The operations room on the day bin Laden was killed. Photocredit: Brook Lapping productions
The Hunt for Bin Laden is a documentary by Brook Laden, which is an examinatino into the period from when bin Laden attacked the World Trade Centre in 1993 right up until the day when he was killed by the United States. It catalogues the CIA’s blunders, in which they bombed Afghanistan and Sudan; their squabbles with the FBI; and shows how the hunt was wayward. It marks a year since the death of the al-Qaeda leader. Critics are divided as to whether it was dull or interesting; but all agree that it was worthy.
Brilliant film-making.
The film is “exemplary,” said Andrew Billen in The Times. It shows how the CIA at first didn’t even “know that there was an al-Qaeda” at first. But, in the end, it was “intelligence” that got bin Laden, “and some steely presidential balls from Barack Obama.” It also sheds light on the American reaction to the killing of bin Laden – it quotes Bush’s counter-terrorism advisor, Richard Clarke: “If I ordered a pizza and it came ten years after I ordered it I wouldn’t be too delighted.”
A bit dull?
The documentary was “sober and detailed”, said Tom Sutcliffe in The Independent. It was in fact “a little dull.” The material was “well-known”, the final moment “necessarily” pushed into the last few minutes. He was “struck though by CIA agent Gary Schroen’s understated response to an order to find Bin Laden and his lieutenants in Afghanistan and decapitate them, remitting Osama’s head to Washington, while displaying the others: ‘Pikes we can probably improvise,’ he replied, ‘but I don’t know what we’re going to do about dry ice.’”
A bungling search.
There was an element of triumphalism in the documentary, said Keith Watson in Metro. But what really came through was how “bungled” everything was. “It would have been funny had it not been so deadly serious.” Watson wondered how the “grey men” who run everything ever got to their positions. Though the hunt was successful, it doesn’t put our minds at rest. “Who next will slip through a net with such gaping holes? As one suit put it: ‘What you worry about is… who takes his place?’”
At least it’s revealing.
The television site Onthebox said that bin Laden was (allegedly) “a fan of The Wonder Years… was quite taken by Whitney Houston, and addictied to the refreshingly bubbly taste of Pepsi.” He remains “laregely a mystery.” The sober narration makes a “pleasant departure” from the usual kind of ITV documentary. There were some “unique insights”, and it was “surprisingly well-executed.” ITV have made “a truly compelling programme” which is “both comprehensive and revealing.”
