Four Lions 2010

Four Lions 2010

Four Lions is one of those foreign films that could never be produced in the United States.  It is the story of a smell cell of incompetent jihadists.  The group desperately wants to be Al Qeada suicide bombers, but the group only includes an idiot, a white man, a social incompetent, a rapper straight out of school, and a family man.  This dark comedy is the story of their struggle to bomb an important symbol of British Imperialism.  They fail in every way imaginable and that is where this movie becomes a fun satire laughing at jihadists. 

The creator, Chris Morris, considers himself a satirist, but the subject matter is a bit raw.  He collated years of funny stories and anecdotes of failed bombers to create many of the gags used in the film, but most are absurdly over the top.  For instance the character Faisal, played by Adeel Akhtar, tries to train crows to carry bombs and fly into buildings.  At the end of the film, the group strap bombs under costumes that include a ninja turtle and a kid's cereal mascot.  The pure absurdity of the characters allows for this controversial film to come off as a dark comedy that seems to condemn suicide bombers while simultaneously seeking to understand them. 

The acting is really good throughout the film with sentimental moments mixed in with the truly idiotic. The main character Omar, Riz Ahmed, is a family man who's wife and son seem to be happy that he is going to kill himself.  He has tender moments with his wife and uses the characters from The Lion King to explain his mistakes at the training camp in Pakistan.  He is the brains behind the operation, but is constantly at odds with the more than a little insane Barry, played by Nigel Lindsay.  Barry is almost a caricature as the overly zealous convert to Islam, but is easy the funniest character in the film.  The rest of the cast fill out a roster of misfits that can even make mass murder funny.  These characters could only work with the stellar writing and directing of Morris.

The film is good technically and uses some tricks I have seen before, but plays them in new light.  The most notable is that it mixes in security camera and cell phone footage.  With the shots that appear to be taken by night surveillance on the characters these shots are used to break up the more hilarious parts of the film into a regular series of chuckles.  The pyrotechnics are pretty low key, but it adds to the homemade feel of the bombs.  I can't go into much more detail without ruining a clever plot point or a great visual gag, but the other technical aspects, like the music, fit into the film flawlessly.

This film is not for everyone and makes multiple offensive statements about the 9/11 and 7/7 attacks as well as frequent antisemitic remarks.  In the context of a satire I never found myself being shocked by what was said, but other might not feel the same.  This is a great dark comedy and political satire, but without subtitles people who don't understand the thick British accents may be lost by the fast flying insults.  I would recommend this film to fans of British comedies and those that love political satire such as Lewis Black.