Lions for Lambs (2007)

Injuries sustained by two Army rangers behind enemy lines in Afghanistan set off a sequence of events involving a congressman, a journalist and a professor.

Director:

Robert Redford

Writer:

Matthew Michael Carnahan

Stars:

Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Redford	...	Professor Stephen Malley
Meryl Streep	...	Janine Roth
Tom Cruise	...	Senator Jasper Irving
Michael Peña	...	Ernest Rodriguez
Andrew Garfield	...	Todd Hayes
Peter Berg	...	Lt. Col. Falco
Kevin Dunn	...	ANX Editor
Derek Luke	...	Arian Finch
Larry Bates	...	Soldier
Christopher May	...	Soldier
David Pease	...	Soldier
Heidi Janson	...	Soldier
Christopher Carley	...	Sniper
George Back	...	Student
Kristy Wu	...	Student

Storyline

Three stories told simultaneous in ninety minutes of real time: a Republican Senator who's a presidential hopeful gives an hour-long interview to a skeptical television reporter, detailing a strategy for victory in Afghanistan; two special forces ambushed on an Afghani ridge await rescue as Taliban forces close in; a poli-sci professor at a California college invites a promising student to re-engage. Decisions press upon the reporter, the student, and the soldiers.

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Plot Keywords:

student | afghanistan | professor | reporter | university | 

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Taglines:

If you don't STAND for something, you might FALL for anything

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

14A

Details

Official Sites:

20th Century Fox [France] United Artists [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 November 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lions et agneaux

Filming Locations:

The White House, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£658,282 (UK) (9 November 2007)

Gross:

$14,998,070 (USA) (1 February 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), United Artists, Wildwood Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The photo that Jenine (Meryl Streep) observes on Senator Irving's (Tom Cruise) office wall of him dressed as a young cadet is a still photo from Cruise's role in the 1981 film Taps (1981).

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Goofs

When Rodriguez and Arian are giving their presentation, they place letters of induction on the projector to show the class they enlisted. A letter of induction is a draft notice. The draft was over for over thirty years when the movie takes place, and since they volunteered, they would have used DD Form 4/1 "Enlistment and Reenlistment Document"

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Quotes

Senator Jasper Irving: "Mission accomplished."
Janine Roth: Right.
Senator Jasper Irving: Writ small. Mistake.
Janine Roth: Mistake?
Senator Jasper Irving: Because we now know the enemy with broken backs can still crawl.

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Connections

Edited into Lions for Lambs: World Premiere Special (2007)

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Soundtracks

Lean wit It
Written and Performed by Herman Beeftink
Courtesy of Elite Source Music Productions

User Reviews

An Indictment of American Apathy

This is easily a film that will come under fire for having something to say, but what is the alternative? Making a film that has nothing to say? That seems to be the norm nowadays as the box office grosses of the terrible trio of threequels demonstrates. Lions for lambs reminds me of a time when Directors had greater ambitions than to make a huge opening weekend before people realize their film is garbage (Transformers, Pirates, etc...but being saturated with these types of films for so long I doubt many remember what film can be, and accomplish.) Robert Redford strikes me as someone who wants to make a difference and the problem is that the audience has become more deaf to reason than ever.

Lions for Lambs is more of a filmed essay than a narrative feature, and being a Kubrick fan, I am all for changing the classic form of Hollywood narrative structure. This is a film based around ideas, and exploring them to raise awareness that our own apathy will lead to our undoing as Americans. Let me invoke Batman Begins "People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy"...etc. So people won't get off their posteriors and respond to the chaos around them, perhaps because there seems to be no direct connection to the news, or as this film so brilliantly points out: we change the channel. This film is a dramatic example of where we're going as a nation and what we're becoming as a people. I doubt anyone will listen but I applaud the filmmakers for at least making an attempt.

This film presents the facts pretty much up to the minute, from many angles, and yes even the Republicans get a sympathetic view of their strategy. Whose fault is it that the economy is in a downward spiral? It's all too easy to point the finger at the Bush administration and leave it at that, but what about the media? The corporations that own the media that favor news as entertainment rather than news as information by which to empower the people via knowledge? What about the public themselves? V for Vendetta, another film centered around powerful ideas that didn't have nearly the impact it should have, said "People shouldn't be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people."

Has the public become so passive that they just ignore the big issues whenever confronted by them? This film suggests that and much more, but more importantly the film asks: What are you going to do about it?