'God's Plan' - The Fates of the Four Lions

[dr_christian_troy]

...aka, DCT's thoughts on Four Lions following a rewatch.

Spoilers, obviously.

So, I rewatched Four Lions last night, and began questioning the whole concept of 'God's plan' in regards to the main characters. Technically there are the five Lions as it were, although of course there are only four when they have their group hug.

So, let's go through this chronologically:

Fessal (Adeel Akhtar) - Throughout the film, up to and beyond his demise, Fessal seems to have a connection to animals and nature - the crow bomb, dying (and subsequently merging) with sheep, and his head falls on a dog. In this respect, it could be argued the 'plan' for Fessal, the obedient servant, is to provide the Four Lions (again, animals) with the utilities they need to carry out their intentions. After this, he is no longer required.

Hassan (Arsher Ali) - The first of the Four Lions to see his demise, albeit at the hands of Barry. As Omar points out, he wasn't given a choice. Aside from being the last addition to the group, his 'unmartyring' came courtesy of Barry, the false prophet who bought him into the group, and so betrays him by taking away his chance for salvation. It could be suggested therefore that the 'plan' for Hassan was primarily to enable the 'plan' for Barry, i.e. his demise...

Barry (Nigel Lindsay) - the manipulative betrayer and arguably sadist (making Hassan shove a bean in his urethra, and in the absence of Omar, make Waj piss in his own mouth), who uses any platform possible to spout beliefs he doesn't seem to be able to back up or justify at any point. So, the 'plan' for Barry? Providing a conflict, causing the chaos effect in which Omar will inevitably realise he can't succeed in his mission (and yet, in a very different way, it appears the 'plan' for Omar had already been succeeded before the marathon.[nb]Inadvertantly killing Osama Bin Laden.[/nb] Barry's death is elaborate and out in the open, and yet the wonderful panic on his face as he realises he doesn't actually want to die indicates his true nature - it's all for show. He is killed by the kind act of a samaritan - a fateful gesture, and yet had Barry not try to stop Omar from contacting Waj - i.e. not provide conflict - his death wouldn't have happened in such a way. One could argue that it was 'God's plan' to cause conflict for Omar, and perhaps see the error of his ways.

Waj (Kayvan Novak) - A confused man who relies solely and faithfully in his friend Omar. It could be considered that in terms of the 'mission', he was the most succesful - taking down a hefty amount of authority with him, as well as the kebab worker. It could be said that the 'plan' for him was for Omar to realise the true impact of what his mission stood for, and that he must take responsibility for his actions. Waj, in his own impressionable way, was the moral conscience of the group, and in death, allows Omar to conclude that everything has a consequence.

Omar (Riz Ahmed) - The man who led the way, and yet was the last man standing. Without his soldiers - more specifically, Waj - he has lost the reasoning of his intentions, and in realising upon the death of Waj, he appears to come to terms that it was all in vain (to a point). The 'plan' for Omar, I believe, was an ironic contradiction - his unintentional assassination of Bin Laden, as revealed in the closing credits, was, arguably, salvation. On both sides of the fence - he 'martyred' the Leader, and yet for a majority, he unwittingly destroyed a threatening power. So, 'God's plan' - whichever God - was to allow Omar to become some sort of a hero, in a very distorted way. He keeps 'smiling' as he walks into the chemist's - he will never be aware of the true outcome, but, as is revealed, choosing not to take certain elements of the religion seriously, represented by his contempt for Mahmood(?) with the water pistol fight, the fate following his smiling departure indicates that even in death he has made a mockery of those beliefs he showed disdain for. The police and the government, meanwhile, are left looking irresponsible, and his friend Matt unwittingly defends and preserves his image and true nature.

Anyways, those are some initial thoughts. Hope there's something in there to chew on.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I find Omar the most hateable of the lot. The trouble also is that the source of his radicalism is never explained. There are hints of him rejecting the serious koran-bashing lot as he think they aren't in touch with reality. But that's not enough. He's obviously impressed by the idea of martyrdom but that seems like a genuine criticism of Islam and ironically rather close to Martin Amis' view on it.

Barry is just a normal cunt who's found an outlet to express his cuntery. If he wasn't doing that you could easily imagine him being the ringleader of a football gang. Omar is deliberately depicted as an articulate intelligent guy and we're left to join the dots as to how he ended up trying to organise the murders of dozens of people. I don't know whether anyone has any theories there.

[Pepotamo1985]

Omar is deliberately depicted as an articulate intelligent guy and we're left to join the dots as to how he ended up trying to organise the murders of dozens of people. I don't know whether anyone has any theories there.

Quite a lot of people I've watched Four Lions with haven't been able to enjoy the film because of this, actually - in some cases, it's because this is a little too close to reality for them (in that in certain cases of Islamic terror attacks, the person perpetrating them was previously a respected member of a community with a successful career in a well paying profession), in others because they they see the lack of an articulated reasoning as a plot and characterisation flaw. I think the whole point is that it's meant to be unclear, but not picked at or analysed - by its very nature, suicide bombing and the murder of innocent people is not rational nor justifiable (even if the internal logic of suicide bomber can be contorted to make it seem appropriate). It's left unexplained because there is no explanation - bar vague noises about the emptiness of Western culture and the evil of Western imperialism made by Omar, which none of the others ever mention or even seem to understand when Omar mentions it.

They all seem keen to do it, and excited by the practice explosions, but when it actually comes down to performing the act, Fessel tries to outsource his responsibility to a crow, Hassan tries to turn himself in a terrified frenzy, Waj says he doesn't want to do it but agrees to under pressure from Omar (and clearly has no idea what he's doing), and Omar only blows himself up when he realises what a mess he's made. That leaves Barry, who as someone already noted, is the keenest of them all to do it, but actually looks terrified right before it happens. My interpretation of the film is that it demonstrates how seemingly normal people can be pushed to great extremes on the flimsiest of motivation without actually considering the ramifications of what they're doing - and, when they're confronted with the reality of what they're about to do, have second thoughts. In Barry's case, he clearly feels wronged by the system he finds himself in and is full of irrational hatred for everything, he follows a creed which he doesn't understand to separate himself from regular people, and even then isn't happy (it's quite telling when he says Islam is cracking up because women are starting to talk back -I'm reminded of Christopher Hitchens' observation that a lot of the sexism and fatalism of Islamic fundamentalism doesn't come down to desiring virgins, but the fact they are virigns). He just has a childish desire to see everything around him destroyed. In the case of Waj and Fessel, they're both stupid so they don't know what they're doing, but the second either of them are informed perpetrating the bombing is actually their own choice, they immediately have doubts.

Omar I can't explain, and I think the point is you're not meant to, as previously noted. The segment where Omar's wife tells him he was a lot more fun when he was going to blow himself up is really fucking uncomfortable, but  That's where Four Lions wins big, with genuine moments of pathos that are legitimately thought provoking and intensely real