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Morgan Spurlock on the World
By Fred Topel | Image property of TWC
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
Morgan Spurlock Travels the World
"I think they don't like America's foreign policy as much as they used to," said Spurlock. "I think people still have a tremendous amount of hope in what America means and what America is. America is a dream and an ideology and a hope that things can always be better. That's how a lot of people see the United States still. I think that a lot of that has been shattered over the course of, for some people it's been five years, some it's been 10-15 years, but as you heard consistently and we spoke to people consistently, it was, 'We don't hate the American people but we hate what's happened to the American government and what's transpired.'"
This "they hate us" mentality is part of the problem. "I think we're still taught that people hate us and it's this 'They hate us,' them, those people and everybody's grouped into this one thing. Islam is a monolithic thing. Those people are a monolithic thing and that's just not the case. We like things to be very simple and in a little package and I think it's much more broad than that. I think over the course of the film, even when I go in my travels, you see that from different places where we go, from all the countries we go to, there's a much more diverse, even brand of Islam in all of these countries and how it's practiced."
Approaching such a controversial topic in such a volatile region could have been a risky proposition. Spurlock did have military security in some places, but found a warm reception overall.
"For me, I personally also thought that I was going to be met with a lot more hostility, a lot more resentment, that people weren't going to want to talk to me because I was an American. They weren't going to want to sit down and open up. It was completely the opposite. People really were eager to sit down and share their feelings and share their outlooks and share their opinions. These are people who don't get to speak in a lot of these countries. These people live in countries where if you speak out, you'll go to jail. That's terrible, so I think for them to be able to sit down with somebody from what they see as the Western media and actually being able to express their thoughts, knowing it could potentially reach people back in America is very brave."
Even though some of those countries have no movie theaters, Spurlock expects the film to exhibit. "Well, in Saudi Arabia where there's no movie theaters and there's no movies, there are so many movies. The movie premieres here this Friday. My prediction is by Saturday, it'll be everywhere in Saudi Arabia, on the black market, on the web somewhere. The bootleg will be out and the bootleg will be out fast. I'm anxious to start getting feedback."
In most cases, the people who risked repercussions in speaking did so willingly. Where possible, Spurlock hopes to protect his participants. In any case, he feels they did good by coming forward.
"I think what the film does a really good job of doing is starting to give a voice to that silent majority, the people that I think we don't give enough airtime to in America. I think the film does a great job of getting out of the two minute soundbites that we get on the news and painting a much different portrait of what life is like in the middle east for a lot of these people on a daily basis."
Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? is out in theaters now.
For the trailer, review and more movie info, go to the Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of TWC
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