Alex Gibney Movies

From the producer of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and Who Killed the Electric Car? comes a documentary that takes a critical look at the Bush administration's policy on torture by investigating the death of an Afghan taxi driver who, after being taken into the custody of American soldiers at Bagram Air Force Base, suffered fatal injuries at the hands of U.S. soldiers. In 2002, American soldiers accused an Afghan taxi driver of taking part in a deadly rocket attack. Five days after being handed over to the U.S. military for questioning, the man was found dead -- the victim of a brutal bout of torture and abuse according to the medical examiner who inspected his body. The examiner concluded that the taxi driver's hands had been bound to the ceiling, forcing him to stand for hours on end as his assailants repeatedly -- and relentlessly -- kicked him. Compelled to finally unearth the truth about the mysterious fate of the deceased taxi driver, filmmaker Alex Gibney takes viewers on an illuminating journey from a tiny Afghani village to Guantanamo Bay to Abu Ghraib, and ultimately the White House, to explore why the man who turned up in the morgue wasn't the only victim to fall prey to the Bush administration's controversial foreign policy. By examining the sad fate of the wrongly accused, the toll that the War on Terror has taken on an exhausted United States military, and Justice Department official John Yoo's internal memo concerning interrogation techniques, the filmmakers behind Taxi to the Dark Side encourage viewers to weigh out the issues for themselves, and never accept what's told to them on face value. The film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 80th Annual Academy Awards. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

On March 19, 2003, forces from the United States and a handful of allied nations invaded Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power. American military leaders expected the conflict to last no more than a few months, and President George W. Bush declared that major military operations were over less than two months later. However, Iraq soon became a dangerous quagmire for American forces, and near the end of 2006, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, one of the key architects of America's strategy in Iraq, resigned from office due to public outcry and Bush declared he was "rethinking" his plan of attack in Iraq as the nation sank into civil war, with U.S. troops the frequent targets of attacks on both sides. How and why did America's leaders decide to invade Iraq? How did they formulate a strategy that went so far wrong? And can anything be done to salvage the situation? Filmmaker Charles Ferguson, a former advisor with the Brookings Institution, examines these questions in No End in Sight, a documentary on the War in Iraq which includes interviews with a number of figures involved in the conflict's decision-making process, some speaking on-camera about the war for the first time. No End in Sight was screened in competition at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A charming elderly Jewish writer who lives in a state of "permanent confusion" finds his vivid imagination becoming the bane of his existence in director Jan Schütte's adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer's richly textured short stories. Max Kohn (Otto Tausig) is an Australian émigré whose mind is constantly spinning. He's an accomplished author of short stories who lives in New York City and is so steeped in tradition that he still uses a typewriter. Despite the fact that confirmed bachelor Max has a virtual harem of female admirers, he spends the majority of his free time with worrisome kindred soul Reisele (Rhea Perlman). It's during a trip to speak in nearby Hanover that Max begins editing his latest story -- a mischievous tale of a Miami retiree who embarks on a series of misadventures. Of course, it doesn't take Max long to lose himself in his own creation, and before he knows it, he's mixed up in two feverish romances and an unsolved murder. Upon snapping back to reality, Max begins to feel as if his own written word has begun to manifest itself. A meeting with world-weary former student Rosalie (Barbara Hershey), with whom he shares a mutual attraction, follows, and later while heading to Springfield for yet another speaking engagement Max discovers that he has misplaced his prepared speech. In the aftermath of that and various other mix-ups, Max decides to start writing a new story based on his recent adventures and featuring a protagonist named Harry -- a thinly veiled stand-in for the author himself. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Chris Payne explores the many factors that played into the ultimate failure of the electric car to catch on with consumers, even as gas prices began to skyrocket, in a thoughtful meditation on the increasingly important role that renewable energy plays in modern society. Introduced as a means of providing an alternative to increasing oil consumption and reducing pollution in 1996, the electric car was all but a forgotten memory only a decade later -- but why? Though interviews with consumer advocacy experts, automotive industry experts, and oil industry heavyweights, Payne paints a though-provoking picture of a culture whose aversion to change and reliance on dwindling resources may be rooted in the financial concerns of a wealthy few, and may also be leading consumers down a troubling path. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Alex Gibney, who wrote and produced Eugene Jarecki's The Trials of Henry Kissinger, examines the rise and fall of an infamous corporate juggernaut in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, which he wrote and directed. The film, based on the book by Fortune Magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, opens with a reenactment of the suicide of Enron executive Cliff Baxter, then travels back in time, describing Enron chairman Kenneth Lay's humble beginnings as the son of a preacher, his ascent in the corporate world as an "apostle of deregulation," his fortuitous friendship with the Bush family, and the development of his business strategies in natural gas futures. The film points out that the culture of financial malfeasance at Enron was evident as far back as 1987, when Lay apparently encouraged the outrageous risk taking and profit skimming of two oil traders in Enron's Valhalla office because they were bringing a lot of money into the company. But it wasn't until eventual CEO Jeff Skilling arrived at Enron that the company's "aggressive accounting" philosophy truly took hold. The Smartest Guys in the Room explores the lengths to which the company went in order to appear incredibly profitable. Their win-at-all-costs strategy included suborning financial analysts with huge contracts for their firms, hiding debts by essentially having the company loan money to itself, and using California's deregulation of the electricity market to manipulate the state's energy supply. Gibney's film reveals how Lay, Skilling, and other execs managed to keep their riches, while thousands of lower-level employees saw their loyalty repaid with the loss of their jobs and their retirement funds. The filmmaker posits the Enron scandal not as an anomaly, but as a natural outgrowth of free-market capitalism. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Part of The Blues documentary film series on PBS, Warming by the Devil's Fire is written and directed by Charles Burnett and narrated by Carl Lumbly. This installment explores the tension between the gospel and the blues through the semi-autobiographic tale of a young boy (played by Nathaniel Lee Jr.) who is kidnapped by his blues-loving Uncle Buddy (Tommy Hicks) right before he's about to be saved. Burnett investigates some of the blues women who defied the church by singing racy songs, like Lucille Bogan, Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith. Includes archival performances by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Reverend Gary Davis, blues performers who managed to work within the church's jurisdiction. Burnett also discusses his fascination with W.C. Handy and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Warming by the Devil's Fire was originally broadcast by PBS on October 1, 2003. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

