Instant Watching: Four Lions – A Terrorist Comedy?

Last updated on: June 1, 2011 at 9:17 am by Christie Dean

Instant Watching: Four Lions – A Terrorist Comedy? 2011-06-01T09:17:07-06:00 Christie Dean

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In her weekly column, Instant Watching, Christie Dean talks about recently produced obscure and independent films that are made available through Netflix’s Instant Watch feature.

The last three weeks I’ve talked about movies that primarily dealt with family and staying true to yourself. I decided to switch things up a bit this time around by watching Four Lions, a British dark comedy written and directed by Christopher Morris.

Four Lions is about a small group of nominal Muslim men living in Britain who dream about their roles in planning and executing jihad. The problem is that they are cripplingly inept in terms of any practical knowledge of combat or bomb-making, they can’t agree on a terrorist target, and they are just plain idiotic. Instead of using terrorism as a tool to advance their religious beliefs, the men are instead seeking to bring glory and fame to themselves individually and reap the rewards that they believe will come to them in the afterlife. Even though the bumbling characters provided a good amount of comic relief, the subject matter is so controversial and serious that most of the time I wouldn’t allow myself to laugh at what was going on–and I felt guilty when I did. On top of that, one of the more unsettling features of Four Lions is that, consciously, I didn’t want to root for any of the characters at all. I wanted to see redemption and hope, and by the time it was even hinted at, I knew that it was too late for the characters. This gave the film’s conclusion a stark sense of realism that couldn’t be diluted by any humorous moments remaining in the film, which was most likely the director’s intention.

After I finished watching Four Lions, I asked myself a couple of questions–as a Christian, was it right for me to laugh at some misguided Muslim characters who glorified evil actions? Would I have found a similar film about some severely confused Christians humorous? I’m not entirely sure. Also, can a movie about terrorists who have very real intentions to harm others be funny? Are we even ready to laugh at something like this yet? One of my concerns before watching Four Lions was that I thought approaching this subject from the perspective of finding a comedic side was, as they say, “too soon”–many of the emotional wounds created by terrorist attacks in the last ten years have not completely healed. All that to say, Chris Morris took a big risk by writing and directing his debut film about dim-witted efforts of jihad, and I have to admit that he succeeded in putting together an intelligent, sometimes hilarious, and altogether bold piece of work.

Asides

Previous Post

June 1, 2011

College Football and the Seedy Undercurrent Within

Next Post

June 1, 2011 Music at Mars Hill: "Home is a Fire"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Asides Elsewhere Featured Film Games General Culture Headline Literature Music Of the Moment Podcast Politics RetroPost Sports Technology Television Uncategorized Viral

Select a Month February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz