Lions for Lambs (2007)

Cast:  Robert Redford as Professor Stephen Malley, Meryl Streep as Janine Roth, Tom Cruise as Senator Jasper Irving, Michael Pena as Ernest Rodriguez, Derek Luke as Arian Finch

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Director: Robert Redford

Synopsis: the film takes aim at the U.S. government's prosecution of the wars in the Middle East, showing three different simultaneous stories: a senator (Tom Cruise) who launches a new military strategy and details it to a journalist (Meryl Streep) , two soldiers involved in that operation, and their college professor (Robert Redford) trying to re-engage a promising student by telling him their story. 

Review:

   Lions for Lambs follows three storylines playing out simultaneously. One segment focuses on Republican Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), a politician with a risky idea on how to stop the war. Senator Irving invites a journalist (Meryl Streep) who has been in the business for 40 years  into his office to give her an exclusive on his ambitious new plan of attack. While Senator Irving’s busy explaining his approach to winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, lifelong friends Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Pena) and Arian Finch (Derek Luke) are participating in the war mission based on Senator Irving’s proposal. In California, Professor Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) calls student Todd Hayes (Andrew Garfield) into his office to discuss his future. Once passionate about political science, Todd has become disconnected and cynical. Malley thinks there is a way to reach him, if only he can get Todd to become engaged in current affairs. Malley tells Hayes all about two of his favorite students – Ernest and Arian – who left college in order  to enlist in the military to see for themselves what is going on beyond the safe walls of their California college.

   All in all, I think that this movie is not an entertaining one; its main goal is to  inform anyone willing to listen about what is going on right now in the world. But, what is bad, is that practically all the dialogues and confrontations are predictable.It tells us everything most of us know already, including the fact that politicians lie, journalists fail and youth flounders. During the movie you are waiting for a finale which can bring some decision to the problem, but there is no one of the kind. In fact, it is a little bit fuzzy and ends with no-where.

   As for acting, I think that all of the actors tried to do their best, especially Michael Pena as Ernest Rodriguez and Derek Luke as Arian Finch. I was moved by Ernest's and Arian's moral courage and deeply saddened by their deaths because the world needs more people like them. What they did was tragic. But they did something and they did it with courage and conviction.

   To sum it up, I am not fan of such movies, it seems to me to be parochial and limiting (maybe because I am not  American). But, in spite of it, I think that this movie works as a strong personal political message, taking Americans to think of their lives rather than intruding on other countries' affairs and to solve, at first, problems with their own country and especially with the people who are ruling it.