< Home / Interview / Critic / Bio / My articles in Japanese >

Lions for Lambs

Written by Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

This is the first outing by newly United Artists, led by Tom Cruise and his partner Paula Wagner. With the help of a reliable director, Robert Redford has designed a political polemic in his slightly left-wing approach to send a significant message to Washington via three cross-cutting events.

At a congressional office, a presidential hopeful-- the Republican senator, Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise)-- is about to grant an interview to the TV journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) that would reveal some sensational tips about a new war strategy in Afghanistan. Roth had written a kind article about him when he was running for office. But his obvious political ploy provokes her to test his new strategy by throwing hardball questions, and digging up details for the exclusive story under intense pressure. They are seen slowly engaging in a political tennis match.

Then the film cleverly links to the perspective of two soldiers, Arian Finch (Derek Luke) and Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Pena), who are waiting for a helicopter launch into a frigid mountain top from the operation at headquarters. They are shown as being keenly observed through the monitor after the takeoff. Soon a rain of heavy machine-gun fire blasts through the air, hitting some troops and causing Arian and Ernest to fall onto the mountain, damaging their already injured knees. But the worst is yet to come with the approach of the insurgents. Those brave ones hold out for any glimmer of hope from headquarters.

In a different time zone, in California, Finch and Rodriguez were students of professor Stephen Malley(Robert Redford), who goes against his persuasion to let them enlisting for Iraq. Malley issolely focused on finding the potential of his students and trying to inspire them to do something meaningful with their lives. This time, he's trying to work with Todd Hayes (Andrew Garfield) who's been skipping class and barely passing. Malley willingly spends hours in his office to play every card of educational motivation, urging him to become part of the solution rather than indulging a life of leisure.

Cruise and Streep are perfectly cast, at the top of their game. We see a charismatic Cruise rendering his natural charm and strong intensity in what could have been an anti-Republican smear campaign. Director Redford asks us to take a stand on current foreign affairs throughout the film, which is careful enough to state its own point of view, but mostly avoids any reaction, mirroring any real dialogue about the war, which is often missing in American households. It just goes to show how we easily stifle our debate in the face of cynicism and concern.

Directed by Robert Redford
Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan
Director of photography: Philippe Rousselot
Edited by Joe Hutshing
Music by Mark Isham
Production designer: Jan Roelfs
Produced by Mr. Redford
Mr. Carnahan, Andrew Hauptman and Tracy Falco
Released by United Artists/Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
Running time: 90 minutes.

Cast: Robert Redford (Prof. Stephen Malley)
Meryl Streep (Janine Roth)
Tom Cruise (Senator Jasper Irving)
Michael Peña (Ernest Rodriguez),
Andrew Garfield (Todd Hayes)
Peter Berg (Lieutenant Colonel Falco)
Kevin Dunn (ANX Editor),
and Derek Luke (Arian Finch).