Pauline Kael, the late film critic from the New Yorker, had one admonition for a great movie. "Astonish me," she said.

Well, this past week certainly fit that bill. Movie producers are, no doubt, already lining up to film something along the lines of The Revenge of the SEALS or How Obama got his bad guy.

I'm sure it will be coming to your movie or TV screen soon, well before the entire story is in and understood.

Albert Einstein, who was not a Navy SEAL, is reported to have said, "It's not that I'm so smart, it is just that I stay with problems longer."

That same sort of perseverance — following up untold numbers of boring leads and picking through mountains of telephone logs — clearly played a huge part in hunting down America's most wanted terrorist.

For those who had thought that CIA incompetence was the best argument against conspiracy theories, this successful American operation will add luster to all manner of paranoid accusations.

The take-home message, though, from professor Barack Obama could be: Stay in school.

Heroes are not only those athletic, well-trained commandos, but intel eggheads who can find meaning in something like a mislaid receipt.

History's 'Bad Guys'

A little retribution may be in our DNA. (Associated Press)In short, the intelligence work that went into tracking down Osama is the best argument for studious, delayed gratification, which, of course, is hard to dramatize in any movie special.

But there is another message here that shouldn't go unremarked upon either: It is that it is very important for people to understand and to feel that the universe is somehow fair and just (even if it's not).

So, for our peace of mind, it's important to know exactly how the bad guys die because, unfortunately, they don't often die in a morally satisfying manner.

Just take a few examples from history.

Joseph Stalin, who terrorized the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as killing and imprisoning millions, died in 1953 of natural causes (perhaps a cerebral hemorrhage) after an all-night movie and dinner. Apparently he liked to carouse as well as terrorize. There were suspicions he might have been poisoned, but historians doubt that. The monster died at the ripe age of 74, in his own bed.

Then there was Mao Zedong, who caused the deaths (by starvation, imprisonment or other means) of between 40 and 70 million Chinese. He also died, in 1976, of natural causes, after having been in poor health for years. One of history's Bad Guys, he was honoured at the time of his death, and still is today, instead of being banished to some squalid, rural exile, as he did to so many unsuspecting millions during the Cultural Revolution

It just doesn't seem fair to let people like that die so, well, naturally.

Tempered revenge

Those who are believers in hell and damnation won't be so perturbed by how Osama bin Laden met his maker: he will receive his comeuppance in the afterlife.

But for many of us this does not suit our instinct for fairness, justice and, yes, tempered revenge — which might also be called retribution.

That is why it feels much more fitting for bad guys to die unnaturally, in the embrace of the violence they advocated, as bin Laden did. Live by the sword, die with your AK-47 a step away.

I say this because human beings seem to have a real inbuilt need for justice and fairness (that is not just a Canadian conceit).

Whether this is because God inserted "natural law" into our souls or whether a sense of justice evolved from our hunter-gather days ("Divide the kill fairly, guys"), you can take your pick.

I just think that the moral "feel" of fairness is in our DNA. So how the bad guys die is really important.

On a more superficial level, I admit, it can even add a certain lightness to your step.

Of course I realize that all the commentary surrounding bin Laden's death, if printed, could soak up the flood waters of the Prairies and Quebec. But these observations about an iconic death also serve a larger purpose: they are part of a civilizational catharsis, if you will, a dignified way of letting off steam.

Iconic deaths allow for these lashings out. Some commentators argue for the suitability of rejoicing, others for the necessity of forgiveness and the end of war in Afghanistan.

The CBC's Neil Macdonald speculated that bin Laden may have died a happy man because he had helped fill America with strife and meanness. In the split seconds before he was shot, I suspect the al-Qaeda leader did not give a thought to the Islamic caliphate he hoped to usher in or to the bickering of the Tea Party.

But all speculation is fair in these circumstances, I would argue, because when frightful, charismatic figures die, the rules relax and we're all given a certain licence to say what we will.