Film Review: Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

By Louis Longley

It is easy to like Morgan Spurlock’s latest film, “Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?”, it is very aesthetically appealing and charmingly funny. However it also boasts brows lower than a Neanderthal.

In his latest film we discover Spurlock’s wife is pregnant and in a quest to make the world safer for his child Spurlock goes on a hunt for the most wanted man in the world, Osama Bin Laden. What follows takes Spurlock on a tour of the Middle East from Saudi-Arabia to Israel, all on the pretence of a relentless hunt for one man. Around 90 minutes of Docudrama later Spurlock reaches his conclusion and manages to arrive home to the USA in time for a closing shot of his wife’s pregnancy.

As I have already said Spurlock’s film has the charm and character of a loveable rogue, which you hate to love, Spurlock’s Borat-esque play on the clichés of several genres, from action to rom-com, this makes the documentary flow and very entertaining to watch. As well as deliberate plays on genre, however, Spurlock seemingly accidentally plays with the genre he based his movie on, Documentary, warping it out of all visible recognition, with his video game style transitions his overly staged camera shots, his additions of sound affects/make up, and his annoyingly over-rehearsed phone conversations with his girlfriend, (think “Shaun of the Dead” on LSD).

Furthermore the pretence for his tour round the Middle East makes the conflict in “Alien vs. Predator” look like the lead up to the first world war. It is an amazingly ludicrous pretence that truly insults the intelligence of the viewer. Although this pretence or ‘hook’ is a deliberate satire on the mainstream American action hero (one man against impossible odds, think Josie Wales in the ‘Outlaw Josie Wales’) and while I do think that the presence of satire is important in documentary, if it is the film’s main feature it (the film) is in danger of being ruined buy its own plot.

In conclusion, while I think that ‘Where in the world is Osama bin Laden’ is an entertaining way of spending around an hour and a half of your life, it does not particularly bear close examination or provoke serious thought. My personal view is that Spurlock should use his quirky style to comment on narrower areas of discussion rather than epic issues.