Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? (2008)

This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat
and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which
one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives
us; for this is our lot. Likewise all to whom God gives
wealth and possessions and whom he enables to enjoy
them, and to accept their lot and find enjoyment in their
toil—this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 5:18-19

Director Morgan Spurlock takes the same comedic tact toward the subject of Islamic terrorism that he did with MacDonald’s crass and unhealthful food offerings in Supersize Me, one of satiric humor. His title is a bit misleading, the question being a bit rhetorical, more of a jab at the failure of the CIA and the US military to catch up with the terrorist whom, following the dreadful attack on 9-11, our President vowed to hunt down. What Spurlock really does in his film is to tour the Middle East as sort of an American Boratz to learn about Osama bin Laden’s culture and religion. With his wife expecting a child, he nonetheless sets out for far away lands because, he says, he wants his child to grow up in a safer world. What he finds, beginning in Egypt, when he poses his naive questions to all sorts of people is that, although Muslims dislike the American government, some admire the people of the USA. And many Muslims are as appalled at bin Laden’s tactics as he is. Ironically, the filmmaker finds himself most in danger in Israel where a number of utra-Orthodox Jews become upset by his intrusion into their neighborhood and threaten him with violence. Throughout the film Spurlock inserts funny animated sequences, along with Terrorist Trading Cards, adding to the entertainment value of his film, but uncovering little that is new. This is a film mainly for those who are against the present US administration and its policies in the Middle East.