Richard Knight, Jr., reviews Lions for Lambs (featuring Tom Cruise, pictured).
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Lions for Lambs is the latest movie to examine conflict in the Mideast. Directed by Robert Redford, the movie tells three separate stories that eventually converge. Redford has big marquee names (himself, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep) starring in his movie but—though the film espouses a liberal point of view that I heartily agree with and makes a lot of salient points that audiences certainly need to hear—the picture’s so heavy-handed and so weighted down with its good intentions it practically cancels itself out. The arguments put forth would make for an interesting discussion—at a social gathering, say, or as part of a lecture series. But instead of entertaining, illuminating or firing up the audience, these arguments translate as a heavy dose of movie cough syrup.
Cruise plays a smug, conservative senator who tells top journalist Streep during a closed-door meeting that as the two are sitting there talking a surefire, a can’t-miss mini-invasion of Afghanistan is occurring. This, Cruise assures Streep, is the new strategy that’s going to win the war on terrorism and restore peace to the Mideast. Meanwhile, Redford, an idealistic college English professor who has urged his students to ‘Do Something, Dammit!’ is lecturing Todd, a valued student who has let girls and partying get in the way of a good grade, that he expects more from him. Though he generalizes, the professor makes some valid points about today’s youth (and much of the rest of America, actually) when he says to Todd, ‘They bank on your apathy and your willful ignorance.’
Redford, who we see was a one-time war protestor, exhorts Todd, who he recognizes leadership gifts in, to get involved in the anti-war movement (if he can find it). The third story focuses on two young soldiers who have, through a series of accidents, been stranded in the mountains of Afghanistan. Eventually we learn that they were the professor’s students, who were so inspired by his teachings that they have joined the armed forces, apparently—following the old hippie maxim—’to change the system from within.’
Cruise’s senator is the politician and architect of the army’s daring attempt to infiltrate Afghanistan-held territory, and the character has the insufferable assurance of several key political figures who have been darkening our horizon these past seven years. It’s a perfect role for Cruise and the chance to speechify at length with such intensity must have proven irresistible. After all, Cruise loves nothing more than the chance to Act! With! Exclamation! Points! But to say that he does a nice job isn’t much of a compliment—it’s just that it’s a role sculpted to his puny, questionable talents.
Streep, as the cowed reporter who pretty much has to sit there and listen to Cruise intoning, has the thankless role and is wasted (and she’s given a headscratcher of a wrap-up at the picture’s fade). But then, none of the characters—nor the audience—gets off easily in this long-winded movie. (The trailer promised an action flick—oh boy, was that screening audience fidgety.) At best, this is material that might work on the stage—where the heightened, phony dialogue might sound natural—but I doubt it. Is that because I am actively resistant to any movie that is determined to force a lesson down my throat?
Lions for Lambs, for all its flaws, however, is still an effort worth applauding on some level—if only because Redford has used his clout to make a movie that tries to address the apathy so prevalent in a time of war. He did what he urges Todd to do—something—and he offers his movie as a war protest. It’s a call to arms for pacifists and aging hippies, but in an age of cynicism and vapidity who will hear and who will listen with the outrage and attention required to make a difference?
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