Taxi to the Dark Side

„In 2002 taxi driver Dilawar was picked up by US forces with his passengers in the desert and taken to Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Five days later he was dead. Injuries to his legs were compared with those he would have sustained if he had been run over by a truck – had he lived it was likely that his legs would have had to have been amputated due to the damage. With this as the starting point, this documentary tells the story of the role of „torture” in the war on terror, from Abu Ghraid to Guantanamo.

Having put Gibney’s documentary on Enron as one of my ten favourite films of 2005, I eagerly took up the opportunity the UK (and much of Europe) had to catch this on television ahead of the full release in the US in 2008. Shown as part of the BBC’s excellent „Why Democracy” series of films, this one opened with the caption question „can terrorism destroy democracy?”. To the casual listener the question appears to be about the ability of terrorists to bring down what we see as Government (ie by crashing planes into it) but really the question in regards this film appears to be more about whether our idea of freedom and democracy can survive the way we fight terrorism. As a result this film is about the use of „torture” against terrorist suspects, specifically focusing on the United States.”

(Taxi to the Dark Side)

In 2002 taxi driver Dilawar was picked up by US forces with his passengers in the desert and taken to Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Five days later he was dead. Injuries to his legs were compared with those he would have sustained if he had been run over by a truck – had he lived it was likely that his legs would have had to have been amputated due to the damage. With this as the starting point, this documentary tells the story of the role of „torture” in the war on terror, from Abu Ghraid to Guantanamo.

Having put Gibney’s documentary on Enron as one of my ten favourite films of 2005, I eagerly took up the opportunity the UK (and much of Europe) had to catch this on television ahead of the full release in the US in 2008. Shown as part of the BBC’s excellent „Why Democracy” series of films, this one opened with the caption question „can terrorism destroy democracy?”. To the casual listener the question appears to be about the ability of terrorists to bring down what we see as Government (ie by crashing planes into it) but really the question in regards this film appears to be more about whether our idea of freedom and democracy can survive the way we fight terrorism. As a result this film is about the use of „torture” against terrorist suspects, specifically focusing on the United States.

The Good Shepherd

„What you do? I don’t know what you do! You leave at five, you’re home at ten, seven days a week! I live with a ghost! I don’t know anything about you!”

„It isn’t about dedication and loyalty, it’s about belief in what we do.”

„Let me ask you something… we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the niggers, they got their music.”

(The Good Shepherd)

Valkyrie

„We have to show the world that not all of us are like him. Otherwise, this will always be Hitler’s Germany.”

„God promised Abraham that he would not destroy Sodom if he could find ten righteous men… I have a feeling that for Germany it may come down to one.”

„What makes you think you’re stronger than the very momentum of history?”

„Any problem on Earth can be solved with the careful application of high explosives. The trick is not to be around when they go off.”

„I’m a soldier, I serve my country. But this is not my country. I was lying out there bleeding to death, thinking, if I die now, I leave nothing to my children but shame. I know now there is only one way to serve Germany, and doing so I’ll be a traitor – I accept that. Just tell me, can these men see it through?”

(Valkyrie)