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There is a $25,000,000 reward for information that leads to finding Osama bin Laden, but that isn't what led Morgan Spurlock on an international quest to find the Al Qaeda leader in Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? The stated reason is that he was about to become a father and needed to make the world safe for his new child. He says at the start of the film that the thing he's learned in a life filled with adventure movies is that "when the world needs saving, it's best done by one lonely guy willing to face danger head on..."

I suspect the real reason is that he saw the chance to make an interesting film, as he did with Super Size Me. In that film, Spurlock spent a month eating McDonald's food, seemingly putting his health at risk in the process. Here he travels to various Middle East countries, ostensibly looking for bin Laden, but really meeting the people of those countries and learning about them and noting the ways they are like us. In this, too, he seems to put his life at risk. He goes to dangerous places—including being embedded in Army units in Afghanistan.

In Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Spurlock talks mainly to people on the street. He visits in their homes with their families. He tries to help viewers understand the people of these countries. Often we only get to see the militant people. Spurlock shows us some of these, but most of the people we meet are very similar to us.

There are not any real revelations in the film. It's not news that people in Arab countries are not all (or even mostly) like the militants we see on the news. When Spurlock traces the American foreign policy that has supported various dictators in the region, that subject has been covered before. But then, Spurlock didn't really tell us anything we didn't know in Super Size Me, he just made it interesting. That is what he attempts to do (with various degrees of success) with the way we understand terrorism. Humor is one of the ways he tries to make this information entertaining. Spurlock notes in press materials, "I really think if you can make someone laugh you can make someone listen." So although this is a serious subject, he treats it less seriously than some would like. But the goal is for people to see this information in a new light so that they have a chance to assimilate ideas that might seem overwhelming otherwise.

Documentaries have begun to fuse with other styles of films. It's impossible to have a purely subjective documentary, but there are some that are more so than others. The term docuganda has been used for films that have an obvious slant to them. Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? is really more docutainment. It is a mixing of facts with an entertaining storyline—Spurlock's search of bin Laden. The plot serves as the vehicle that delivers the information.

One of Spurlock's gifts is his ability to be an "every man." He seems to be just like the people who watch his film. We can identify with eating fast food. We can at least think about where we'd look for bin Laden. He doesn't set forth any sense of being an expert or having an agenda. He just seems to be telling us an interesting story about himself.

Is the film really about trying to find this man who has a $25,000,000 price on his head? No, but that putative search allows the film to meet people from different cultures, to learn what they think of us, and to discover the kinship we may share. One of the ways Spurlock was able to gain the trust of those he talked to was to tell them he was about to become a father and ask for tips on being a parent. This served to bring to focus the importance of family and children that crosses cultural boundaries.

The film also seeks to remind Americans that people in different places don't always understand who we are. While in Egypt, Spurlock found people who thought we were at war with them. Often people would preface their remarks with the idea that they liked American people, but not the American government. There are also times when we hear the vehemence of some people's anger with America. While he does look at some ways that American foreign policy has created some of the problems in the Middle East, he doesn't use the film to bash the current administration; the policies involved many administrations through the years.

How close does Spurlock come to finding the world's most wanted man? Does it really matter if the journey has its own rewards along the way? As is often the case, the journey is more important than the goal. And the people he finds along the journey are more important that the one person he is looking for.