courtesy of Jigsaw Productions United States soldiers lead prisoners throught a dust storm in Alex Gibney’s new documentary about torture, “Taxi to the Dark Side.”

Director Alex Gibney's new documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" stands in stark contrast to sappy chick flicks that show up in theaters around Valentine's Day. The graphic scenes of torture permeating this film, as opposed to scenes of couples falling in love, offer viewers a serious alternative to the host of movies coming out this February.

Gibney, the director of "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," reveals the story of the capture and detainment of an innocent Afghani taxi driver named Dilawar. The director uses this person's story to highlight the corruption of the Bush administration's methods to coerce detainees in Bagram and other US-operated prison camps. The effective structure that Gibney uses to tell the taxi driver's story creates an arresting viewing experience.

Dilawar is driving passengers in his taxi on a normal work day, when the United States military arrests him for illegally transporting terrorists.

Gibney portrays how the military, so determined to get information out of prisoners, captures people whom they barely suspect to be terrorists.

The military takes them to prisons where they often put them in isolation cells surrounded by barbed wire.

Handcuffing their arms to the ceiling and shackling their legs to a box, the military forces the victims to stand for inhumanely long periods of time. The military dehumanizes them, attacking their sexual standards and treating them like dogs, and breaking down their sensory systems by blasting loud music and exposing them to extreme light and darkness, hypnosis and deprivation.

Most of the film takes place at the Bagram prison, where Dilawar is taken. At these camps, most prisoners die within seven days of being at the camp. Dilawar dies within four.

The documentary claims that Bush abuses the fact that no lines exist when torturing the victims. Bush's Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appears in video throughout the movie, touring a prison and approving these techniques for getting information out of so-called criminals. At the same time, Bush publicly announces that he does not condone torture, yet he admits that the line is "vague."

To introduce Dilawar's family and their farm in Afghanistan, Gibney starts telling the subject's story alongside beautiful photographs of his home. This beautiful scenery interrupts the torture scenes throughout the film and gives the viewer a break from the "dark side" of humanity on display.

The film's use of horrifying images of torture taken by the military will shock the audience as it relays the extent to which the Geneva Convention articles are broken.

The structure of the film reveals the situation in the prison camps from many different angles and persuades the audience. Dilawar's family, interviews with military officials, soldiers, a fellow prisoner and shots of the prisoners being tortured to their deaths interchange to help the viewers understand what's taking place.

However, the attacks against Bush may be too aggressive.

Gibney represents the Bush administration, perhaps unfairly, as being an evil entity and seems to be taking Bush's words out of context a few times in video footage of him speaking publicly.

The reality of the prison camps shown by the gory footage outweighs Gibney's questionable choice of content from Bush's speech.

The graphic material in this R-rated film mostly includes the shots of prisoners being tortured. Given that the point of the film is to relay the harsh mistreatment of these sometimes innocent victims, Gibney needs this graphic content to make his point. In fact, it's the biggest factor in convincing his audience of its validity.

The breaking of these human beings may inspire the viewers to lead better lives themselves. This film is something that everyone should see and students need to be aware of the carelessness of Bush's administration.

Visuals/Imagery: A
Argument/Persuasion: B
Story structure: A
Overall: B+