Thursday, May 2, 2013

Manhunt

Based on the nonfiction book by Peter Bergen, "Manhunt" tells the story of the search for Osama bin Laden from the perspective of CIA intelligence agents and field operatives, which began some ten years before the 9/11 attacks when he turned his attentions from the Russian to American forces. Despite threats, attacks around the world (including the World Trade Center Bombings in 1993), and the insistence of dogged analysts, bin Laden went largely ignored until that fateful day in 2001 when his search became a new kind of jigsaw puzzle. "Manhunt" is a gripping film, which contains a little more theory and job description than actual history of events than as I would have preferred, but is still nonetheless a compelling testimony by the men and women on the front lines of the tenuous war on terror. It features excellent, sometimes shocking footage (including a 1997 remote interview between Bergen and bin Laden) and succeeds in explaining what made the investigation so long and dense, and rewarding at its conclusion.