Lions for Lambs is a film that challenges the viewer to examine exactly that which we are taught to ignore when we turn on the TV or read the newspaper each day. Serving as an indictment on U.S. foreign policy and an endless war on terror, Lions highlights the symbiotic relationship of the life-and-death military decisions made by government officials who have never seen combat and the journalistic salesmanship needed to garner public support for such decisions. Director Robert Redford and screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan explore this controversial ground with a left-leaning but direct story, examining both sides of the argument of prolonged American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The title of the film is taken from the quote of a German soldier during WWII, expressing admiration of the courage of British soldiers despite the stupefying ineptitude of their commanders. “Never have I seen such lions led by such lambs,” he said, observing a scenario strikingly similar to our own in the present. Played out in real screen time across three different time zones, Lions centers on three separate dialogues that steadily intertwine as the film progresses. Robert Redford plays Dr. Malley, an idealistic professor at a prominent California university, attempting to convince a bright but cynical and complacent student (Andrew Garfield) not to waste his gifts, but rather utilize his potential to impact the world around him. Malley was shocked and dismayed to learn that two of his former students were so moved by his lectures on moral conviction that they joined the military, invariably becoming pawns in a secret military operation that would leave them wounded and stranded deep in enemy territory.
Meryl Streep plays Janine Roth, a veteran reporter wary of being used as a tool of propaganda for the U.S. government who has landed a coveted hour-long interview with brash White House hopeful Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise). Irving wants a skeptical Roth to help raise public support of a new military strategy involving sending Special Forces units deep into Afghanistan to prevent Shiite and Sunni forces from uniting, when in fact the operation has already begun.What ensues is less an interview than a heated debate over victory-obsessed U.S. policy. The dialogue between Streep’s political reporter and Cruise’s ambitious young senator outlines the government’s reliance on the media to effectively “sell” the war in Iraq to the American public. Both activism and the politics of a complicated war, far from the field of battle, are called into question as the two factions plead their case to one another.
Lions for Lambs will appeal mostly to those who feel that our military presence in the Middle East and the sacrifice of Americans being made therein are done on false premises. Intelligent, patriotic lectures saturate the film, questioning American fixations on distraction and patriotic propaganda while exploring the humanity beneath the uniforms of our soldiers. Such heavy subject matter isn’t likely to do very well at the box office, but it’s an important film nevertheless, attempting to shake the collective consciousness of an entire society out of apathy and into a quest for logic and truth.
