A U.S. Army intelligence officer (left_, an Iraqi Army soldier (right) and an interpreter (background) interrogate a detainee in a scene from "Taxi to the Dark Side." (Kim Komenich / San Francisco Chronicle) (Kim Komenich for The Star)

"Taxi to the Dark Side" is a stunning indictment of torture as policy, a brilliant documentary whose arguments are so well-supported and reasonably made that you cannot ignore them.

You don't have to agree with them -- many people won't -- but you will not be able to simply set them aside as part of the cost of war.

Alex Gibney's film, which won the Oscar for best documentary, is not easily watched or enjoyed: Pictures and film clips of torture --many of them the uncensored versions of images we've seen before -- are stomach-turning. And it's difficult to listen to soldiers speak calmly about how they became almost animalistic in their pursuit of information from prisoners. But it is fascinating, not just as a study of war and its practices but of human nature as well.

Gibney tells the story of Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan cab driver who was suspected of driving terrorists and arrested in December 2002. He was imprisoned at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

Five days later, Dilawar was dead, after having been deprived of sleep, suspended by handcuffs from the ceiling and beaten severely. The coroner ruled his death a homicide. The photos we see of his body make that anything but a surprise.

Gibney visits Dilawar's village, talks to his family, investigates his case thoroughly through interviews, documents and more. Yet he also uses Dilawar's death as the entry point for talking about what constitutes torture, what its merits are (and aren't) and whether there is ever a reason to use it.

Interviews with some of the men accused (some convicted) of torturing prisoners are amazing -- amazing not just for what they were charged with doing, but also that they are so open in discussing it.

The blame is placed mostly on official direction, or lack thereof, when it comes to interrogating prisoners. John Woo, a former Justice Department official, weighs in. So do former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, by way of clips. Cheney is shown telling Tim Russert of "Meet the Press" that, after Sept. 11, we must begin fighting terrorists on their own terms.

And is torture even a reliable method? A former FBI interrogator makes the case that it is not. In the course of about 45 seconds, he offers an example of how offering a prisoner deals -- education for his children, for example -- can be more effective. He's so good at it, you believe him.

-- By Bill Goodykoontz / Gannett News Service