse and sexual humiliation at Bagram, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo, but since these crimes are being done in our name and in violation of our own Constitutional principles, the film is essential viewing.

UPDATE: *Yes, I appreciate the irony of watching a film about the Bush administration’s abuses of the Constitution in the very building that the executive branch displays the Constitution.