Director: Greg Barker
Airs: HBO on Wednesday, May 1st, 8pm
Premiered: Sundance 2013
Thanks to being on IDA’s mailing list (totally free), I was invited to a free screening of the new HBO documentary film Manhunt directed by journalist and filmmaker Greg Barker, which was followed by a Q&A with him, his crew, and one of the film’s subjects former CIA analyst Nada Bakos. The film tells the story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden from the perspective of the CIA analysts who eventually found him, most of whom were women. I know what you’re thinking, didn’t I already see this movie? And yes, it covers similar ground to Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, but it offers a bigger perspective and having now seen both I don’t think the two films are substitutes for each other.
While introducing the film, Barker said that the celebration after Bin Laden’s death didn’t seem to resonate with him in the way it did for others, but he felt and hoped it was the close of a “dark period” in American history. He set out to make a film that would tell the story from the inside about the team of people who had found Bin Laden, but also a film that discussed the “uncomfortable truths about decisions made between 9/11 and now.”
The film commences pre-9/11 and continues through the death of Bin Laden, so it covers a large time period, and it tracks the entire process of discovering a group called Al Qaeda existed to finally killing its leader. A number of the CIA analysts involved provide the inside perspective and the amazing graphics help the viewer keep track of the different terrorist characters as they are discovered, captured, or killed. Manhunt is a documentary, so it’s informative and thoughtful, but Barker does instill a lot of tension by cutting it as a “spy movie” with bustling Middle Eastern streets, mysterious views through windows, driving with CIA operatives at night, and assembling complex visual webs of terrorist networks with photos and documents.
In addition to laying out the basic facts of the process, the film certainly deals with the moral issues facing the CIA and the FBI during the “war on terror” and provides different points of view, particularly regarding the use of torture during interrogation. Zero Dark Thirty was embroiled in controversy that crushed its Oscar hopes over its portrayal of torture and whether it tacitly supported its use or simply portrayed events accurately, allowing the viewer to decide the moral question. Manhunt doesn’t necessarily provide a clear cut answer the question either, allowing leaders from the CIA, FBI, and military with differing opinions to weigh in, but they certainly lay out the issue clearly and concisely.
What I found most fascinating in the film was the extensive use of rarely seen footage from Al Qaeda. Apparently, this footage is accessible to the public, but seldom aired by the media, perhaps from some attempt to deny the terrorist group a bigger platform. We see chilling images of a young, smiling, charismatic Osama bin Laden and videos that look like bad Middle Eastern music videos that would be laughable if their messages weren’t so hateful and violent. While I understand the media’s reluctance to show this sort of footage, I’m glad it was used in this film because it helps you understand the world of the CIA analysts who are watching footage like this constantly, living, breathing, and eating threats to the U.S. on a daily basis, and it helps to understand the enemy they were tracking.
My recommendation would be to watch both Manhunt and Zero Dark Thirty, for comparison purposes, and also because while Manhunt provides a bigger picture, Zero Dark Thirty provides a personal narrative and fills in some holes left by Manhunt surrounding the actual military operation that killed Bin Laden, which is not discussed at all in Manhunt and is portrayed in great detail in Zero Dark Thirty.
Watch the trailer for Manhunt: https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/manhunt-the-search-for-bin-laden/index.html
Also of note: the awesome graphics were done by Creative Director and Designer Manija Emran of the VFX powerhouse The Mill (LA office). I think having good graphics in a documentary can be a critical part of the story, especially when there is a shortage of verite footage as there naturally is for a story that is recreating a secret and past event. Here is a link to their blog discussing the process: http://www.themill.com/blog/2013/march/15/manhunt-@-sundance-film-festival.aspx
The Stairs 