Code Name: Geronimo – review

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Using the name of the great Native-American hero Geronimo either for the operation that tracked down Osama bin Laden to his hiding place in Pakistan, or for the al-Qaida leader himself, was an insensitive choice of nomenclature for a brilliantly executed task. This competent unauthorised docudrama interweaves the stories of the CIA's trackers and the Navy Seals who carried out the attack on the Bin Laden compound and also deals with their local Pakistani assistants who got thrown to the lions. Triumphalism is avoided, but the Seals' macho talk and a brutal fight between the two competitors for leadership of the assault team strike a false note. Kathryn Bigelow's account of the same operation, Zero Dark Thirty, promises to be better.