Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Directed by: Morgan Spurlock
Starring:
Morgan Spurlock - Himself
Morgan Spurlock's debut film Super Size Me was one of my Top 10 of 2004. A lot of people dismissed it because they were only aware of the gimmick that Spurlock would eat nothing but McDonald's for thirty days. But the film was actually a smart and incisive look at obesity in America as well as a revealing look that eating nothing but McDonald's can harm you more than just adding a few pounds. I was hoping that his new film, Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? would be just as revealing; not the whereabouts of Bin Laden, but a look at Al-Qaeda and the military's failure to capture the man behind the greatest attack on the United States in its history. Instead, the failure is all Spurlock's as he has made what will probably be one of the worst films of 2008.
I can sum up Where in the World's message right now: people in Middle-Eastern countries are people like us. They may have oppressive governments or stringent Islamic laws, but most people he speaks to simply want to live in peace. There are a few extremists but frankly, the biggest douchebags in the film are a group of Hassidic Jews who physically assault Spurlock for filming in their neighborhood. The film briefly touches on the failed U.S. foreign policy of making friends of our enemies' enemy and how this short-sighted approach puts us in greater danger in the long term, but he actually spends more time showing us self-defense training he'll never use.
But what makes Where in the World a truly offensive film is that it's so glib. I understand that by mocking Al-Qaeda, we remove the reverence and recognition they want. At the same time, these are real men with real motives and if we don't understand our enemy and their motivations, then the bullshit argument that "They hate us because of our freedom," remains uncontested. Maybe it's because I've done the research so I get pissed when he doesn't talk about takfir or fatwas or Sharia law. But I don't know how any viewer can go see this film and not wonder why Spurlock doesn't talk to even one military official.
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? has a very low opinion of its viewer. Rather than engage your curiosity, it assumes you think that all the Muslims in the Middle East want to kill you and it wants to let you know that they're human beings with their own individual beliefs, emotions, and personalities. Spurlock had a chance to inform a much wider audience due to his previous success and he completely wasted a golden opportunity to make a thoughtful and thought-provoking film.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
4.26.08