film where in the world is osama bin laden
| Film | Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden IMDb, IMDb Discussion board |
| Code | WHERE |
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| Genre | Documentary |
| Director | Morgan Spurlock IMDb |
| Actors | |
| Cat | Spectrum |
| Year | 2007 |
| Release | 2008 |
| Country | France |
| Runtime | 93 min |
| Format | Color, 35mm |
| Dynamic | |
| Synopses |
About the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Amazed by Osama bin Laden’s success at evading capture, gung-ho Spurlock sets out to locate the Al Qaeda leader himself in a manhunt that takes him to Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and finally Pakistan (where most fingers point). Bin Laden is always one step ahead, but along the way the documentarian forms a picture of the Middle Eastern populations whose fates are inextricably intertwined with those in the United States. Who are these people? What are the culture and socioeconomic determinants of radical fundamentalism? Who in the Middle East appreciates a good joke? Determined to get his man and some answers, Spurlock leaves no stone unturned. It’s dizzying to witness him ambling amiably into ultra-Orthodox Israeli neighborhoods and a Saudi mosque, where God’s wrath is invoked against America, as well as the malls and supermarkets peopled by moderates who are seldom seen on the nightly news: just the kind of temperature reading many Americans would like to take, if they dared. Outrageous graphics, original music, and an appeal for a higher consciousness among global neighbors are the fries and shake alongside this Happy Meal of a documentary. – Sundance Film Guide |
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| Misc Info |
Pr: Stacey Offman, Morgan Spurlock Ci: Daniel Marracino Ed: Julie “Bob” Lombardi, Gavin Coleman Post: Stuart Macphee |
| from USAToday | |
| Whom it's for: News junkies, spelunkers. The story: Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock has gone from studying the effects of an all-McDonald's diet to visiting remote mountain regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan to find out why the USA hasn't yet captured or killed the al-Qaeda terrorist leader. "I'd like to think it's the funniest movie ever made about terrorism," Spurlock says. "I think if you can make people laugh about something that's really difficult, you can make people listen." Of note: He says the movie is a travelogue of some of the world's most dangerous territory. |
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| from USAToday |
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Sundance screening: Spurlock's search for 'Bin Laden' By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY PARK CITY, Utah - Super Size Me filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's new movie is called Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?, but it should probably be called Why in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? The comedic documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to a packed crowd, eager to see what the offbeat Brooklyn filmmaker with the handlebar mustache would find when he headed off to the Middle East on a solo mission to find the fugitive terrorist leader. When The Weinstein Co. acquired distribution rights late last year, Internet rumors abounded that Spurlock had actually been to an al-Qaeda camp and conducted an interview with Bin Laden. Spurlock referenced these tall tales during his introduction. "My favorite was that Harvey Weinstein paid me $25 million," he laughed, saying the sequel would be titled Where in the World is My Money? The movie begins with Spurlock wryly pondering Hollywood action movies that show complicated global problems being resolved by one reckless hero, so he sets off to Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt, Afghanistan and Pakistan on a shoe-leather investigation to track down the 9/11 mastermind. It's all tongue-in-cheek, with animation footage of Spurlock fighting Bin Laden in each country in a Mortal Kombat-style videogame, and absurd footage of the filmmaker asking people in a Saudi grocery store if they've seen Bin Laden. But the comedy underlines his look at the economic, political and social differences that unite each culture, and also lead them to hate each other. He doesn't find Bin Laden, obviously, but the story becomes more about finding out what people in those countries think about terrorism, America, Israel, each other. "There are normal people there and there are people who are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs," he says. A common worry among radicals and regular people alike: What kind of future will their children have? That was what motivated Spurlock, as well, when his wife became pregnant during pre-production. "Suddenly the question for me wasn't just, 'Why haven't we find this guy?' but 'What kind of world am I about to bring a kid into?' " he said. The crowd questioned him about whether he ever seriously planned to find Bin Laden, and whether he overused comedy in a film about a subject that is deeply troubling to people. "What I try to do is take really heavy stuff that's hard to digest and make it so you don't get bored," Spurlock said. As for actually finding the terrorist: He said he would have gladly tracked him down, but not at any cost. His wife, who joined him onstage, nodded vigorously. "Alex didn't really want me to go and was really upset when I left and was ecstatic when I came back. And I never have to go again," Spurlock said, laughing. The filmmaker was asked why he didn't go into Iraq, and he said: "Iraq has become a huge inspiration for a lot of people who are now going off to join al-Qaeda, join groups that are waging jihad. It's a kind of rallying cry, but it has been so covered, and we hear so much about it in the news and media, that I think Afghanistan is a much more important story to tell. It's a country we heard was liberated, that we heard was saved, that we got rid of the Taliban. ... And now it's worse than ever, and the Taliban is coming back like never before." Alex told the audience that was only partly the reason he didn't go into Iraq. "The one thing that I won was: No Iraq. 'You're not going. Or I'm leaving.' That's it," she said. Some people laughed, but there was a serious edge to her voice. The last question from the audience: What is his next death-defying project? "Fatherhood," Spurlock answered. His son's birth closes the movie. |
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| from Cinematical |
