LIONS FOR LAMBS Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
MGM
Grade: B+
Directed by: Robert Redford
Written By: Matthew Michael Carnahan
Cast: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise
Screened at: AMC Kips Bay, NYC. 11/1/07
Opens: November 9, 2007 If you did not turn on your TV the other day or forgot to read yesterday’s newspaper, you may not have noticed that the United States is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. That sounds facetious since we’re inundated with news, propaganda, editorials, blogs, talking heads on Sunday mornings, documentaries, docu-dramas and melodramas on our adventures abroad, but Robert Redford thinks we’re not engaged enough. Despite the plethora of information bombarding the airwaves, printing presses and electronic media, the general public are not particularly concerned. Redford believes John Q. Public is more likely discussing the weather, the latest “better than botox” commercial, the game, what Angelina is doing to Brad, and whether Jennifer has finally found love. He doesn’t say any of this, not in so many words, but that is his intent in making this movie, a labor of love. “Lions for Lambs” gets its title from a comment that a German officer made during World War I citing the bravery of the ordinary British grunts (the lions) compared to their stupid officers (the lambs) and which by analogy Redford wants us to see as operating in our own country. He doesn’t actually say this either, or not in so many words. But that is his intent. If you don’t see these implications, then you’re one of those who must be talking about Brad and Angelina. Then again, if you’re even in the audience for this intelligent, albeit talky movie, you’ll catch on to everything the handsome actor-director is laying on us. Watch closely to this film: as Linda Loman said about her husband Willy in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” “Attention must be paid.” Scripted by Matthew Michael Carnahan, there are three stories told in real time whose links to one another are not obvious at first and are not necessarily evident even at the conclusion of the three interlocking yarns. One involves a one-hour interview between a Janine Roth (Meryl Streep), a seasoned, 57-year-old reporter, and Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), who aspires to the White House and has an ambitious plan to win the war in Afghanistan. The second takes place on the Afghan battlefield, focusing on two soldiers, Mexican-American Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Pena) and African-American Arian Finch (Derek Luke), who are trapped on in the freezing snow on a mountain peak as Taliban insurgents approach. The third occurs thousands of miles and infinite comfort zones apart, consisting of a conference between a southern California political science professor, Dr. Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) and a gifted, but cynical, lazy, and unfocused student, Todd (Andrew Garfield). The theme of the three tales is commitment. On the California campus, the professor tries to light a fire under the seat of a young man who was once awed by Socrates, Aristotle and Plato but is now more into girls and fraternity life and has no idea what he should do with his life. Finch and Rodriguez were former students of the professor, up from the ghetto on a scholarship to a fine college and grateful for the opportunity, happy to show their appreciation by volunteering for service in Afghanistan. (A mistake according to Dr. Malley.) Roth, who considers the charismatic Republican senator’s plan for winning the war untenable, mere agitprop to get him into the White House, wonders whether she should risk her job by defying her editor by refusing to print the story. There is little doubt that Redford is politically on the left, but he does not fall into the same trap as our administration by giving a one-sided bit of agitprop. At times one gets the impression that he’s delivering a balanced view. As Fox news so disingenuously states, “We report, you decide,” but that’s only to draw people from all sides into the film and allow his intent to ooze subtly into our gray matter. If the film is talky and the dialogue comes off as often stilted, this is a small price to pay for a film that avoids the crash-bam-alakazam of most war movies including writer Carnahan’s own “The Kingdom” with all of that movie’s blistering violence wherein Americans living and working in a secure American compound in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are out enjoying themselves playing baseball when suddenly terrorists breach the compound and begin shooting hundreds of Americans, including men, women, children. Among the questions answered the by film is why some people volunteer for the armed forces during a time that there is no draft and so much danger exists abroad. Among the questions not answered, though, is just what Dr. Malley would like his gifted student to do with his life to make a difference, especially when the dude is at an age that fraternity and girls seem to make more sense than service to VISTA or Peace Corps. This is a well-made movie–and Redford looks more youthful in action than he does in the marketing poster. Rated R. 92 minutes © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
