the EMPIRE masterpiece #131
FOUR LIONS
2010. OUT: NOW CERT:15 WORDS: ANNA OLNEY-SMITH A comedy…about terrorism? Queue the unconvincing stares. Four Lions, at first (disbelieving) glance, seems like another dark satirical comedy that falls short of expectations and raises more disappointment than laughs. The director of this ground-breaking film, amidst the other flops of its kind (think ), is Chris Morris; who, along with Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong wrote the film itself. Morris has recently amassed an impressive body of work in the UK as a satirical writer, director, actor and all-round prankster, and is perhaps best known is his current-affairs TV satires Brass Eye and The Day Today, or in his most recent appearance as managerial madman
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Insulting? Controversial? A gritty piece on the conflicting ideologies of terrorism? Hilarious, even? You may be surprised to hear it combines all of the latter. Four Lions tells the hilarious story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. The story centres on the cleverly-crafted character of Omar (played by the outstanding Riz Ahmed), a jihadist with a loving wife and child who yearns to be chosen for a suicide mission, along with his like-minded but hapless comrades; his bumbling klutz of a brother Waj (Kayvan Novak); and white-convert Barry (Nigel Lindsay) an egomaniac and a hothead. Meanwhile, dim-bulb Faisal (Adeel Akhtar) is busy training crows to fly around with bombs strapped to them (hilarity ensues) and late-comer Hassan (Arsher Ali) is a rapper-terrorist wannabe – who interrupts a public meeting by pretending to be a suicide bomber, only with party poppers instead of explosives. Sounds like a mishmash of characters? Somehow Morris makes it work - the actors seem to expertly play off each other and create such a powerful comedy, you’ll find yourself laughing, feeling guilty about laughing, then laughing some …show more content…
What makes it a comedy, and a successful comedy at that, is the careful choice of topic Morris makes. He focuses his satirical wit not at all on the doctrines of Islam, but simply at the activity of suicide bombing itself. It is not treated with the nervous, shocked respect generally found on the news or in drama, but rather cheerful disdain. This is a film in which suicide bombers are not martyr-warriors, or powerful enemies to be hated and feared, but rather, ridiculous fools. In this film, everyone is stupid. The suicide bombers themselves are stupid; the police hunting them are stupid (ending with a mix up between the Honey Bear and a Wookie) and even the clever protagonist is the most stupid of
Three dimensional art is defined as media which “occupies space, defined through the dimensions of height, width and depth” (SAYLOR). These art works can be geometric or organic in nature (NORTON). Three dimensional art forms include sculptures, crafts and architecture. Three dimensional art form is fascinating to me because of the amount of realism and beauty it embodies, as well as for its functional and aesthetic value. For this assignment, I chose two beautiful pieces that illustrated the characteristic of three dimensional art and the processes it took to produce them. The first art work I want to analyze is a sculpture done by an Iraqi artist from Kalhu (modern day Nimrud) entitled, “Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions” (Sayre, 420).
(1350)A Comparison and Contrast Analysis of the Depiction of the ”War on Terror” in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and The Siege (1998)
Some people want to forget the fact on how cruel we were to blacks, however it did teach us a lesson to treat people equally. While we can not go back in time, books can help bring us those past experiences. One book that that does just that is The Lions of Little Rock. While the characters were fiction, the author Kristin Levine did give the reader a slight feel of the events that took place in this time period of the Civil Rights and school integration.
In 2013, just shy of my 17th birthday, I planned a day trip with two of my friends to see The Phantom of the Opera in New York. At this point in my life, I was entirely unaccustomed to large cities, such as New York City, and felt excited to experience the bustle I expected. While in the city, a woman informed me about methods to avoid the crime so intertwined with life in the city and introduced me to the concept that, just as New York City held many attractions for tourists, it also held some dangers as well. This idea takes pride of place in Edward Jones’ short story, “Young Lions” and its discussion of Caesar Matthews. As I learned a few years ago, the city truly contains amazement for those experiencing it, but, like all things in life,
Patrick Lewis, the protagonist in the story, In The Skin Of A Lion, goes through an internal change in his beliefs and in his personality; these changes can be noticed throughout the novel. Patrick goes through relationships throughout his life that end up manipulating his view of other’s actions. These key personality changes can be found in the relationships that Patrick had with Clara Dickens, as well as his relationship with Alice Gull. Michael Ondaatje, the author, clearly shows the mental change that Mr. Lewis endured, by showing his compassion and caring with Ms. Dickens; then his attitude changed once Alice influenced him. Nearing the end of the story the change becomes obvious, with his need for revenge, and the interpretation of his attitude with his final actions in the novel.