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Sundance Review: Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?Posted Jan 23rd 2008 12:15AM by James Rocchi  Morgan Spurlock -- whose mix of affable good humor, wise guy populism, shameless showmanship and participatory journalism made Super Size Me a breakout hit at Sundance in 2004 -- is back in Park City with his follow-up feature documentary, Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? And those elements are all still very much in effect in Spurlock's sophomore feature film, even if they may occasionally feel in need of slight fine-tuning. Inspired by the impending birth of his first child, Spurlock hits upon one thing he can do to make the world a safer place for his yet-to-be-born offspring; find and capture Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind September 11th and the leader of Al Qaeda. As Spurlock notes in his introduction, "If I've learned anything from big budget action films, it's that complicated world problems are best solved by one lonely guy. ...." And while Spurlock may not actually answer the question of where, he actually tackles, with humor, probing wit and a certain grace, the much more important question of why. And while Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? offers more than a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, at least there is a little medicine. After security training and an extensive battery of shots, Spurlock begins touring the globe to find out who Osama is and where he came from. A quote from Dick Cheney gives a party-line take on the roots of terrorist hatred for America: "They hate us, they hate our country, they hate the liberties for which we stand." But, as comedian David Cross notes in one of his charged stand-up bits, if the terrorists really hated freedom, then the Netherlands would be dust long before America got attacked. ... So why do they hate us? Spurlock goes out into, as the op-ed pieces call it, 'the Arab street,' in Jordan and Morocco and Palestine and Egypt and Saudi Arabia and elsewhere to not only ask about Osama's whereabouts but also ask the people there how they feel about 9-11 and America. And with a mix of interviews and escapades and animations, Spurlock lays out a simple thesis: That America's image has been hurt and sullied for years by its own conduct, primarily by propping up authoritarian regimes that deny their citizens economic and political freedoms, with those angry, disenfranchised poor embracing Islamic fundimentalism as the only thing that will listen and violence as the only way they can be heard. (Oh, and invading Iraq. And supporting Israel's efforts in the contested territories. And ...) Al Franken notes that when Liberals say they love America, it's like the love in a long marriage -- "I love you, but I'm mad you didn't take out the trash ... " or "I love you, but I can't believe you gave billions of dollars in arms and aid to Iraq during the '80s." It's still love, but it's tough love -- which includes asking hard questions and raising ugly facts. Spurlock says, flat-out, that in our desire to support two precious resources -- anti-communism during the Cold War and oil right now -- we have helped create the poverty, hopelessness and anger that is the meat and drink of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism. Of course, since the name listed as the directorial credit is "Morgan Spurlock" and not, say, "Ken Burns," we also get wacky sequences of a Flash-animated Osama doing the Hammer dance to "Can't Touch This." And phone calls with Spurlock's expectant wife, hoping he'll stay safe and get back before the baby arrives. And the theme from Shaft in Egyptian. Not all of this flashier material is a success -- a film-long theme of animated sequences appropriating the style of the popular Mortal Kombat videogame series gets very old very fast -- but when Spurlock stops worrying about being funny ha-ha and actually talks to people and looks at the world, Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? is precisely what you'd hope it might be -- a frank and fascinating and warm and smart look at the world we live in, and how it might be better. And Spurlock's not some naïve starry-eyed optimist either -- he speaks to Islamic radicals who suspect 9-11 is a hoax, as "America has all the Oscars," then suggesting that a nation capable of creating Babe the talking pig could certainly fake the collapse of the World Trade Center. Spurlock also talks to other people under ordinary and extraordinary circumstances -- a sequence where Spurlock is allowed to interview two Saudi high school students, with the kids darting nervous looks at their adult supervision, says a lot about the true nature and character of one of America's most vital allies in the region. But Spurlock shows unhinged behavior outside of the Islamic world, too; a sequence in Israel looking at the question of West Bank settlements gets Spurlock and his crew essentially thrown out of a conservative neighborhood. The title joke goes on a bit too long -- at his final stop in Pakistan, Spurlock tells a shopkeeper "I'm looking to buy a net ... like, a big net, six feet around ..." But the interviews, which are human and humble, and his analysis -- breezy and blunt and just complete enough to make you want to go to a library and see if he's right or wrong or what subtleties he may have missed -- are right on. Spurlock never says it, but you feel his thesis principle shift as he tours the Middle East and Asia; he starts the film wanting his unborn child to be safer, but ends it wanting every kid everywhere to be safer, given opportunities of real liberty and the possibility of economic opportunity. Spurlock visits Afghanistan, and while his respect for the men and women in uniform who are keeping him safe is unquestionable, he also looks at the bombed-out ruin of a school destroyed two years ago and asks why no one's fixed it, why things have to be this way. And, of course, he gets to shoot off some of the U.S. base's guns, inspiring him to ask if he can, whole he's there, also try out a rocket launcher. Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? is being sold as a joke -- Spurlock wandering the hills of Tora Bora yelling "Yoo-hoo! Osama?" into abandoned caves -- but Spurlock's analysis of America's role in the world and his quiet conversations with Muslims and people in the street truly provides not just food for thought but even hope. Spurlock's final voice-over says how it's going to take " ... really hard questions and real courage ..." to figure out America's possibilities for peace in, and with, the Islamic world and real safety at home. After years of easy slogans, expedient hypocrisy and photo-op poses of phony bravery from America's leaders, that kind of humility and hope is actually inspiring. At one point during Spurlock's world tour, a child in the streets of a Middle Eastern nation where poverty goes hand-in-hand with oppression is asked how he feels about Osama bin Laden, and his answer is frank: "I wish we had someone like Osama bin Laden ..." What Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? makes painfully clear, underneath all the fun and flash, is that unless America is careful and smart and truly principled as it moves forward, that kid's going to get his wish |