This incisive documentary offers a sobering portrait of statesman Henry Kissinger, quite possibly the most powerful and influential diplomat in U.S. government in the latter half of the 20th century. Based on the book of nearly the same name by journalist and critic Christopher Hitchens (the slender volume goes with the singularized Trial), the movie takes on the form of a legal argument, bringing forward case studies that aim to illuminate Hitchens' claims against Kissinger. Among the significant events in Kissinger's career that the movie tackles are his purported secret diplomacy during the 1968 peace talks to end the Vietnam War, the secret bombing of Cambodia in the early '70s without congressional authorization, and an alleged U.S.-backed plot to overthrow the leftist government of Chilean leader Salvador Allende. The movie features numerous interviews with legal experts, journalists, and high-ranking diplomats, such as Alexander Haig, Walter Isaacson, Roger Morris, and Hitchens himself; predictably, Kissinger did not participate in the making of the picture. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

A decade comes clean in the third installment of Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam's series. Apron strings became shackles for millions of American women during this time. Families, when faced with the reality of having it all, wondered if they really wanted it. David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 3: Let's Play House uncovers the hidden burden of the perfect family. Traditional roles of men and women began to crumble in the '50s as dissatisfaction reared its ugly head. Author Betty Friedan helped feminists label their pain as Sloan Wilson shattered the myth of the stoic hero. As the freewheeling '60s approached, Americans imagined a different world. The result was the death of the nuclear family and the emergence of dysfunction as an art form. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

David Halberstam's The Fifties cracks open the decade and exposes it for what it was. In many ways, the time period served as a test ground for an explosive future. In David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 5: The Beat, poetry and music define a generation. A culture of cool emerged in the 1950s that was composed of rebels and freaks. Beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg provided the language for a revolution. Shocking words were matched by the twirling hips of rock & rollers. Elvis' appropriation of African-American music took the world by storm. Suddenly, everyone wanted to be young. While bobby soxers fawned, beat students yearned to write the great American novel. The gathering storm clouds of the late '50s portend a dynamic next decade. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 6: The Rage Within and the Road to the Sixties serves as a catch-all for the Pulitzer prize-winning author's final thoughts. Beginning with the civil unrest that rose in the South, the documentary picks up a number of themes. African-Americans began to fight back, scoring social acceptance with star athletes Willie Mays and Bill Russell. The battle for racial equality was just beginning as another race took off. Americans and Russians compete for dominance in space. Back on Earth, everyone seems to be in a hurry. McDonald's saves the day with the invention of fast food. The growing fascination with youth and speed is encapsulated in a new leader, John F. Kennedy. Finally, America gets itself in hot water with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the entry into Vietnam. The longest volume of the series, this release hits upon the more memorable parts of the '50s while offering glimpses into a turbulent future. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

An arrogant Detroit cop (Jay Leno) must work with his efficient Japanese counterpart (Pat Morita) to corner an evil ganglord. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide