So the Pentagon has released captured video of Osama Bin Laden watching footage of himself on TV:
Setting aside why he would have had anyone filming him watching TV (maybe he was testing a new camera, or maybe he was looking forward to an “I’m So Meta” Hitler parody video), what this reminded me of most was Norma Desmond watching herself in Sunset Boulevard. That is to say, someone who was once a big international star the world had passed by and was now a has-been, watching faded footage of the glory days, delusional about still being important, unwilling to go outside and largely forgotten.
I’m not going to say that was a fitting end for him, as that was having U.S. soldiers forcibly evict large portions of gray matter from his skull. But it is a fitting prelude to a fitting end.
He was ready for his close-up.
Tags: Norma Desmond, Osama bin Laden, Sunset Boulevard, video