I don’t think I have seen a single article referencing Lions for Lambs not mention how people aren’t going to see it because there is no desire to see a movie about politics, a movie about Iraq, or a movie about war in general. Well, unfortunately for Lions for Lambs it is about all that and then some. While I don’t think it is a perfect film in terms of its story, I do think it is an interesting film even if it isn’t all that subtle in terms of its messages.
The entire story takes place in about an 80 minute time span. We are introduced to Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), a big wig senator that has the direct ear of the President. He is meeting with Janine Roth (Meryl Strep), a reporter for a high profile news channel to give her the exclusive story on a new plan he has just implemented to finally end terrorism and win the war in Iraq.
As you may have guessed, his plan is being implemented just as the meeting begins, involving small strategic strikes in Afghanistan. Enter Army rangers Ernest Rodriguez and Arian Finch (Michael Pena and Derek Luke). While they set out to take on step one in this proposed plan things go wrong and they find themselves injured and surrounded by the enemy on the edge of a snowy cliff.
The third piece to this puzzle involves Ernest and Arian’s college professor Stephen Malley (Robert Redford). We meet him as he is talking about the future with one of his current students.
Each piece of the puzzle delivers a specific message, but the story between Irving and Roth is really the central one as the two others simply feed the negativity this film obviously has for politicians, the media and the war in Iraq. This is a film that adeptly vocalizes a lot of the problems people have had with the war from the beginning, so much so that there were people in my screening that were actually talking to the screen.
While the jabs at the war, the politicians and the media are all obvious, there was one aspect of this film that really impressed me. At one point during Irving and Roth’s conversation, as Roth is reading through all the bullshit Irving is feeding her he resorts back to the one crux all politicians have fallen back on since September 11, 2001, and that is to use the attack on the World Trade Center towers to play at audience emotions in order to almost brainwash people into thinking what they are hearing is the best alternative.
“What? You don’t want to go get Saddam? But what about the attacks on September 11th? What about all those Americans that lost their lives?” Cue the violins… It is a play at the heart strings, and director Robert Redford plays the traditional music cues as Irving hits his high notes, but you as an audience member are reading through every word.
The most impressive thing about this film is the fact that Cruise’s character talks for 75-percent of this film and by the end of it you realize he has hardly said a single word of importance. It is all spin, and that is not an easy thing to pull off in a movie and keep audiences interested, which is where this film falls just slightly short. I won’t say I wasn’t interested, because I love talky films and the action on the cliff was pretty good, even though it did get a little monotonous. I will say that for a film that runs only 88 minutes long it doesn’t offer anything more than a profound hatred for the principals involved.
I get it that you don’t like politicians. You don’t like the way the war on terror has played out. You also hate the way the media takes everything the government has said and toss it up on the news scroll even though you know, and we all know, it is bullshit. So, what is the alternative? That is where this film falls short and actually finds one point that Senator Irving makes worthy in all his double-speak. America can’t just pull out of the war. Not only does that leave the Middle East in a state of ruin, it also weakens the American nation, which at this point is already in enough trouble and doesn’t need to look any weaker.
While I am far from a political spokesperson, I do know that if you are going to have the guts to attack something, you should also have prepared an alternative. Lions for Lambs offers up a great attack, but with absolutely no alternative at the end of the film it all feels like a bunch of talk.
