The best comedy often comes from uncomfortable situations, and VIVA LIBERTY makes you laugh as you question the ease at which miscarriages of justice can occur. Focussing on an English Muslim, Woody Ali, as he travels to the US, the film shows how a simple misunderstanding can send an innocent man spiralling into a nightmare of imprisonment, interrogation and...er Jerry Springer. Of the performances, the lead actor (who plays Woody Ali) deserves mention as he brings a vulnerability, coupled with solid comic timing to a difficult role. With confident writing and pacey direction, a situation that most would see as befitting only a serious, probing drama is played as an effective dark, dark comedy.
2 Reviews
Anti Us diatribe masquerading as satire
dwightjoshi2 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Instead of jokes, this "comedy" offers up a brainless caricature of US anti-terror tactics that morphs into an offensive anti-American rant. While the makers are obviously under no obligation to endorse the tactics used in the "war on terror" (or support that war at all) surely just a little fairness in presentation isn't too much to ask, even in fiction? The makers make every American but one sadistic Neanderthals who delight in beating Muslims. One Muslim (a racist who refers to white people as "honkies", talks about the war on terror being a continuation of the Crusades and was (I think) supposed to be a semi-heroic, comedic character) upon getting punched by American soldiers says "I can understand what turns brothers into martyrs". The logic being, I suppose, that if a Muslim gets beaten up it's only natural that he/she will want to become a suicide bomber and it's all the fault of those bloody Yanks! This racist Muslim gets beaten to death for his troubles and so this short endorses the lie that Muslims have been beaten to death at the actual Guantanamo Bay.
The only American who actually comes across as (almost) human, rather than bin laden's idea of what every US soldier is like, offers the main character, Woody, an apology near the end and says "not all Americans are the same" but he doesn't deign to accept it or reply. Perhaps the makers thought that having him explicitly form some sort of bond with one of his oppressors might mean that they would have to accept that all Americans really aren't the same. Clearly they weren't ready to do that.
Comedy is surely more difficult than drama but the US "War on Terror" is ripe for satire and so are the attitudes of many anti-war protesters, so why is this so unfunny? One reason might be that the two "sympathetic" characters aren't all that sympathetic; one being the witless racist, the other, Woody, the main character, who just mopes around like a fourteen year old who has been told to clean his room. But, because the writers have made the Americans so violent, because they haven't satirized Muslim extremism or Muslims at all, because the Muslim characters are portrayed as so intrinsically heroic, because they (the writers) choose to include such serious points while ignoring serious counter-points, it seems that the point of Viva Liberty isn't to satirize or make the audience laugh but to justify any Muslim aggression toward or hatred of the US as no more than the US deserves or should expect.
The outline plot, of a Muslim Woody Allen type (a brilliant but wasted idea) who is assumed to be a terrorist will make Viva Liberty sound interesting. But from the very beginning, story, jokes, character all play second fiddle to a political outlook straight from the Socialist Worker or the Muslim Council of Britain which is brought home with all the subtlety of a suicide bomber.
The only American who actually comes across as (almost) human, rather than bin laden's idea of what every US soldier is like, offers the main character, Woody, an apology near the end and says "not all Americans are the same" but he doesn't deign to accept it or reply. Perhaps the makers thought that having him explicitly form some sort of bond with one of his oppressors might mean that they would have to accept that all Americans really aren't the same. Clearly they weren't ready to do that.
Comedy is surely more difficult than drama but the US "War on Terror" is ripe for satire and so are the attitudes of many anti-war protesters, so why is this so unfunny? One reason might be that the two "sympathetic" characters aren't all that sympathetic; one being the witless racist, the other, Woody, the main character, who just mopes around like a fourteen year old who has been told to clean his room. But, because the writers have made the Americans so violent, because they haven't satirized Muslim extremism or Muslims at all, because the Muslim characters are portrayed as so intrinsically heroic, because they (the writers) choose to include such serious points while ignoring serious counter-points, it seems that the point of Viva Liberty isn't to satirize or make the audience laugh but to justify any Muslim aggression toward or hatred of the US as no more than the US deserves or should expect.
The outline plot, of a Muslim Woody Allen type (a brilliant but wasted idea) who is assumed to be a terrorist will make Viva Liberty sound interesting. But from the very beginning, story, jokes, character all play second fiddle to a political outlook straight from the Socialist Worker or the Muslim Council of Britain which is brought home with all the subtlety of a suicide bomber.
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