Movie Review: Lions for Lambs

AXJ-USANov 12th, 2007 - 06:20:21

We at www.action4justice.com (AXJ) have very much enjoyed this movie since many of us feel reflected in the students and soldiers 40 some years ago while Vietnam was going on. Our Administration lied to us then same as our Administration has lied to us now. Sadam never had Weapons of Mass Destruction and Cheney and Bush should be impeached for lying to the American People. Our Media is also responsible for selling a lie to the American people and not rectifying. They will start hurting now, as thousands of websites not only like ours, but all the grass roots meetups around Dr. Ron Paul start igniting the flame of Truth, Freedom, Justice of a great Republic that we are. One such Organization is AXJ and specifically Latinos for Dr. Ron Paul ( www.latinoronpaul.com ) which is getting the message of peace to our Latinos in the USA. Time for a change of Government. All of them. AXJ

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Raymond AlvarezNov 6th, 2008 - 21:55:20

Failure of conscience
By Raymond Alvarez

Screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan's film goes back to the first world war to find an analogy to describe a failure of conscience. British soldiers earned a name for themselves from their German enemies, who admired their courage. The lions: the troops. The lambs: the British generals who never stepped onto the battlefield.

The 'wars for peace' in Iraq and Afghanistan keep sending us flag-draped coffins. And we meekly shake a fist at imagined political leaders, declaring it must stop.

Carnahan, screenwriter for “Lions for Lambs,” scored poorly with critics, but this film still resonates with me.

There is a potent message here. It is well delivered by Robert Redford, whose character is the soul of the film. Many may come away confused. But, there is a strong message: We need leaders to step up.

For all of the rhetoric pro and con, Redford's line that spoke to me:
“What good is a ninety-thousand-dollar Benz, if there not only is not enough gas in the tank, but the highways and streets are decaying to the point of becoming Third World. If all your rants about politicians are true... if things are really as bad as you say, and thousands of troops are dying, how can you live the good life? Rome is burning, son.”

Redford plays Stephen Malley, a college political-science professor who has made it his task to urge a promising student to step up to the challenges presented his generation. Redford, who also directs, is eloquent in this tailor made role.

Malley looks back on a long career of stoking the furnace of ideals. But, he has seen the tide change in recent years. The young faces have become shrewder, more cynical.

What sparks the sudden urgency to redirect a bright student?

The film centers on the professor's pitch, a reporter’s interview in a Congressman's office, and the plight of two Marines desperately fighting off the enemy on a remote mountain in Afghanistan.

We learn the Marines were Malley's students. The instructor sends out a general call to action (for a class project) that brings shockingly unexpected consequences. It is here that can be found the crux of the film: confronting the prospect of losing the best and brightest to war, and doing nothing. The two students enlist – news they deliver to the class at the close of their project presentation.

Why this film?
This film should give pause. Confidence in leadership, the press and corporations has ebbed to new lows. But this trend didn't begin yesterday. Why this film, and why now? Indeed, we may be only an election away from withdrawing from Iraq. Carnahan would have us believe that the greatest casualty of the war is our conscience and our leadership. He is disturbed by our inertia. We are the problem, he says.

The enemy’s description of the British soldiers could be the military leadership in the Middle East. U.S. leadership, Malley notes, is no way near the best and brightest. But deriding the generals and declaring it a war he can't care about is not persuasive to the soon-to-be Marines. 'If the cause has gone badly, that's more reason to join the fight,' his students retort.

Long speeches are often not the ingredients for a provocative film. But, these words do not settle well.

Reporters and politicians are not treated kindly this film. Though the seasoned cablevision reporter (Meryl Streep) still has a little fire left in the gut, she looks drawn and resigned. The senator (Tom Cruise) seems too confident, too trusting of the strategists who have sold him on the way to close the war in Afghanistan and a path to the White House. Streep's character wears the skepticism the cablevision management should be encouraging. She summons anger to implore a better reporting job than 'just rolling over again' -- and giving the administration what it wants. Of course, she loses the argument. The camera leaves Streep fighting her tears as she passes Arlington Cemetery.

It shouldn't surprise Malley that his students have something to teach him. He is very fortunate in that regard. The lesson should move us. Young men dying bravely on a mountaintop is powerful stuff. But, this is not a movie about saber rattling.

The pull is powerful. I have written my Congressman and everyone I know to decry this war and our continued dependence on oil and the prospect that we will have to fight for oil for many years to come.

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