Lions for Lambs

POINT-COUNTERPOINT ON LIONS FOR LAMBS

Jim: Welcome Jane and Dan to NBR’s Critics’ Corner for the new MGM and United Artists’ film Lions for Lambs, starring Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise. Mr. Redford directed the film, his first in seven years, from an original screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, who also penned 2007’s The Kingdom. The film’s main supporting players are Michael Pena, Derek Luke, Andrew Garfield, and Peter Berg. I saw both of you at our screening earlier this week, and I’m so glad you agreed to participate in this special Point-Counterpoint.
 
Dan: Thanks to the NBR for inviting us to the screening, although 10 A.M. is a strange time for me to see a film, especially on a Monday. Which reminds me of my favorite line from the film. Republican Senator Jasper Irving (Cruise) says to reporter Janine Roth (Streep): “Good morning, Janine.” Her response: “The only good thing about morning is that it’s over at noon.” Love it.   Anyway, let’s get started. Jane, since this is a film made by liberals and for liberals, why don’t you kick it off?
 
Jane: Dan, I’d like to hold your war-supporting ideologies to the fire even as I agree with you that 10 A.M. on a Monday morning is awfully early for a movie. I’ll start off by saying this film is beautifully acted by its three stars and supporting cast. Perhaps most interesting to me were the Streep-Cruise scenes. Older journalist v. young senator. Less interesting for me were the professor Dr. Stephen Malley (Redford) and slacker university student Todd Hayes (Garfield) scenes. (Stop slacking! Get involved! Blah, blah, blah!) The war scenes with Ernest Rodriguez (Pena) and Arian Finch (Luke) are good (they are both former students of Professor Malley), and my heart went out to actor Pena, whose last film I saw was World Trade Center where he was buried   under a pile of rubble following the 9/11 attack and now, in this, he’s bloodied on top of a mountain in Afghanistan. The three story lines, by the way, play out basically in real time. The strands come together with terrific editing and handsome cinematography. And Cruise’s senator claims to Streep, “We made mistakes,” which is, of course, rare for a Republican to admit, especially for one not caught in a sex scandal, so it almost made me want to vote for him until he says, “Now we have to move forward.” (More war! Surge! Iran! Yikes!) My liberal heart and mind wanted to love this film more, but it all felt like relatively old news.   Nonetheless, terrific acting and bravura technical work, so I say that it’s absolutely worth catching. Go see it soon!
 
Dan: Jane, I’m not going to argue with you about the acting and technical credits, but what the heck’s going on with this script? We get a lot of unanswered questions at the end of the film. I needed toothpicks for my eyes during the later scenes between professor and student (and this film clocks in at barely an hour and a half). Those university scenes give didacticism a bad name. The whole exercise (all three parts) parades around as a fair and balanced story, but, wow, talk about disingenuous. Throw us Republicans some red meat if you want to get our attention. You of a liberal bent get all wacky when the Fox News Channel calls its reporting Fair and Balanced. In closing I’d like to use the film’s slogan, “If You Don’t Stand for Something, You Might Fall For Anything.” I’ll stand for something: don’t go to this film, people!
 
Jim: Thanks, Jane and Dan, we’re out of time.

                                                           Jim Baldassare