The Worst Film Ever

Admirable film.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a documentary about how torture was normalized by Americans post-9/11. We see interviews with "interrogators", victims and other people who were involved with these actions and decisions. We learn about the "interrogation techniques" they used to get the necesarry information they need and/or they want. Its helpful if you were completely oblivious to what happened during those years, if not its still good.

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.

This was a great and troubling movie about the U.S. military's use of torture. You will not easily forget scenes and details from this movie, especially because at the heart, it is the story of an innocent man murdered by Americans who think they are protecting our nation. It left me uneasy and with questions that I am still thinking about, years after seeing the movie. Where was the oversight from elected officials? How will we ever end the war on terror?Alex Gibney is a talented filmmaker and this is among his better films. I would strongly recommend that you see it. I also hope that if Alex is reading IMDb, he decides to make another movie about how the War on Terror has continued under a different president.

A bomb went off, and we looked away. The medieval tableaux of Abu Ghraib did manage to shock us for a while. Then, some people were punished, and we convinced ourselves that was all of them.According to the Global Views survey, in 2010, 42 percent of Americans were in favor of "using torture to extract information from suspected terrorists." This is 6 points higher than in 2008; 12 points higher than in 2004. Could this become a majority soon? Are these people who have seen and remember those photographs? Have they reconciled themselves to such scenes? Could I? "Taxi to the Dark Side" is an exceptionally meticulous documentary that takes the case of an Afghan taxi driver who was beaten to death by interrogators at Bagram base in 2006, and puts it in the context of American anti-terror policy. It shows young soldiers with no training in interrogation, given vague instructions and strong expectations of results - and when the story goes public, they are hung out to dry. One interview, one document at a time, the fog of legal and moral ambiguity is dispelled, until televised denials by administration officials shrink to nothing next to a stark red pillar of human suffering.Maybe our culture won't let us believe that the good guys can do such things to innocent people. The detective throws down his badge and solves the case outside the system. He hits a man in the face; he gets a name. He pistol-whips another man; the man is reluctant, and he gets shot in the leg. A bartender gets dunked into dishwater. He almost dies, but gives up his contact.There was ambiguity in movies like The French Connection, but at some point, the detective stopped ever being wrong. This documentary makes a compelling suggestion that popular entertainment has helped spread the idea of justified and reliable torture.Taxi to the Dark Side won the Oscar for best documentary, and nobody saw it. It barely made a quarter of its budget. That's really too bad. It's a good idea for citizens to see it, then think about whether they believe that everything's OK.