The word Jihad gets tossed around so much these days, who is to say what it actually means? Do we think of horrific violence perpetrated by bloodthirsty terrorists? Or perhaps some may think of their own personal quest for justice. Well the truth is that one's actions will always speak louder than the words that society has chosen to define them; the central premise behind UK comedy vet Chris Morris' hilarious and fascinating black-comic satire "Four Lions".
Following five bumbling Muslim men as they go through all the necessary steps to reach their goal of putting together the ultimate plan to blow themselves up and ignite the "final holy war", the film shares a kinship with such classic topical satires as "Dr. Strangelove" and even the Marx Brothers' screwball war comedy "Duck Soup". Each man is more bumbling than the last: There's protagonist Omar (Riz Ahmed), a loving family man with Jihadi aspirations, Barry, the token white extremist, Waj, the handsome idiot, Faisal, an impressionable fool, and Hassan, the new guy who is in way over his head.
Morris' film takes us through all the standard familiar staples of Jihad that we've all read about or seen in movies or documentaries, but somehow humanizes them by adding a thick layer of incompetence to the proceedings; the film opens with a hilariously inept attempt at an amateur Jihad-threat video. As the film progresses and the guys find themselves plotting a final grand plan to explode themselves amidst a populated London marathon, things take an inevitable turn for the darkly violent.
There are a number of moments in "Four Lions" that are poignant in their depiction of the human and political costs of terrorism; a scene involving snipers mistaking the bombers for civilians is terrifying but uproarious at the same time. Scenes like these give the film a unique power, but are rare and are mostly piled up near the end of the film. At 97 minutes, "Four Lions" is quite breezy and fast considering the subject matter. As a hilarious exploration of the inherent dumbness of extremism in modern society and a rare human take on the war on terror, Morris' film is a success. With the silliness toned down a bit and perhaps a sharper edge, it could have been a classic.
