Taxi To The Dark Side By Alex Gibney

Admittedly, the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, directed by Alex Gibney, was incredibly hard to watch. The imagery and narrative was completely overwhelming in its portrayal of the explicit human rights violations that were perpetrated by the US military and government in Afghanistan and Guantanamo bay. What directly comes to mind while viewing this documentary, is the blatant twisting of the American exceptionalism for political means.
The democratic fundamentals of the American constitution, originally perpetuated the notion that the US was exceptional in its protection and emphasis of the Rule of Law and the rights of the individual protected within the constitution. This is best exemplified in the last moments of the documentary where the director’s father Frank Gibney, a former WWII Navy Interrogator, states that in WWII the Americans were the “good guys” fighting against the atrocities of fascism and the inhumane treatment of individuals. This narrative of American Exceptionalism, as both Davis and Gibney exemplify, has
Politically, the Executive Branch and the military changed the definition of a prisoner of War to Enemy Combatant to circumvent international and domestic law. As presented in Taxi to the dark Side, this meant that a person under American custody was not protected under the Geneva conventions. This redefinition served as a reconceptualization of what it means to be human, an individual’s eligibility to rights, and demonstrated the limitations of the use democracy under the Bush administration. The Bush Administration, created an environment where individuals could exist in a state of limbo, not being covered by the Rule of Law, and thus outside the parameters of democracy, the very thing that the Bush Administration was attempting to