Four Lions

American films tend to deal with politics in a few ways. There are the "up with the people" movies, paeans to the underdog like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and Michael Moore-style documentaries that aim to stand up to special interests. (There are few truly even-handed documentaries.) Then there are Hollywood-style entertainments that try to dabble in serious issues. Oliver Stone and Ed Zwick are the major auteurs in this area; their movies tend to shoehorn heavy-handed monologues into conventional "good vs. evil" tales. Finally, there are movies that simply use politics as a vehicle for the plot: think cockamamie political thrillers and comedies with corrupt businessmen for villains.

These films all struggle to deal with politics in an honest way because their first priority is to entertain. (How else will they get funding?) Therefore, they tend to use policy to score political points or make plot points.

"Four Lions," a British film, puts virtually all of these efforts to shame. It's at once an incredibly entertaining movie and an honest examination of an extremely serious issue: Islamic terrorism.

How do you make terrorists entertaining? By turning them into bumbling nitwits. "Four Lions" focuses on five utterly incompetent jihadists. These characters are so ridiculous that the film could be about practically anything and it would still be hilarious. But the humor is taken to another level through the juxtaposition between their deadly aims and their hopeless stupidity. One character insists they must bomb a mosque (the logic is hilariously tortured). Another brings a Prayer Bear with him to Pakistan--pull the string and it gives you a prayer to say! (The al-Qaeda operatives are not amused.) Another invites a girl in to dance with him to Maroon 5 while their explosives are in plain sight.

However, as the film progresses, it slowly and skillfully begins to acknowledge the utmost seriousness of their intentions. It also tackles other issues, like the wide variety of views held by Muslims and the British government's practices of racial profiling and rendition.

The filmmakers can handle this material because they trust the intelligence of their audience. They show rather than tell--unlike, say, Oliver Stone, who probably would have included a scene with some paranoid government official ranting about the danger of Muslims. "Four Lions" is more subtle, and more effective as a result.