Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (2008)

Directed by: Morgan Spurlock | 93 minutes | documentary | Actors: Morgan Spurlock, Alexandra Jamieson

Have you seen ‘Zeitgeist’? This movie can be downloaded for free from an official site. It is a professional documentary, which among other things aims to demonstrate that the attacks of 9/11 were a set up. To these and other documentaries (such as Michael Moore’s more populist ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’) there are also reactions from yet other serious documentaries in which experts speak who try to bring them down again. Madness!

Morgan Spurlock must have thought so too. He does not question the “fact” that Osama Bin Laden planned the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and focuses his investigation more on the other question: “why is this man untraceable?” He does not so much argue that there is something fishy about it, but observes the fact that the most powerful country in the world has not been able to locate that one most wanted criminal for six years! But even more than that, the future father asks himself the question: “What world do I put my child in?” and “how can I make that world ‘better’?”

For this film, for example, he takes the plunge to travel all the ‘dangerous’ places on earth for Americans, in search of the face of evil. And what does he think? Mirrors, to themselves, to America and to the entire Western and Christian world. Because the search degenerates more into more in a healthy confrontation with the ordinary man and woman in the Middle East, how they live (not much different from ‘we’), what brings them happiness (food, education and a safe environment for their children, do you sound familiar?) and what they think of ‘us’. Of course, they don’t really know us and, like us, are blinded by politicians and the media, but the conclusions are the same everywhere: America and its aggressive attitude keep the Osama and his ideas alive and amplify them by the day, just like any kind of fanaticism does. And they worry about that as much as we do.

In order to make this film and the great journey through the world’s hotbeds, many other things had to be arranged besides finding a lot of money. For example, Spurlock received dozens of injections to prevent all kinds of very scary diseases and he was trained in survival techniques, such as: how should I behave if I am kidnapped, and: how do I survive a grenade attack(!). Fortunately, these training sessions turned out to be superfluous, but at least indicate how scared people are. Only once does it get really hot under the soles and that is in Israel, where the friendly Spurlock is almost lynched by a mob of faith buffs. He doesn’t get angry or frustrated, but above all, he is highly surprised and upset. Criticism is not Spurlock’s style, it is mainly humor that characterizes his projects. Humor he needed to endure the horrors of his previous insane documentary ‘Super Size Me’ (2004), in which he (again) did not so much criticize the fast food industry, but personally experienced the consequences been eating at McDonalds for a month. Experiencing that for yourself, that’s what it’s about for him, not just saying something, but also doing something. And how do you do that, how do you keep it up? With determination, but also and above all with a lot of perspective, Spurlock’s most important survival technique. His humorous, sometimes somewhat naive (and therefore quite open) view of things saves him several times, opens doors that remain closed to many and brings him close to ‘the common man’, which is the most fascinating aspect of this documentary . It also ensures that the film maintains a light tone despite the heavy subject matter. Running gag, for example, is a beautiful and funny computer animation that guides Spurlock through the lands, as if they were levels of a computer game with the ultimate goal of finding Osama Bin Laden. All well and good, but, does he like him or not? What do you think?