Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?

So last night I saw the early screening of Supershowman Morgan Spurlock's follow up to his superhit first documentary 'Supersize me'. And true to his style, the showman is still the same. Starting right from the title of the movie till the very last reel, you cannot help but feel almost borne down by the self-righteous tone of the director. The film surely touches on a very vital point - Is this world safe enough for today's generation to raise our future generation? And while the answer to this question is not arresting the head of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, a resolution to terrorism in the broader sense is definitely one of the dangers most people are worried about nowadays.

Apparently since I attended one of the initial runs of the movie, there could be lots of further editing when the movie is finally released in theatres. There better be, 'coz I noticed quite a few places where the movie needed some finetuning. I provided my feedback at the end of the movie to the surveyors. This current review of mine is based on the initial draft version that I saw last night.

19 weeks into the delivery of his first child, Morgan is worried by a nagging doubt -Is this world a safe enough place for him to bring his new born into? And terrorism being one of the major problems in today's world, Morgan decides to set out in pursuit of the biggest terrorist the recent world has ever known - The leader of Al Qaeda and the mastermind of the biggest terrorist attacks this side of the world on 9/11 - Osama Bin Laden. This manhunt takes him to Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and finally Pakistan (which is where most people doubt Osama is currently). To top it all, Morgan has only 19 weeks to get his answers and his man, since he also wants to be by his wife's side during the baby's delivery. Along the way, though, somewhere the movie loses its road-chase steam and takes on a more egalitarian approach towards the issue of terrorism as a whole. What do the Middle-Eastern nations think of America's interference in their countries' economies and private matters? What do the same nations think of Osama's claim of wanting to protect the Muslim world from the Christian western world? What are the social, cultural, and economic implications of this radical fundamentalism? Does the world need to be afraid of all Muslims, given that they form more than 1/5th of the entire world population?

While the movie does raise some important points, it seems too wishy-washy in its argument. I am not a great follower of history and political history and western political history in general, and so I do not have sufficient knowledge to comment on the theories presented as facts in this movie. But I also have a strong feeling that the reasons that previous American regimes did what they did are not as simple as what Morgan is trying to portray. There is a plethora of intertwined reasons for America's support of Israel and Afghanistan (during the Soviet invasion) and so also for America's invasion of Iraq. By presenting a one-sided, simplistic, and animation based childish view of his arguments, Morgan has placed the lesser informed audience in the dark and colored their opinions about matters as complex as this. While using humor to present one's ideas is a good tactic, it also simplifies the complex political machinations to such a level that discredits the thought process of an entire gubernatorial body. Michael Moore seemingly did a better job of presenting his arguments using humor as a tool in Fahrenheit 9/11 as compared to Morgan Spurlock in this movie. This movie from Morgan has inevitably run into the risk of being compared with Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (which feels like a much superior movie now, I must say), because both movies on a deeper level touch the same thread - Is America at fault for the growth of terrorism?

If Morgan wants to show America what the rest of the world thinks of their nation, it would evidently lead to some Bush-bashing. And this movie does precisely that. This also leads me to think whether some political pundits might question the timing for the release of this movie - given the 2008 Presidential elections are drawing nearer.

And now comes my biggest problem with the movie. The very title of the movie reeks of getting a curious moviegoer to come watch the movie, without the movie actually being much about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden himself. I have to admit, I decided
to go watch the movie because the title gave me an impression of a nail-biting manhunt for the man himself (besides the fact being that I got the tickets for free) - which is absolutely not what the movie is about. It just slanderously exploits a notorious man's name for monetary purposes. While there is nothing terribly wrong with that move (after all don't advertisers use a famous man's name and face to advertise their products?), I just couldn't help feeling tremendously cheated when the movie got over. And at the near climax of the movie where our man got close to almost getting close to his man, he chickens out and goes back to his home and hearth leaving the audience feeling deprived and deceived. Almost as if he is trying to dodge a death sentence. Don't get me wrong - I don't want Morgan to actually come face-to-face with Osama and get shot in the process. My problem is with his very approach of showing-off right from the start of the movie that he is game to do it and chickening out at the end, my problem is with his tall tales, shameless showmanship, if I may.

Oh and of course, it also seemed like Morgan's little vacation around the world, going from country to country, sight seeing and touring, while trying to send the message to the wider audience - look at me, here my wife is pregnant and about to have a baby, while I am going all around the world trying to catch a man, whom most people around the world would like to have behind the bars. It seems like Morgan's-merry-go-round, he gets to shoot off some AK-47s loaned from the US base camp in Afghanistan, and while he is at it also try out a rocket launcher. Macho! And those multiple lovey-dovey scenes with his wife on the phone just seem trying too hard to send out a self-righteous message to the public. That is precisely the feedback that I gave at the end of the movie - tone down the self-righteousness, cut down some of those scenes with your wife. As for Osama bin Laden, Morgan doesn’t really seem to be trying to find him. Sure, he occasionally asks for his whereabouts, but mostly it’s just a gimmick to link together his guided tour of the Middle East.

Where this movie shines though is when it goes to the streets with the common man in these countries and unearths their impression about America and terrorism in general. And the truth is out there for everyone to see. In the last decade,
America's credence in the eyes of the larger world is shattered, primarily by propping up authoritarian regimes that deny citizens of the Third World economic and political freedoms. Consequently the angry, disenfranchised poor from these nations embrace Islamic fundamentalism as the only thing that will listen to their woes and violence as the only way they can be heard. But still a vast majority of people (including Muslims) from all parts of the world are not in favor of terrorism. People are not in favor of war, but if they hate their radicalist governments for providing them with lack of liberties and also hate the American governments for putting more economic pressure on them, then they are left with no recourse other than the lure of paradise and money as promised by the terrorists. Of course, there are people belonging to the school of radical Islamist fanaticism in these countries, but these numbers are few and far in between. And Morgan did the right thing by showing that these fanatics are present in every part of the world. There are quite a few Jews in Israel who see the war in their nation not as a political war, but as a religious war for their Holy Land promised by God, which has been snatched away from them.

Ultimately what the movie will be remembered for is precisely that same message. Morgan's analysis of America's role in the world politics and his quiet conversations with Muslims and people in the street truly provides ample food for thought. It might be too late to undo all these years of consistent political misgivings, but if anything, now is the time to start. Else as one of the street kids in the movie says "I wish we had someone like Osama Bin Laden in our country...", most people would wish even worse for America. And hell! that's not a good sign for anybody - not for America and not for the world.