Four Lions: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

The debut feature film directed by [[Chris Morris]], and written by Morris in collaboration with Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain of ''[[Peep Show]]'' fame. It's a comedy of the type where a bunch of ordinary blokes, none of them the very sharpest of minds, take on a task bigger than themselves. Similar to ''[[The Full Monty]]'', in a funny way. Except that they want to be [[Black Comedy|Islamist suicide bombers]].

 

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* [[Actual Pacifist]]: As part of the deconstruction of [[Acceptable Religious Targets]], Omar's fundamentalist Muslim brother Ahmed tries to talk him out of doing violence, which he rightly suspects he's planning. Naturally, the authorities see him as the terrorist mastermind behind it and are threatening him with torture at the end. Ahmed seems to be a more fundamentalist Muslim than Omar,ironically, refusing to enter the same room with Omar's wife and in Islamic garb everywhere he goes, whereas Omar wears Western-style clothes.

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Rather, Chekhov's Obnoxious Habit that Barry displays early on his tendency to eat inedible objects, either when he can't get his way or as part of his idiotic self-flagellation obsession (otherwise involving beans or urine). {{spoiler|His final act is attempting to swallow a SIM card to stop Omar from saving Waj's life, only to choke on it, causing a stranger to do the Heimlich maneuver, which sets off his bomb...}}

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Alice.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: There's a lot of swearing in general, but Omar's [[Bilingual Bonus|Urdu]] rants are a particular highlight.

* [[Completely Missing the Point]]: Waj's Chicken Cottage rant, Barry asking Feisal to "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZVfyQyu9RY show me the voice]"... the wannabe Jihadists seem unable to agree on what the point actually is. Even Omar, the guy with the most gumption out of the lot of them, fails to come up with a point whilst telling his son about his plans.

** [[Sherlock]] negotiates for the police in his spare time?

* [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]]: Barry's justification for Jihad.

* [[Hypocritical Humour]]:

** Omar rails against western culture, saying that it's obsessed with technology, escapism and other nonsense. However, the jihadists all make repeated references to how much they enjoy things like Xbox video games, English theme parks, Disney films, and even Rambo.

* [[California Doubling|London Doubling]]: Some of the London scenes are Sheffield city centre. {{spoiler|Barry blowing up}} looks like the corner of Hawley Street and Campo Lane. Also, while the exterior of Meadowhall is shown, its interior is mostly played by another Sheffield shopping centre, Crystal Peaks.

* [[Losing Your Head]]: Feisal, literally and metaphorically; Hassan fails to clean up the [[Ludicrous Gibs]] properly and Feisal's head is found by the police.

"It had a hinge!" }}

* [[Man Child]]: Waj brings a toy gun to the shooting of his Jihad video, reads children's books, and his conception of the afterlife is that of a theme park ride. To a smaller degree, the rest of the protagonists are all crushingly naive. Conversely, Omar's son is shown to be pretty sharp when Omar tries to justify suicide bombing by way of ''[[The Lion King]]''.

* [[Martyrdom Culture]]: Deconstructed, with idiocy.

* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: How they get rid of Alice, who apparently doesn't like gay people.

* [[Mistaken for Terrorist]]: Played with several times.

* [[Played for Laughs]]: Stupid idiots killing themselves for a cause they don't understand? Innocent civilians being murdered? Cruelty to sheep? Check, check and check.

* [[Police Are Useless]]: Jury is still out on whether they're more or less incompetent than the suicide bombers but {{spoiler|they attack and arrest Omar's peace-loving brother in the middle of a meeting with his Muslim friends whilst Omar is stuffing nitroglycerin into a Honey Monster outfit, they shoot an innocent marathon runner dressed as Chewbacca and after a naive negotiator completely flubs the Waj hostage situation, they break in and shoot his hostage.}}

** A further subversion in the poster fine print: "If you're reading this, find out what's wrong with you."

* [[Shout-Out]]:

* [[Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb]]: Literally, and delivered in person.

* [[Stupid Crooks]]: Stupid terrorists, in this instance.

* [[Ted Baxter]]: Barry

* [[Terrorists Without a Cause]]: Waj's response to being asked what his demands are by a police negotiator - "I... I don't think I have any..."

* [[Undignified Death]]: Practically all of them.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: The Lions themselves, as a sympathetic portrayal of Jihadists.

* [[Women Are Wiser]]: Suggested, but ultimately averted. Omar's wife seems like a down-to-earth woman, but as the film progresses, we see that she's completely onboard with Omar's plan to kill himself, and doesn't seem to have the slightest problem with him leaving her a widow with a young son. Critics found this to be unrealistic, but the makers asserted that real terrorists often have remarkably stable home lives.

* [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters]]: The Lions never refer to themselves or think of themselves as "Terrorists" and actually view themselves as holy warriors fighting the evils of Western Imperialism. More often than not, they refer to themselves as "Jihadists", which is taken from the translation of the word "Jihad" as "struggle". On the other hand, other rebel groups that employ similar violent tactics against British society, which the Lions are planning, [[Hypocritical Humor|are referred to as "terrorists" by the Lions]]. Specifically, when Feisal mentions his "IRA voice" to Barry, Barry chastises him for using a "terrorist" voice which could blow their cover.