Friday, April 18, 2008

Movie review: Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?

By John P. Meyer

Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?

With no military experience, knowledge or expertise, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock sets off to do what the CIA, FBI and countless bounty hunters have failed to do: find the world's most wanted man. Why take on such a seemingly impossible mission? Simple--he wants to make the world safe for his soon to be born child. But, before he finds Osama bin Laden, he first needs to learn where he came from, what makes him tick, and most importantly, what exactly created bin Laden to begin with. Following bin Laden's trail through some of the most dangerous places in the world, Spurlock encounters both the rational and the radical faces of the Middle East. He interviews many people who embrace him on the streets and welcome him into their homes, often gaining impressions that sharply contrast with the conventional media images of the region. Spurlock finds they're not that different from American families, sharing the same hopes and fears for their children that he has for his own.

Source: Cinema Source

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I saw Morgan Spurlock's Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? in Austin during SXSW. It was a hot, humid late afternoon, and those of us standing in line outside the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema were beginning to wonder whether we'd actually make it in to see the show. There were plenty of folks in line ahead of us (even though we'd arrived an hour early) and rumblings were coming down the line about a sold-out event.

Whoever said they didn't need no stinkin' badges never attended a SXSW film event: those in the badge line were admitted first, and thus I soon found myself seated front and center. In order to accommodate as much of the overflow crowd as possible, management even hauled out folding chairs. Thank goodness the fire marshal was otherwise occupied that evening.

Now that the film is opening locally I can tell you that Morgan's titular premise is something of a red herring; his fun-doc is more of an entertaining, eye-opening look at "regular people" in parts of the world we stay-at-home Americans have been conditioned to feel hinky about, than it is an in-earnest manhunt. Reference his use of the Jeddah phone book for a scan of the name "Bin Laden" if you harbor lingering doubts.

We open with a bit of personal documentarist background: Morgan and his lovely wife, Alex, are pregnant - though most of that burden is, as usual, borne by the female part of the partnership. In the midst of Lamaze training, an opportunity to make this cool globe-hopping documentary drops into Morgan's lap and he - not being the one with the actual swollen belly - decides to pursue it.

Thus his various Middle Eastern and Asian adventures are punctuated by occasional calls to his ever-more-well-rounded sweetheart to discuss the imminence of her condition, among other things.

Which makes for a fitting thematic backstory, given that Morgan is visiting and getting out amongst the populace of countries whose residents might arguably have something against a freebooting American film crew. We're talking Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Ironically, the only point at which Morgan appears to be in actual physical danger - at least on camera - is while visiting a Hassidic Jewish community in Israel.)

The point being that he and Alex are bringing a child into an uncertain world, and he's attempting to discover - first-hand - whether that world will end up being a welcoming place or a hostile one. (For the cynical viewer, one could speculate that he's just using this as an excuse to traipse around the world with a camera crew while his birthing partner continues with the Lamaze courses.)

Prior to embarking, Morgan goes through the human pincushion routine whereby he's inoculated against a plethora of exotic diseases. Additionally, he goes through some self-defense training consisting of unarmed combat and conditional awareness regimens. He does not prove to be a particularly adept student, but his coach does the best he can with the human raw material presented to him.

Rather than giving a blow-by-blow of Morgan's adventures in various destinations, I'll summarize by stating that his advance teams (composed primarily of local contractors) have done an admirable job of setting him up with "ordinary people" for his person-to-person discussions; and that the conclusion we reach from an overview of his globe-trotting is that most folks come across as reasonable, kind, accepting individuals of the sort one might wish for, as opposed to the flag-burning, bomb-making terrorist sorts which media coverage would lead us to believe make up large portions of the Arab/Muslim population. They take considerable umbrage with current American foreign policy, but have no problem with individual Americans.

While this sort of pre-selected interview regimen might legitimately be expected to skew the sampling, Morgan does enough impromptu street meet-and-greet to convince us that his take on the universality of level-headedness is a valid assessment.

Highlights of Spurlock's encounters:

* the wealthy Egyptian who's related to an Al-Qaeda operative: this guy tells Morgan that he's a supporter of Osama in all respects, including his crusade against the United States. (Of all the individuals Morgan interviews, we get the impression that this chap might actually be in occasional contact with the Big Bad Sheik.)

* a glimpse of the "Stars & Bucks" cafe situated on a busy Moroccan avenue.

* a visit to a bombed-out schoolroom in Israel following a rocket attack which killed numerous occupants.

* an up-close-and-personal with an Israeli military bomb-defusing robot, looking not unlike R2D2.

* the tense interview with two Saudi Arabian school boys chaperoned by Saudi officials: Morgan asks them some questions that they're not comfortable answering in the presence of their government handlers.

* Morgan's carte blanche visit to a U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan, during which he's allowed to cut loose on the firing range with weaponry ranging from full-auto small arms to rocket launchers.

* His point-of-no-return in northwestern Pakistan, facing a sign stating (in multiple languages): "No foreigners allowed."

By the skin of his teeth, Morgan makes it back to the U.S. of A. in time to participate - second hand, of course - in the birth of his child.

BUT OTHER THAN THAT, HOW'S LIFE?: "This government's corrupt and it's backed by the U.S." - Egyptian man-on-the-street re. Hosni Mubarak's regime

FROM THE "BLOWING THINGS UP (ALL BOYS LOVE IT)" DEPARTMENT: "That was awesome!" - Morgan, after firing the rocket launcher

WHAT A WHINER: "Before the (U.S. military) base drilled the well we didn't have any water problems" - villager in Afghanistan's Tribal Provinces

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