American Manhunt – Osama bin Laden review: Netflix series could lowkey be a CIA-funded propaganda piece, but it's undeniably thrilling

Indian Express

17-05-2025

Every single high-ranking official who appears in American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden — and there certainly is a murderer's row of them — knows that they are in a Netflix documentary. They're prone to speaking in blurbs; in declarations and pronouncements, almost as if they want to make sure that they make the cut. The sprawling three-episode series, which was suspiciously released two months after it was supposed to, traces the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, the notorious Al Qaeda leader who remained, for a long period of time, the most wanted man in the world.
At the peak of America's war on terror, there was a $25 million price on his head. Bin Laden kept taunting the Americans for years, somehow evading capture despite having being driven out of his stronghold in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks. The documentary series begins on the fateful day when two passenger airliners crashed into the World Trade Centre, while another hit the Pentagon. A fourth plane, United 93, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers overpowered the hijackers and took control of the cockpit. It was the worst terrorist attack in modern history, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. President George W. Bush vowed to bring those responsible to justice, and essentially gave the Central Intelligence Agency carte blanche to capture or kill bin Laden.
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The series is told almost entirely from the perspective of CIA officials who were closely involved in the operation to hunt bin Laden down. Jessica Chastain played a composite of these women in Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow's brawny epic about the manhunt. Also featured are the operatives who found themselves on-ground in Afghanistan mere weeks after the attacks. Admiral William McRaven, who oversaw the raid on bin Laden's compound, makes an appearance as well. But, perhaps most impressively, so does Robert O'Neill, the Navy SEAL who has controversially claimed that he was the man who — spoiler alert — shot and killed bin Laden.
This is when the leadership of the CIA was handed over to Leon Panetta, who served under President Barack Obama as the director of the CIA when bin Laden was located in Pakistan. He appears quite prominently in the third episode. The access that directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan is stunning, quite frankly. And even though the talking heads don't really reveal any new information — they're obviously beholden to details that have been declassified — there is an undeniable thrill to hearing the oft-told tale straight from the horse's mouth. At the same time, however, you can't help but come up with conspiracy theories of your own.
How was Netflix able to get this sort of access in the first place? This isn't Formula 1 we're talking about; the CIA is perhaps one of the most secretive organisations in the world. It took them nearly 20 years, for instance, to declassify documents related to the operation that inspired the film Argo. But while you might be familiar with the broad strokes of the bin Laden manhunt, the devil's in the details. Take, for instance, counterterrorism specialist Cofer Black's recollection of how he was appointed the head of the task force. During a meeting with Bush and his cabinet mere days after 9/11, Black wiggled his way towards the table — he was originally made to sit by the wall — and told Bush something to the effect of, 'Give me six weeks and I'll have insects crawling out of his eyes.'
Bush had found his man. But Black admitted that the president's decision didn't go down too well with Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld. According to Black, this resentment was perhaps the reason why Rumsfeld refused to send military support to the CIA when they'd cornered bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains. The operatives featured in the show don't hesitate to express their anger at being left hanging by Rumsfeld. They had bin Laden in their sights. Internal politics allowed him to slip away. The CIA lost his scent after the Battle of Tora Bora, but when Obama was elected into office, he made tracking bin Laden down a priority once again.
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The series switches gears in the feature-length final episode, which is dedicated entirely to the final stage of the manhunt, during which the Agency discovered that bin Laden was likely hiding out in Abbottabad. They accessed this intel by utilising 'enhanced interrogation techniques', which is the more polite word for 'torture'. Much has been said about this topic over the years, but the Netflix series marks perhaps the first time that multiple CIA officials go on the record to express their regret for what happened. One analyst even claims to have voiced her dissent when bin Laden's trusted crony, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was being tortured at Guantanamo Bay.
Lowkey a glossy propaganda piece designed to whitewash the CIA's image and absolve it of dropping the ball — 9/11 wasn't an intelligence failure, the folks in the show definitively declare — American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden is undeniably thrilling. The Agency has a history of using films, literature, and music to shape and control narratives; it only makes sense for them to go where the audience is.
American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden
Directors – Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan
Rating – 3.5/5
Rohan Naahar is an assistant editor at Indian Express online. He covers pop-culture across formats and mediums. He is a 'Rotten Tomatoes-approved' critic and a member of the Film Critics Guild of India. He previously worked with the Hindustan Times, where he wrote hundreds of film and television reviews, produced videos, and interviewed the biggest names in Indian and international cinema. At the Express, he writes a column titled Post Credits Scene, and has hosted a podcast called Movie Police.
You can find him on X at @RohanNaahar, and write to him at [e-mail]. He is also on LinkedIn and Instagram. ... Read More