Hollywood seems intent on churning out films about the current war. The films have ranged from OK (Home of the Brave) to boring (A Mighty Heart). I suspect that the best films about the war won’t be made until
after the war is over, and writers have had time to look back and reflect on it. Lions for Lambs attempts to prove me wrong, with an All Star cast directed by Oscar winner
Robert Redford.
Lions for Lambs follows three different storylines.
Meryl Streep plays Janine, a journalist hand picked by Senator Jasper Irving (
Tom Cruise) to visit his office to interview him about a new offensive taking place in
Afghanistan. While this interview is taking place, we also see the start of this offensive, as seen through the eyes of two soldiers, Arian (
Derek Luke) and Ernest (
Michael Peña).
Robert Redford plays college professor Stephen Malley who has called one of his best political science students, Todd, into his office for a one-on-one conversation. He sees a lot of potential in Todd, but a lack of motivation. It turns out that the two soldiers, Arian & Ernest, are two best friends who were professor Malley’s top students. They wanted to be involved in politics to help people, and felt that enlisting in the army would give them the understanding of war that they need. Senator Irving is very charismatic, and he is using his charm in an effort to convince Janine to write a positive story despite the fact that most of the information given to journalists about the war has been lies. Janine tries to ask the tough questions, but the Senator always seems to be a step ahead of her. Meanwhile, the new offensive is not going well as Arian and Ernest end up on a helicopter that is shot down in the snow in
Afghanistan. They are both injured and trying to survive until help can arrive. We see what their lives were like in Professor Malley’s classroom through the stories he is telling Todd in an effort to get him motivated.
Will Janine write a puff piece despite her reservations? Will Arian and Ernest survive? And will the professor convince Todd to reach for his potential? The film moves at a brisk pace, jumping from story to story with a running time of less than 90 minutes, and leaves two of those three questions unanswered. That seemed odd, and then I realized that I didn’t even care. The movie was not able to pull me in enough to care about the character’s final decisions. That’s not a good thing. The acting here is superb, as you get the performances you would expect from this type of cast. This movie must be very important to
Redford, and he has been hosting screenings for the film all over the country, even doing Q&A sessions afterwards. Someone of his stature is certainly not required to do such things. He hosted a screening in Philly for
University of Penn students, but I couldn’t get a pass. I guess he is trying to make some kind of statement about politics that he feels is important, but it just didn’t resonate with me. The movie has too much dialog that probably would have put me to sleep if it was any longer. Wait for the cable on this one.
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