Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
Friday, 09 May 2008 11:42
Morgan Spurlock goes looking for the global villain
Directed by Morgan Spurlock, out May 9th, starring Morgan Spurlock, 93 minutes.
In a nutshell...
Al Gore meets Jackass.
What's it all about?
Instead of downing Big Macs, the maker of Super-Size Me administers his body with dozens of vaccinations before heading to some of the world's most dangerous regions. His mission: to hunt down global public enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden. His inspiration: he hopes to see his soon-to-be-born child grow up in a strife-free world.
Taking a mock action-hero persona, Spurlock steams through Morocco, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, relentlessly popping his titular question to all who will listen. Whether wandering along supermarket aisles or border check-points bristling with machine-guns, he chats breezily to his troubled interlocutors – and finds out that, hey, they're not all that bad.
Who's in it?
Beyond the assorted terrorists, students and burka-wearers, it's a Morgan Spurlock one man show. The filmmaker, 37, first shot to fame with Super-Size Me – which remains the eighth highest grossing documentary of all time. Other outings since then include Chalk, a mockumentary about school teachers, Confessions of a Superhero, Class Act, The Future of Food and What Would Jesus Buy?
As an example...
"Yoo-hoo, Osama?!"
"I need to learn how Osama thinks: to find a fox you need to think like a fox."
"It's hard to see how damaged the reputation of the country I love and care about [the US] has become."
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Do Oscars go to Osama-hunters? (If so, Bush and Blair should have a cabinet-full by now.)
What the others say
"An al-Qaida version of Street Fighter" – James Mottram, Independent.
"We thought it was Bin Laden who was living in a cave" – John Anderson, Variety.
So is it any good?
As pop documentaries go it is certainly distinctive: it boasts a nifty pace and surreal, cartoon packaging. That includes a bizarre opening sequence in which Osama Bin Laden is depicted as, in turn, a country 'n' western singer, a computer game bullseye and MC Hammer.
Yet the highly-produced wrapper conceals, other than some sugary moralising, a total lack of deeper purpose. Far from being laden with Laden, the film's close shows Spurlock's wife pushing out her first born somewhere in New York – vis-a-vis shots of Arabs in the middle-east smiling benignly. The moral to be drawn – all human life is sacred? Our docu-hero is an average family-man? Life in New York prevails in spite of al-Qaida? Nobody has a clue, least of all Spurlock.
Still, as a kind of Jackass guide to the Axis of Evil, for the most part it's not a bad romp.
6/10
Jack Lamport
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