I chose to view the movie Lion, a movie based on the book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. This movie is about a five-year-old boy, Saroo, living in a poor, rural area in India. Saroo convinces his older brother Guddu, to let him tag along and find work in a nearby city. Saroo ends up trapped and alone in a decommissioned passenger train that takes him to Calcutta, over 1,000 miles away from his home.
Pride of Baghdad is a short graphic novel written by Brian K. Vaughn. In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad zoo during an American bombing raid. The Pride of Baghdad story revolves around four lions in a struggle for their lives that are lost and confused roaming the destroyed streets of Baghdad. Vaughn’s Pride of Baghdad uses unique symbolism by representing the Iraqi society during the war in each animal’s character. He uses animals to bring the reader closer to the topic of war. When reading I felt an emotional attachment to the lions along their journey. I feel the conversations between animals could easily be interchanged with real people. I believe one of the most important pages is the conversation between Noor and one of the
Movies, one can argue, are one of America’s greatest pastimes. Unfortunately, after 9/11, films have become increasingly prejudiced against American Muslims. In movies Muslims are frequently portrayed negatively. According to James Emery, a professor of Anthropology, Hollywood profits off of “casting individuals associated with specific negative stereotypes”. This is due to the fact that viewers automatically link characters with their clichéd images (Emery). For Muslims, the clichéd image is of the violent fundamentalist, who carried out the terroristic attacks on 9/11. As a result, the main stereotypes involved in movies display Muslims as extremists, villains, thieves, and desert nomads. An example of a movie that has such a negative character role for Muslims in film is Disney’s cartoon Aladdin, depict...
the king of a Pride Land, who is murdered by his brother and then the
It is comedic because of the way Anderson creates Max's character to be so controlling and obsessive and adding humor to the things that he does. The way Max thinks he is higher than everyone else and the way he presents himself with such dignity adds humor as Anderson directs the film to show the adult's reaction to Max’s attitude. One scene in particular when he gets his trampled bike and puts ketchup on his head to make it seem like he got hit by a car in front of where Cross lives just shows how extreme he is and hilarious to see. Not only does he bring humor to the film, he also creates drama in his social interactions. By sending Blume as a messenger between him and Cross, it resulted to the intimate relationship between Blume and Cross that brings in the tension and sympathy for Max. He is an open book and if he is sad or upset he will easily show it through either his words or actions. He makes the audience feel bad for him as he gets his feelings hurt. The drama raises to it's peak when there is a war between him and Blume over Cross which added a feeling of tension into the
In the movie, the three main types of comedy I recognized were farce, parody, and satire. Farce is comedy designed to provoke the audience into simple, hearty laughter and often uses highly exaggerated or caricatured character types and puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations. It also makes use of broad verbal humor and physical horseplay. Some examples of farce in the movie are:
Throughout the film, the audience is also exposed to many different comical scenes. Many situations and even dialogue are humorous. For example, one of the three killers sleeps with a Teddy Bear. Additionally, Nobody calls Blake a “stupid fucking white man.” This is funny purely because it is not something that would be expected from his character.
Shakespeare is known for being a great writer, his play have been rewritten, re-adapted, and turned into films to keep their magic alive. However what many people do not know is that many of Shakespeare’s plays have been adapted into many Disney Films. More precisely “Hamlet” is one of the most used plays. Movies such as “Tarzan," “Aladdin," and “101 Dalmatians” used many scenes in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to inspire scenes in the films. The movie The Lion King by Disney, however, is one of the strongest and more closely related to “Hamlet” than any other Disney film, but how? More importantly what makes this movie more important and the focus of this essay?
The Lion King is a movie created by Disney and was released in the summer of 1994. It is about a pride of lions that uphold the cycle of nature, or as they call it “the circle of life” (The Lion King, 1994). The lion pride is considered royalty within the “Pride Lands” and are just and fair when it comes to hunting only what they need. A young prince named Simba is introduced and he is next in line to be the future king. However, Simba’s uncle Scar had other plans. He believed that it was his right all along to be named future king and wanted all of the glory to himself. Eventually, Scar comes up with an elaborate plan to rid the Pride Lands of Simba and the current King, Mufasa and take the throne for himself.
...of Life is the anthem of the film. It reminds us of the invaluable part that everyone, from such a small and weak cub to a mighty lion, plays a part in the greater scheme. The language in the lyrics was specifically written to show us that we were put on the earth for a reason. You have a role to play in this world. Don’t get lazy and give up on thinks or run away from them. Lessons you must learn and mistakes you must make. Take your place in the natural flow of things; after all it is the Circle of Life!