The film Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden was shown in US television on November 4th, 2012 (two days before the presidential election) on National Geographic. It was the channel's first film in feature length. It is now also being distributed on home video releases. But there's something that's worth mentioning since it appears that there are two versions of the documentary.

The cover of the German DVD/BD has the remark "Director's Cut" on it and differs significantly from the US TV version. In general, it's fair to assume that all releases entitled Seal Team Six (like the unrated American DVD/BD) contain the documentary version while the European releases get the feature version entitled Code Name: Geronimo.

Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden is partly a documentary which describes the hunt on the terrorist leader. It uses archive material of Barack Obama talking about the search for Bin Laden. Also, SEAL members and other secret service employees get to talk about their work, fears, motivations and goals or just comment on the actual happening. The "action scenes" don't put too much emphasis on timing, pacing or dramatic soundtracks but are rather used to clarify what happened. And as it is typical for US television, there's also just moderate violence, no coarse language and, of course, no nudity.

Code Name: Geronimo is the feature version of that movie and runs approx. 10 minutes longer. It omits all references to the Weinstein Company and all archive material/interviews. To make up for that, we get more story and the action scenes are a bit more intense and dramatic. Furthermore, we get explicit material in terms of violence and sex, some shootouts are bloodier and the subplot dealing with a SEAL's wife cheating on him also brings us full frontal nudity alongside with some curse words. This is accompanied by some comedic elements (e.g. when two of them pursue the courier Al-Kuweiti and argue about where they should get off the road or whether they should use a better car next time).

Both cuts follow the same basic routine but have countless differences including extended scenes, new scenes, repositionings of whole chunks of scenes or just some shots that are just a little different. Often, all of that happens at once. This situation doesn't necessarily mean that an exact enumeration of all the differences within a comparison is impossible - but it would prove to be a hell of a project.

In summary, one can say that the US TV version that aims at recreting the events in a meticulous manner should be consumed with a grain of salt. Shortly after the airing, the internet was full of lists stating (allegedly) wrong details (e.g. irritating dates and places or subtitles that talk about the year 2002 although the camera material says 2010).

The feature version could be more suitable for people that look for a solid thriller involving a good amount of action with a fitting soundtrack. Even though it's doubable that it can compete with Kathryn Bigelow's take on the subject called Zero Dark Thirty, it surely can help to pass the time until that other one hits cinemas.