Lions for Lambs (2007)

Injuries sustained by two Army ranger 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:

Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise

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:

What do you: live...die...fight...stand for?

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some war violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

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

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 November 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Leones por corderos

Filming Locations:

United States Capitol - 545 Seventh Street SE, 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

In an interview to the Variety magazine, Tom Cruise said he had made the film out of deep respect for Robert Redford's body of work, which he said had inspired him since Ordinary People.

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Goofs

The white University of Illinios football in Senator Irvings office (in the background by Janine Roth's head for much of the interview), changes positions during the interview. At times it's level on the shelf and at other times it's sitting crooked.

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Quotes

Todd Hayes: Look, if we're gonna spend tax dollars, our tax dollars, to help people break the law in a safer way, why don't we have a designated drunk-driver lane on the highway too?

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Connections

References Taps (1981)

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Soundtracks

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

User Reviews

Dialogues of the Lambs

Thumbs are of no use in talking about Robert Redford's "Lions for Lambs." Sticking them up or down makes little sense. It's not that kind of movie. What kind is it? Pretty much without a category.

The time is the present, Bush II is president, there is an unending war in the Middle East, the setting is present-day D.C., everything looks documentary-realistic. It could be a Sunday-morning panel discussion, but the cast consists of a bevy of stars, performing magnificently, with a script that seems to be formed by headlines from today's newspapers.

At the center of the film is a lengthy, unlikely, but brilliant duet of a an interview between a veteran, nobody's-fool political reporter (Meryl Streep) and a young hotshot NeoCon senator (Tom Cruise), both utterly believable, notwithstanding the challenge of some lame lines by screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan for Cruise. Still, overall, the business between the two is the "people's business," about the lethal foreign-policy bungling of a war of choice, now running longer than World War II. (These are not editorial comments, but rather a report on what the film says.)

While dissecting the Iraqi disaster, and hearing some surprising and obviously manipulating admissions of errors from Cruise's hawkish senator, the issue at hand is the senator - a key military adviser to the President - trying to steer Streep's skeptical journalist into "selling" a new plan of attack in Afghanistan, something she instantly recognizes as a throwback to failed strategy in Vietnam.

Alternating with the interview segments are battle scenes in Afghanistan where two Army rangers (Derek Luke and Michael Peña) are risking their lives in implementing that new plan. Then, by a stretch and rather awkwardly, there sits Redford's professor in his West Coast college office, pulling the story together between the two lion-like Rangers, who were his students, and a bright, troubled student (Andrew Garfield) who lost his way, baa, baa, baa.

Significant and entertaining, thought-provoking and reality-based sad, mostly well-written, and exceptionally well-acted, "Lions for Lambs" is likely to leave the audience with the feeling of having participated in an important happening, but perhaps not quite knowing what it was.

Gushing about Streep is almost embarrassing, but... Once again, she transcends text, expectations, whatever you may anticipate, and gives a performance to remember and treasure. Her expressions, body language, silences create a character with a life of her own, a "real person" we, the audience, feel as if we have known always, intimately.