Unilad describes itself as “a major youth platform for breaking news and relatable viral content.” Its review of “Four Lions” is enthusiastic and attempts an inspiring ending: “By reducing homegrown jihadi terrorism to the whims of loveable morons, Morris gave Brits an undying gift: the last laugh.”
Well, all right. I’m sure Four Lions is a real laugh riot, an explosion of good fun, and I hope it doesn’t bomb. But “the last laugh”? Who gets that remains to be seen. If the producers of Four Lions think Britain is no longer vulnerable to the forces that hit it on July 7, 2005, they are naive. “Hogan’s Heroes,” which made Nazis look like idiots, was made long after the war. “Four Lions” has been made while the war is still going on.
“Four Lions Made Suicide Bombing Funny, And That’s Okay,” by Cameron Frew, Unilad, May 7, 2020:
‘Is he a martyr or a f*cking jalfrezi?’ 10 years ago, Four Lions put the ‘ha’ in jihad.
Lest we forget the splutter-worthy edge of Chris Morris, The Day Today and Brass Eye’s satirical maestro satirical maestro who brought the media’s early millennium child abuse hysteria to its knees with the 2001 special entitled Paedogeddon.
On paper, his follow-up, a post-7/7 Islamic terrorism farce on British soil was tantamount to self-destruction. Yet, through an unprecedented blend of guffaws, heartbreak and horror, the film is both an outrageous tonic and grounded warning. Comedy and tragedy, united in death.
On July 7, 2005, 52 people were killed and more than 700 injured in a coordinated attack on London’s public transport system by three suicide bombers on the Underground and one on a double-decker bus. The terrorists saw themselves motivated by more than the ‘tangible commodities this world has to offer’.
Morris’s pride of British Muslim lions, of which there’s actually five, ostensibly boast similar extremism; warring against ‘western imperialist culture, superficial materialism and the capitalist church of McDonald’s’. Smartly though, these wannabes are given credence on a leash: stupidity is the prevailing constant, not fear….
While his peers are hapless, Omar’s domestic bliss makes his willingness to ascend ‘to the top floor’ via violence even more unnerving. His wife is supportive of the mission, and in a bedtime story for his boy, he uses Pumba and Simba to explain his motives. He mocks his orthodox, pedant brother, whose chimes from the Quran contradict his vision of faith….
By reducing homegrown jihadi terrorism to the whims of loveable morons, Morris gave Brits an undying gift: the last laugh.