Lambs for Lions

By Linda Winsh-Bolard

If you don't stand for something, you might fall for anything

"Lions for Lambs" was a comment made by a German during World War I in regards to the bravery of British soldiers when compared to the criminal stupidity of their commanders.

When the film opens it seems like three different, largely unrelated stories
are describing today’s America. Or to be more precise, a part of today’s‘
America, the affluent and influent male part.

Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) is a seasoned reporter for a large network who gets a full hour with relatively young upcoming, white house hot, conservative Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) who promises her an exclusive story about current war policies.

Dr. Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) is political science professor, fully aware of his own limitations, telling a story of two exceptional students Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Pena) he had recently taught to another, self-obsessed, lazy and cynical young man, Todd, who is taking his class (Andrew Garfield).

And in the middle of Afghanistan two young men survived a suicide mission
when their chopper was shot down at landing, but are so far from the base that it
seem unlikely anybody would be able to get to them in time.

As the token female of the film, Janine, listens to the senator’s spin while trying to connect the dots and understand what is really behind is hallowed patriotism and “we will stay there until we win” phrases, the Todd disputes Malley ‘s perception of what is our place in the society, and the armed forces are slowly giving up on the wounded rangers.

Each and every character in this film is precisely defined as a symbol for certain attitude in our society. Everything they say is just as precisely thought through to show certain kind of reasoning, certain standards, or lack of them, morals, and ethics, or again lack of them.

Is revokes the past, reminding us that not only we do not learn about our past as a country while being educated, we are actively discouraged from remembering even the events we lived though, should these events not be convenient to political game. It reminds us of the past division of forces in the society, and of an independent control system we once had in place to protect us- from the universities that used to educate, students who used to want to be educated rather that to become equipped with a piece of paper licensing them to the membership in a group of rich and mighty provided by a business institutions set up to filter out the poor, independently minded or original ones. Of the media that used to act as watchdogs until business purchased them and set up a “drive by news” that does not question, investigate or provide any news unless it is politically and business approved blimps of daily occurrences, but will and did stoop to outright propaganda more then once, the most blatant being their role in the Iraq invasion. To the Senate that, purchased by business, no longer serves the country, or her people but exist solely to promote business deals.

In all those parts it is damning, but never more so than when those who do not wish to follow this path to success die standing.

It would be a preachy film, had it promoted any ideology, but it does not. It does not even promote any particular change as such; it merely questions what has happened to us and why it had happed to us. Unfortunately, that squarely comes back to personal greed, which once used to be called Protestant morality. Success is all. How it was achieved is irrelevant. It always was. Only now, covered by talk of acceptance of diversity, with generation of public schools quietly pushing for uniformity in all thinking and behaving, there is nobody left to differ from the mantra of alpha dog.

It is a dialog driven film with limited cast and tricks. The cast is excellent, from Meryl Streep in a role directly opposed to that in Rendition, slowly and subtly recognizing the trap she is being pushed into, to Robert Redford’s performance as professor who sees the changes but is powerless to prevent them, to the Irving’s sleazy, cool, utterly selfish, indifferent to all others and professionally charming liar Tom Cruise And let’s not forget Kevin Dunn as the news editor who no longer cares, feels no loyalty to either his staff or the news as such. Pena and Luke are convincing idealist who want to follow their beliefs only to be crushed by the indifference of the system. Garfield is the prototype of the Y generation, and their faults do start with the baby boomers.

Watching Todd was like watching any number of my students who truly were bored with my attempts to make them create things, or analyze them, or the worst of all, question independently and concisely what’s in place. Truly they wanted a good life, not worthy one. And they new the paths.

As this is narrative, sort of dry, requiring certain knowledge and ability to concentrate and listen, I doubt they’d bother to see it. It also makes it clear where the directors stands- oh, no! Somebody has the guts to stand for something. Run! It might be catching!

And that is the problem: those of us, who will watch it, are probably already asking the same questions and have no answers.

On the other hand, one can nearly discern one’s colleagues backgrounds and age by their reactions to this film: “mildly insulting”, “engaging”, yeah and why me? And so on…. It must be heads on.

Directed by Robert Redford
Screenwriter: Matthew Michael Carnahan
Producers: Robert Redford, Matthew Michael Carnahan, Andrew Hauptman, Tracy Falco
Executive producers: Tom Cruise, Daniel Lupi, Paula Wagner
Director of photography: Philippe Rousselot; Production designer: Jan Roelfs
Music: Mark Isham, Editor: Joe Hutshing
Cast:
Dr. Stephen Malley: Robert Redford
Janine Roth: Meryl Streep
Sen. Jasper Irving: Tom Cruise
Wirey Pink: Peter Berg
Ernest Rodriguez: Michael Pena
Arian Finch: Derek Luke
Todd: Andrew Garfield
Entourage: Tracy Dali
Miss M: Louise Linton
Student: Rustee Rutherford

MGM release of United Artists presentation of Wildwood Enterprises, Brat Na Pont, Andell Entertainment production.