DVD REVIEW: Lions for Lambs

“Lions for Lambs” is not perfect, although it was created immaculately.

If you are still not acquainted with the movie “Lions for Lambs”, trust me, you already know half of the plot. It is sufficient to say that it is a combined story of three well-known actors, each of whom wants to tell a story of a tedious and long-term American war to which there is no end. Still, the ‘truth’ that, as paranoid, pessimistic and anarchistic as we know it (this is all the interest of rich oil moguls), is much stronger when told in the form of a greater scheme from whose mosaic as common people in real life we possess only small portions of unconnected greyness.

The director of the movie is Robert Redford, who is also one of the lead actors. Since Redford, just as his colleague Brian de Palma (just for an example, his latest movie Redacted) and just like 70% of the American population, I would say modernly and justifiably anti-Bush oriented, the movie’s chief ideas are clearly sketched in the first scenes of a meeting between a sceptical reporter (the excellent Meryl Streep) and the egoistic, confident, Mr. Perfect, senator (Tom Cruise) who developed a new plan that will bring America the ultimate victory over the enemy. And as they talk about the protection of the American way of life, culprits and the withdrawal of troops and the (evident) continuation of war, the interesting part of the story is the one going on in the normal professor’s (Redford) office while a Vietnam veteran disconnected with anti-war clichés is trying to get insight into the youthful mind of a student who has become the part of the majority that does not want to be the creator of real problems, their own intellectual development and the realisation of potentials which are, we know, very fragile.

Is it at all important what the stances of the two are? A regular professor who is aware of his missed opportunities and a young man who thinks he knows everything about the world and himself? No. Not even the stance of a reporter who refuses to publish the senator’s most recent military propaganda is important because, in the end, it is our right to merely have disgruntled comments on the consequences and know that at least we have that. I could connect this with Bush’s interview with a reporter Branka Slavica, in which, I quote, the American President “did not heed the public’s opinion much” but, as always, relied on “his own intuition” and “his own values” when making difficult and vital decisions.

So why the talk between the professor and the potentially realised student? We already know that the two young men in the movie, an African American and Mexican, volunteers who are laying in a snow storm at 8,000 metres above sea level somewhere in Afghanistan awaiting certain death, will be just another proof that class and ethnic barriers cannot and will not be brought down, at least not in most cases. How do we get in the position to make decisions as common people?

With elections? They may be logical, but not radical.

The point of the movie is that unrealised potential that the student, spurred by the professor’s arguments, discloses in the ending sequence. As he watches ‘exclusive’ news about the recent celebrity scandal, at the bottom of the screen letters disclose news about the use of a new tactic in the war against terrorism. People like scandals, gossip, crime, human tragedies… Real problems are those that hang in mid-air, noticeable, but ignored.

And in the end, what is important, is to be aware of the unfairness ruling in the whole world and ignoring it and live or both, and the most important, be human every minute?

Conclusion: the movie “Lions for Lambs” is not perfect, although it was created immaculately. Because of the fact that it leaves all the answers to us I think it has satisfied the demands of the so-called intelligent audience. And I include all those who like to stay with their own thoughts as the movie ends, perhaps think about themselves and the life they lead and then maybe apply what they have learnt.

Rating: ****