My Trip to Al-Qaeda

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright (The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11) joined forces for this innovative adaptation of Wright's Off-Broadway one-man show on the Al-Qaeda terrorist network, serving up a harsh and often disturbing view of the social and theological environments that enabled Al-Qaeda to spread globally, along with a distinctive deciphering of the mindset behind the terrorists' strategies. Originally broadcast on HBO, the film imaginatively mixes portions of the stage show (detailing Wright's experiences in the Middle East and encounters with the Al-Qaeda warriors), news clips of Al-Qaeda violence, and footage of Wright conducting interviews and being interviewed himself. Occasionally, the documentary seems to blur Al-Qaeda's endeavors with the excessive brutality of hard-line Islamic theocracy in other parts of the Arab world—particularly in recalling a 2002 fire at a girl's school in Mecca where 14 young girls died and more than 50 were injured when religious police prevented their rescue because they were “not properly covered.” Wright's conclusion is that Al-Qaeda lacks the power to topple the United States externally, but is instead writing a script that will make America destroy itself while trying to eradicate her terrorist enemies. A powerful, provocative, timely film, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)