Is the MPAA Censoring Taxi to the Dark Side?

By Katey Rich

The MPAA ratings system is a murky, mysterious process, something that filmmakers stress over but most of us don't pay attention to until a scandal pops up. It never occurred to me until today that the MPAA has jurisdiction over poster art as well as the film itself, and yes, I'm only paying attention because of controversy.

Unlike what usually passes for scandal in Hollywood these days, this one's a doozy. The MPAA rejected the proposed poster for the upcoming documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, which addresses torture practices at Guantanamo by telling the story of an Afghan taxi driver arrested on false charges and killed there. The poster in question, which you can see a tiny version of at left, shows two soldiers escorting a man with a burlap bag over his head, an image now very familiar thanks to the Abu Ghraib photos.

That's the whole image. There's no blood, no instruments of torture, no severed limbs. The MPAA was characteristically tight-lipped in explaining their decision: "We treat all films the same. Ads will be seen by all audiences, including children. If the advertising is not suitable for all audiences it will not be approved by the advertising administration." Filmmaker Alex Gibney, naturally, has fired back with outrage. "Intentional or not, the MPAA's disapproval of the poster is a political act, undermining legitimate criticism of the Bush administration. I agree that the image is offensive; it's also real."

The image is not technically an exact document-- according to Variety the original photo by Shaun Schwartz was altered to add a second soldier. But anyone who has followed the Iraq war or the Guantanamo Bay scandals recognizes such an image, and understands that it is real.

Setting aside the fact that the MPAA has let posters like this or this fly by without a peep, and has given those movies R ratings to boot, what in God's name are they trying to accomplish? The New York Times, rightly, runs images of dead Iraqis or even dead American soldiers on a regular basis, and most footage on the nightly news is more disturbing than the Taxi to the Dark Side poster. Without sounding like a left-wing loon, I can't help but feel that the MPAA has tipped their hand here, making it all too clear how thin the line between "protecting the children" and "political censorship" can be.