I watched Taxi to the Darkside while at my aunt's house for easter. The conclusion of this documentary left me heated towards those soldiers who inflicted such pain upon mostly innocent people. After watching the film I had to drive to back to school and I am thankful for those four hours because it gave me time to think on the matter.
At first I was angry as I had mentioned earlier but then I began to question every aspect of the film. It was disturbing. These questions ran through my head over and over again: How could soldiers treat prisoners the way they did? Why did they do it? Why didn't they refuse to do what was clearly inhumane? I could not stop. But then, I pondered...
What if I was put into their position? Would I commit the same horrific crimes they had if I had been in their shoes?
With all those thoughts in mind, coming up with the answers to the many questions that I asked myself became almost impossible to answer because I was afraid of the answers. I am not saying in any way that I excuse the actions of the soldiers in the film but I am saying that after thinking more and more about it I have found some serious perspective on the issue. The situation that they were put into was an extremely tough one and I could not imagine the emotional toll that it took on them, nonetheless what the prisoners had to experience.
It was an emotional documentary that I believe was meant to fill the viewers with animosity toward the government. But for me, it did much more that that; it opened my eyes to the reality of war and made me question the purpose of the film from the beginning. Do you think Alex Gibney, the director of the documentary, would have done anything different than the soldiers he was exploiting if he were put in their situation?
I thought the way you wrote your blog was quite whimsical for the disturbing topic it was about. The pictures, and ellipses gave your blog a storyline almost like a children's book. Other than the construction of the blog the content was very opinionated which I enjoyed. I also liked the idea of perspective, but I wish you delved into it more. It was kinda only a touch of the surface by asking the question about the director being put in the soldiers place. If you went into detail about how the viewers would react or what you think you would have done in that scenario would have been very interesting. Other than it being kinda minimal, the way you approached this blog was very inviting.
ReplyDeleteYour blog reminds me a study I learned about in AP Psychology: the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo. College students with no military training succumbed to the same behaviors as the soldiers in the film. They were assigned roles of prisoner and guard in a mock prison. The guard students got so involved in playing their role, Zimbardo had to end the study early because the guards became too violent. The environment influenced their behavior. http://www.prisonexp.org/
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate the perspective you took on this. I am in no way excusing the actions of these soldiers, but the situations they are placed in every day are terrible.
ReplyDeleteMy friend is in the army, and was stationed in Afghanistan for a year. He came back last November. He told me stories, and the way some of the people treat them there is horrible. In one story in particular, a young boy asked him for water and when he gave him his water bottle, the boy pulled out a gun and tried to kill him.
The actions these soldiers took are horrible, but the experiences that they're put through are equally as horrible.