Four Lions- Film 4 (2010)

Directed by Chris Morris who is generally regarded to be extremely controversial, Four Lions is a film that follows 5 terrorists in there plight to successfully become suicide bombers. The film is crammed full of satirical humour which is what helps to make this a "British" film.


Starring
Riz Ahmed as Omar
Arsher Ali as Hassan
Nigel Lindsay as Barry
Kayvan Novak as Waj
Adeel Akhtar as Faisal


These 5 Jihadists set out to train in order to commit an act of terror in this dark comedy. The film is reflective of prominent extremist views which have been in the light of the media since 9/11. It questions the collective identity of British Muslims being Muslims who are now integrated into the UK. A prime example of this point is the fact that Omar is a security guard and his wife is a nurse meaning they are a part of the British economy as they positively benefit British culture as well as paying taxes and all the other things which are to be expected.


The characters break down as follows:


Omar- is the leader of the group although he is surrounded by domestic culture, him and his wife both contribute to the British economy, he is level headed despite leading a band of idiots, he is shown actively indoctrinating his son.


Barry- is the wannabe leader. A white, Cockney man with extremely violent qualities, he is working class and can be shown heavily perpetrating extremist stereotypes, being white he somewhat mirrors the ideas of the BNP and EDL with his idea to "blow up the mosque"


Waj, Faisal and Hassan- The three clueless idiots who are easily lead and manipulated both by Omar and Barry. I large majority of the humour comes from these characters undercutting the seriousness of the issues in the film. These characters are however innocent and often don't realise the seriousness of the situation.


It can be said that while Muslim views are predominant religion is not the main issue of the film with it rather focussing on extremism and terrorism with both humour and a sense of realism.


Two theories linking to this movie are Althusser's Misrepresentation of self and Hall's Reception theory whereby the audience will receive the film in 1 of 3 ways:
-The preferred
-The negotiated
-The oppositional