Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

Opening up with modest fanfare is this recent Oscar nominee for Best Documentary that acts as a well-suited companion piece to NO END IN SIGHT (the likely winner, in my estimation). I learned something from this film that I will never forget: when you hit a person, the muscles under the skin where you've hit them liquefy or partially liquefy; and if you hit a person enough time in enough places on their body, you can literally turn their entire musculature to jelly. In 2002, this is exactly how a young Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar died in an American prison camp after being ruthlessly beaten by soldiers. Dilawar was accused (without any proof) of being the triggerman in a rocket attack against U.S. forces. He died less than a week after being arrested. Whether by mistake or to send a message, the doctor who performed the autopsy on the driver stated the cause of death was homicide. This seemingly minor acknowledgement is the jumping off point for a graphic and unflinching look at the current administration's loosely defined policy on torture both in camps in the Middle East and in Guantanamo Bay.

Director Alex Gibney (ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, and the recent Sundance premiere GONZO, about Hunter S. Thompson) isn't afraid to show us exactly what he's talking about. He doesn't give us a chance to deny this horrendous behavior in our own minds. All of those blurred Abu Ghraib photos are here without the blurring. Gibney also has collected an impressive number of interviews with senators, soldiers and former interrogators, all of whom treat the interview experience as some sort of confessional. His collection of news footage of Chaney, Rumsfeld and the president, all dodging or lying about the question of torture as part of America's wartime policy is sickening. But it's the interviews with Dilawar's family and the soldiers ultimately put on trial for his death that stick with me to this day (I first saw this film in October as part of the Chicago Film Festival).

Gibney is a gifted filmmaker who makes a point to stick to the facts of not only the homicide story, but also about torture as a means of gaining intelligence (apparently it's about the least-effective way to get information from a prisoner). It is clear that the men who killed Dilawar knew he was innocent, which might be the greatest sin of all; they only seemed to be interested in beating him until he told them what they wanted to hear. If you're looking for someone new to blame for this shady policy, you could do worse than John Yoo, a one-time member of the Office of Legal Counsel, who argued the point that if the government decides a means of interrogation is to be used, it isn't torture. That's convenient. Much like NO END IN SIGHT, TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE is going to piss you off. You may not feel that your fragile state can handle one more film that gives you a reason to hate the government (it remains to be seen whether the upcoming change in administration will better the situation), but these two films act as a heartbreaking one-two punch that in the end will hopefully make you more aware and responsible citizens, and isn't that what it's really all about?

Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com