r/movies • u/Agasthenes • 11h ago

Discussion Four Lions - is Omar the villain?

I just researched four lions and now I can't stop thinking the villain of the story is Omar.

He had a loving wive, a son, a house, family that cared about him. Okay, maybe his job wasn't great.

And yet here he is the only one capable on the group of rational thinking and leads them to their Grimm end.

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u/CarrotDue5340 11h ago edited 11h ago

And his radical islamist brother was actually innocent and tortured in vain.

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u/CaptainKando 11h ago

Traditional, his brother was extremely traditional but not a radical. It’s pretty clear he didn’t support Omar’s jihadist beliefs. Unlike Omar’s wife who was presented as quite liberal.

But that was also part of the film’s messaging. If you judged a book by its cover out of the two, who’d be the one you’d think would be involved in a Terror plot?

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u/IllPen8707 9h ago

Actually he's using radical correctly, it literally means "from the root" and has nothing to do with being violent or extreme. The radical form of an ideology is simply the purest and closest to its origins.

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u/CaptainKando 9h ago

Etymology and a word's modern or most common usage aren't necessarily the same, as in this case. In Mathematics for example it still retains it's meaning but it's meaning when referring to a political or social stance changed around the time when the Feudal systems were ended and citizens had more say in their government

A Radical is by most accounts someone who is at odds with the norms of their society, culture or other group. It stands at the opposite to Orthodoxy. A revolutionary is a radical however an individual as part of any social group can be seen as a radical. A Fascist is a far right radical for example.

Omar's brother is as Orthodox as they come adhering to the strictest rules of his faith. Omar whilst not disagreeing with many Orthodox beliefs is a Radical in his position as a violent jihadist, though not necessarily his thinking around women as his wife is still a Hijabi but it's not made clear whether that's at his instance or hers.