Where In the World Is Osama bin Laden?

Where In the World is Osama bin Laden?-2008

When Morgan Spurlock released his first documentary, Super Size Me, a look at the physical effects of one man eating McDonald's for 30 days, Spurlock became an instant hit. His first movie was followed by his TV show, 30 Days, which puts Spurlock or random people into situations for 30 days and shows what happens. However, in Spurlock's newest film, Where In the World Is Osama bin Laden?, Spurlock skips his 30 days gimmick and the personal effects on one person and goes after his biggest goal yet: Osama Bin Laden. Unfortunately, it is also his biggest disappointment.

Osama starts out when Spurlock finds out his longtime girlfriend is pregnant with their first child. Finding this out, Spurlock ponders what type of world he is bringing his child into. So, of course to make the world better for his child, he decides to try and find Osama bin Laden. From the opening credits, a Mortal Kombat parody that pits Spurlock against bin Laden in a trailer park setting, and the music video of "U Can't Touch This" starring bin Laden, you can tell this film is not half as witty or close to as smart as Spurlock's previous works.

To find Osama, Spurlock runs around various Middle Eastern countries asking people where he can find Osama almost like a lost kid running around a mall looking for his mother. While Spurlock seemed prepared and understanding of the topics in Super Size Me, now the only journalistic question he can ask is literally the title to the movie. Spurlock asks everyone this one and only question: Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? Apparently, he thinks everyone should know as he asks random people on the streets, religious officials, Middle-East experts, even rug shop owners. Anyone can know where the most wanted man in the world is.

There is no mystery to this film at all. Of course, Spurlock was not able to find him. This part is excusable is Spurlock could make the rest of the film interesting. Unfortunately, Spurlock has no clear thesis for the film and just seems to wander around looking for something everyone knows he won't find. In the end, Spurlock's message seems to be one that anyone with a middle school education should already know: Not everyone in the Middle East is a terrorist, they are sometimes just like us, and even if we catch Osama, it will not be the end of the war on terror. Profound. 

Spurlock knows what his area of expertise is: stories that focus on short term change in the individual, not gigantic stories that engulf the entire world. What made his previous work so amazing was that her personalized it and made it not only about the general statement he was trying to make, but about the person it was happening to. He attempts that with frequent looks back at his pregnant girlfriend, but it just isn't the same with the larger scale he goes for. Osama bin Laden is a sad documentary in the fact that the basic elements of making a good documentary are absent. When there are so many better documentaries out there about the war, such as No End In Sight or The Road to Guantanamo, it is a shame that this watered-down excuse was even attempted.

Rating C-