Four Lions (Independent Film Review)

There are two kinds of controversial comedy, those that are crass and loud, such as the Jackass films, and those that are so dark they alienate a good portion of their audience, such as Worlds Greatest Dad.  Four Lions is the kind that alienates.

The film follows four terrorists as they attempt to pull off a suicide bombing.  After a debacle of a training camp the leader of their merry band, Omar (Riz Ahmed) takes them rogue.  They set about deciding on where to bomb, and making their explosives.

On a technical level the film is nothing spectacular.  Much of the film is shot in a simple way, no fancy camera tricks.  The films feels almost like a homemade video, the night shots are shot in nightvision.  The entire film is slightly washed out.  All this adds to the effect though, what better way to shoot terrorists than how they would shoot themselves.

The film takes such a forward approach to suicide bombings that it can be jarring at times, and this coming from a guy who lives on the dark seedy comedies of controversy.  Two of the terrorists are full out idiots, they are in the film to represent how easily these men can be swayed to the will of the... stronger willed.  Much of the humor in the film comes from the screw ups that the group makes.  Don't know how to use an RPG?  Well that means your gonna blow something up you didn't mean to.

While most of the film works as a satire and the characters are, relatively, believable, the family of Omar is too over the top and takes away from the film.  While all the terrorists are fine with each other being blown up, I'd think his wife might not be so happy about, being left with a son to take care of.  The son too is overly happy that his father has decided to blow himself up to destroy "capitalism" even while he watches Lion King and plays with water guns.


Perhaps the most amazing thing to think about is that the film ever even got made.  Coming just five years after the London bombings it seems as though a British audience would have reservations about it. The director raised much of the funding from would be viewers as he couldn't ensure money from the British Film groups.  The film is by no means for everybody, and those easily offended should steer far clear.