Lions for Lambs
If you don't stand for something, you might fall for anything.
Robert Redford, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep deliver "three knockout performances" (Vue Weekly) in this powerful, provocative thriller that explores the consequences of taking a stand. An idealistic professor (Redford) in California attempts to inspire a student to do more with his life, while a charismatic Senator (Cruise) in Washington D.C. pitches a new Middle East war strategy to a probing TV journalist (Streep). And halfway across the world, two of the professor’s former students are trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, fighting for freedom—and their very lives. As the tension mounts and the bullets fly, these Americans will change each other’s lives and the world in ways they never could have imagined.
Member Reviews
Huge Redford fan, huge disappointment. - fakewindow
while interesting how the story is woven between 3 connected plots, simultaneously occurring across the globe, the dialogue falls flat as the movie hardly says anything new about modern warfare and current affairs. Just seems to end up as a tiresome, vague debate on personal and govermental responsibility.Rather disappointing and overly preachy - joelmcq
Lions for Lambs weaves three stories, all occurring at the same time, taking three viewpoints into the war in the Middle East. Redford's direction is ok, but he seems to try to let the actors' performances try to carry the film, as there's very little camera work or interesting edits.
Where this film fails for me is that the film is a (very thinly) vieled attack of the Bush administration. Don't get me wrong... I feel that the people of the U.S. should impeach Bush, but I don't watch movies to have them push thier political agenda on me. At least, not so blatantly.
I can only recommend this film to die hard, liberal, Bush haters, who need their viewpoint reinforced.Very interesting, but not fully engaging. - Port_Moresby
Three stories play out simultaneously in this highly charged political drama. A university professor (Robert Redford) in California councils a student about his failing attendance in his political science course. In Washington, a successful journalist (Meryl Streep) is brought into a one-hour interview with a Republican senator (Tom Cruise) who is going to give her an exclusive on a new military maneuver that he thinks will put America back in a winning situation in the Middle East. At the same time, two soldiers in Afghanistan execute the maneuver and struggle to survive when things go beyond the original plan. All three of these stories take a while to warm up, and it’s not really possible to say that the film is fully engaging in the end, but by the end there have been a lot of thought-provoking arguments put forth for the audience to digest. Redford is provoking his student to wake up to the fact that he can no longer observe life but must participate; Streep is forced to accept responsibility for her own industry’s involvement in the Iraq War; while watching the soldiers, the audience is asked to measure the difference between ideas of patriotic glory on the battlefield and the realities of struggling in combat. Talky and sometimes monotonous, it is marginally affecting, and Streep in particular does a fantastic job wiping up the floor with mesmerizingly plastic Cruise.
Member Reviews
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Huge Redford fan, huge disappointment. - fakewindow
while interesting how the story is woven between 3 connected plots, simultaneously occurring across the globe, the dialogue falls flat as the movie hardly says anything new about modern warfare and current affairs. Just seems to end up as a tiresome, vague ...Rather disappointing and overly preachy - joelmcq
Lions for Lambs weaves three stories, all occurring at the same time, taking three viewpoints into the war in the Middle East. Redford's direction is ok, but he seems to try to let the actors' performances try to carry the film, as there's very little camera ...Very interesting, but not fully engaging. - Port_Moresby
Three stories play out simultaneously in this highly charged political drama. A university professor (Robert Redford) in California councils a student about his failing attendance in his political science course. In Washington, a successful journalist (Meryl ...