American Manhunt review: Riveting documentary about hunt for Laden that hits home

India Today

19-05-2025

Seldom does a documentary look like a feature film at every step of its way. The dramatisation and reality don't often go hand-in-hand, but in 'American Manhunt - Osama bin Laden', all the walls get broken to present a fact-by-fact, and a step-by-step hunt for a man deemed the World's Most Wanted for a very long time.In the new Netflix documentary, effectively limited to three episodes, you just don't see what conspired on the CIA desk, and inside the White House's Situation Room, but also inside the minds of those who spent over a decade of their lives hunting down bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attack in the US. You see the real-life footage of the attack - the Twin Towers being hit by passenger flights and crumbling down to ashes in no time. While the political jargon and the defence expertise keep you hooked, it's how the documentary humanises the 'hunt' that makes it more thrilling and impactful.advertisementThe fear among the masses, the spirit of a nation ready to bring their perpetrators to justice, and the authorities busy learning and unlearning on their journey to hunt the man - everything comes alive in the documentary. It's not about the facts for us, because that, we know. It's about going deeper into the psyche of people associated with the hunt, tracing the length and the depth of their wounds that kept festering for over a decade, until that morning of ultimate healing, after Operation Neptune Spear, when Obama announced that the world's hunt was finally over.The documentary makes you sit on the edge of your seat throughout the entire time. It swiftly moves on like a channel of insiders passing on critical information, and ends up being a massive entertainer - informative and thrilling.advertisement Before watching the documentary, and realising its depth, one has to realise the magnitude of the attack itself. 9/11 is considered the largest terrorist attack in modern history. It claimed over 3,000 innocent lives - children, women, foreigners and businesspeople - out there to start yet another day at what was called the 'World Trade Centre'. The incident sent the entire world into mourning, and also began a phase of terror which didn't spare any part of the world, worked without selection and thrived on fear, chaos, and indiscriminate violence.The documentary features victims of the attack wrapped in ashes, the survivors howling in the background as a TV reporter captures one of the towers collapsing right behind him. At that moment, the incident became more than an attack on the world's largest economy. It becomes an attack on humanity, an attempt at introducing a new order in a world marred by fear, division and the erosion of global trust.The three-part series travels from George W. Bush's reign to Barack Obama's, and much like the mission itself, it never flinches from its goal: the capturing of bin Laden. It is told from the perspective of the CIA officials and the defence personnel in-charged with the mission to capture the notorious Al-Qaeda leader, who was first hiding in Afghanistan before Pakistan sheltered him and his family in Abbotabad, near their military facility.advertisementWe are largely treated to interviews with CIA officials, counterterrorism analysts and military personnel, notably Tracy Walder, Michael Morell, Kevin Shaeffer, and the most memorable - Navy SEAL Robert O'Neil - who is believed to have fired the bullet that killed bin Laden.Perhaps the most haunting of them all remains the one featuring Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defence, who escaped the third attack on the same day, at the Pentagon, and, in his own words, "flat-lined twice" on the operating table.In 'American Manhunt', we see everything playing right in front of our eyes. The suffering, spirit, action, desperation, hope, promises, disappointment and at last, the sigh of relief - everything is visible and becomes personal. The timing of the release of this documentary makes it even more real, especially for Indians who continue to reel from the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack of April 22, which claimed 26 lives, and was planned and carried out by The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of another Pakistan-backed, UN-designated terror outfit - Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).advertisementThe documentary offers a stark, unvarnished portrayal of the entire mission - steering clear of any glorification. It doesn't shy away from showing that it took the US an entire decade to track down their attacker, a delay shaped significantly by internal political strife. From blame games within the cabinet to the critical turning points that defined the mission, the series captures how some lost hope while others chose to slow down.You see the staging of a makeshift compound to replay every possible scenario before going for the actual attack on the adversary, and you know that the documentary will never let you settle. The three episodes bring alive a nation's prolonged pursuit of justice - one constantly and considerably beaten by its own internal challenges.Events like 9/11 don't require added dramatisation. While crafting a documentary around such tragedies, there's no need for stylistic embellishments or fictionalised storytelling, because the reality is already intense and heartbreaking enough to drive a compelling narrative.'American Manhunt', about one of the world's most significant manhunts, hits close to home at a time when India endures its own moments of grief and resilience. The documentary resonates beyond America. It reminds us that justice may be delayed, but the quest of it restores faith.