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

3 nominations.

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:

White House - 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,702,434, 2 November 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$14,998,070, 3 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 screenplay for this film was featured in the 2006 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

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Goofs

When Janine takes the second cab, it is a different car of course, even a different cab company, but the interior is the same. You can tell by the folds on the seat and the position of the seat belts.

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Quotes

Senator Jasper Irving: What I can say is that this strategy has patience and determination at its core. It ensures that it puts our fighting men in spots where they can face, and fight, and kill the enemy, so that we can then go on about rebuilding that country. And if it takes ten years, that's how long we stay, we do whatever it takes.
Janine Roth: [quoting the Senator] Whatever it takes.
Senator Jasper Irving: Whatever it takes.

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Connections

Referenced in The Andrew Klavan Show: Dan Rather, the Movie! (2015)

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Soundtracks

Yankee Doodle Dandy
Traditional

User Reviews

Partially insulting, but mildly engaging

Here we have what will likely be a divisive movie that, despite intentions to admirably show American ambiguities and hypocrisies lying on many sides of the terrorism debate, rears an unmistakable liberal sentiment underneath a dumbed-down script (realizing who wrote this further's the disturbance) and overly dramatic performances.

Three inter-cut narratives (two excessively talky/preachy, one repetitiously bland) do little at forming a cohesive whole until everything shoddily comes together near the end, but despite all that the film goes by generally quick with enough "provocotive-popcorn" moments to engage a large crowd of people who like their reality-based dramas spoon fed.

I suppose it is a good thing Lions for Lambs manages to fit in an empty mind's worth of quotable, bite-sized flavored, crispity controversies when addressing all us knuckleheads who let others do much of the dirty laundry our country currently washes. Those engaged by some of the US/Mideast documentaries to emerge over the past half-decade though, stay away to avoid suppressing your inner cynic.