Are We Ready for A Comedy About Terrorists?

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 8, 2010 5:00PM

While watching Four Lions, we were often reminded of the famous tagline from the movie poster of The Loved One: "The motion picture with someone to offend everyone!" But if you're going to make a full-barreled satire centering on a terror cell made up of hypocritical dolts, how could it not be offensive?

Largely shot with handheld cameras, giving it the veneer of a documentary, the story follows the misadventures of a quartet of radicals planning an attack in London. Initially the idea is to blow up a local mosque ("We'll radicalize the moderates!" declares one of the group; "By attacking ourselves?" asks another). But they end up settling on the London Marathon as the main target. They'll dress up in oversized animal costumes, conveniently concealing the bombs they have strapped to their chests.

Provocatively mixing adolescent humor with vividly rendered violence and destruction, Four Lions is about as dark as comedy can get. Witness the scene where an unwitting good Samaritan gives the Heimlich maneuver to one of the bomb-wired terrorists. It's a gutsy approach for a comedy, engaging the audience in a constant confrontation. (Why are you laughing at something so horrible?) It makes Borat look like My Little Pony: The Movie.

Filmmaker Christopher Morris skewers the terrorists' core absurdity--eager and willing to kill people, they also preen for videotaped messages, engage in hilariously lame jihadist rapping, and one of them refashions his exploits as a bedtime story for his kid. But Morris also lampoons the anti-terror efforts of the British government, especially during a cringe-worthy scene of crowd control gone wrong. It's a worthy companion piece to In the Loop.

“This film understands jihadists as human beings and understands human beings as innately ridiculous,” Morris said in a recent interview. “Within that context, terrorism is about ideology, but it’s also about imbeciles.” The film's ultimate point, that amateurish idiots with bombs are just as dangerous as expert idiots with bombs, is why every laugh sticks in your throat.

Four Lions opens Friday at AMC Loews Piper’s Alley