Film: American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden
Directors: Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan
Rating: 3.5/5
Runtime: 60 min
Netflix’s latest edition of the true crime anthology series American Manhunt focuses on Osama bin Laden. The new three-part series follows Osama bin Laden, one of the world’s most dreaded criminals who evaded capture for nearly a decade after planning the horrific attacks on New York City on September 11, 2001.
September 11, 2001- when two 747s crashed into the World Trade Center, two other planes crashed into the Pentagon in Washington and a field near Pennsylvania, and 2,977 innocent people lost their lives. A global manhunt was launched thereafter to identify the organization behind the horrific attacks, and once it was established that Al-Qaeda terrorists led by Osama, based in Afghanistan, were involved, the target was set.
Osama bin Laden was born into a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia, but quickly established himself as a militant leader. He was already on the FBI`s most wanted list after declaring war on the United States on several occasions. He was impossible to find as he hid from authorities in several different locations. He was finally tracked down to a compound in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.
Once that was confirmed – Operation Neptune Spear, the code name for the task of taking down bin Laden, run by a special operations military unit, came into being. Eventually, the then president of the United States Barack Obama, confirmed that the United States had carried out an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda and a terrorist responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
This documentary recounts the decade-long global search while weaving in the 9/11 attacks, al-Qaeda’s operations, and the war in Afghanistan. It’s a largely linear, tightly edited narrative that uses interviews with intelligence officials, military operatives, government officials and journalists who were on the ground, providing firsthand insights and factual reporting. It also includes archival footage and reenactments blended in perfectly to keep the narrative engaging.
It also portrays the high-stakes decision-making behind the mission while capturing the paranoia, the frustration, intelligence failures, bureaucratic slowdowns and the political maneuvering that stretched the search for bin Laden across multiple locations and administrations. The risky strategic calls that shaped the eventual raid on the Abbottabad compound are also part of the recant here. This documentary is both gripping and detailed in laying out the facts behind his notoriety and eventual death.