moviereview - Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN?

	Morgan Spurlock wants to make the world a safer place so he's starting at the top. Before he can get to the world's most wanted, first he has to find him.	score 2	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Documentary

Director
Morgan Spurlock

Screenwriter
Morgan Spurlock

Country
USA

Rating / Running Time
M / 93 minutes

Australian Release
August 2008

Official Site

Having (just) survived a supersizing at the hands of MacDonald’s, director Morgan Spurlock is soon to become a father. And like many new parents-to-be, he’s terrified of the world Baby Spurlock is coming into. And like many new parents, he’s decided to make it a better, happier and safer place, starting at the top. If Osama Bin Laden is the world’s most wanted, most terrible terrorist, logic dictates that getting rid of him achieves Morgan’s stated goal. But to get rid of him, one has to find him. So, where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?

From the juicy video game styled opener, it’s clear that Spurlock is not taking himself too seriously. “If I’ve learned anything from big budget action movies,” he tells the camera, “it’s that complicated global problems are best solved by one lonely guy”. And thus equipped with a sense of humour, he departs on a tour of the Middle East in search of America’s Most Wanted. Starting in Egypt and finishing on the Pakistani/Afghan border, he stops to chat to peoples of all persuasion. “What do you think about America?” he asks. The answers vary from the comical to the absurd –scripted Saudi students the most surreal.

The great possibility that fires Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? presents itself in flashes of inspiration. But they’re quickly extinguished by Spurlock’s newfound narcissism that is layered across the entire project. It starts with Morgan undergoing a reality-based protection course and finishes with the birth of Baby Spurlock– two events that bookend the film. A bullish intermission on a firing range in Afghanistan (“that was awesome!”) undoes most of the work that precedes it.

Spurlock’s journey is peppered with interest and occasion, but by the time he brings things to an urgent close, Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? has taught us little more about human relations than an average TV drama. While it’s unlikely he’d consider himself a serious commentator on Arab-US policy, his conclusions are frustratingly simplistic.

// COLIN FRASER