Directed by: Robert Redford
Written By: Matthew Michael Carnahan
Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Andrew Garfield , Derek Luke, and Michael Pena
MGM and
United Artists The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are delicate subjects. Both igniting a maelstrom of debate and polarizing an entire country. Who's to blame for past mistakes? Be it the media, the president, ourselves.
Lions for Lambs examines facets of the debate in ways we haven't really seen in mainstream American cinema. It is not a liberal antiwar movie. It is not a conservative pro war message. It's a human movie. A movie about people, about convictions. A movie about honor and courage and taking a moment to step up and do something.
It does not present an agenda. It gives options. It presents two sides of a fiercely battled coin. Yes it points fingers, but it points them equally at both sides.
Robert Redford has crafted a taut political piece of art told through three simultaneous stories.
Robert Redford and Andrew Garfield play teacher and student. Redford a professor desperately trying to show Garfield that he is gifted and can make a difference in his world if he only decides to do so. Garfield plays a cynical student who has all but given up on doing anything meaningful in his life. He is content to ride the coat tails and live the good life while the world moves on behind him. These scenes are expertly performed. At times I'd forget I was watching a movie at all. The words and the rhythm was so natural, so real. Redford delivers a subtle, enthralling performance and Garfield stands right there with him. Toe to toe with a legend and it seems like he didn't break a sweat to do it.
The second story is stars Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. Streep, a reporter who had praised Cruise's character in a previous article. Cruise plays a Senator with plans for victory in Afghanistan who is using Streep to sell his plans to the public. Cruise took this low key performance and ran with it. He played it perfectly. Almost too perfect, at one point I thought I was looking at John Edwards on the screen.
It is Meryl Streep who again shines. She plays a stoic reporter chosen to be the messenger of the Senator's new master plan. She can take such a simple character and turn it into a complex mix of emotions. Whether pointing out mistakes in the war or arguing with her boss about how the media rolled over and sold the war in the first place.
I would really love to see Streep and Cruise together again. They play great against each other.
The final story is that of two soldiers who are part of Cruise's characters new plan played by Derek Luke and Michael Pena. Best friends who went to war as a way of doing something. A way to be apart of the biggest thing happening in the world. They felt they had to do this so that when they return home they can truly make a difference. They're both former students of Redford's character and they flash back to scenes in the class room showing how they took a school project and turned it into something meaningful in their lives. The courage and commitment of these characters is inspiring. They put their lives on the line with no question. They believe it is right. They believe it is something they need to do for themselves and their country in order to make a difference later on.
I won't give details about what else happens in the movie. It is a journey you will need to take should you decide to see it (and you should).
Overall though, the movie leaves the ball in your court. It leaves it up to you to create the message you want to take from this movie. Whether you feel the need to take action, to stand up and make your voice heard.
It's a truly brilliant accomplishment and one of the most important movies of the year. A true political Tour De Force that should not be missed. A movie that succeeds where all other political movies this year have failed. It makes you feel something and it makes you think. A movie like this, you can't ask for much more.
