Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5253 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-04-21
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The considerable authority of Robert Redford pulls some heavyweight talent into Lions for Lambs, a rare Hollywood foray into flat-out political filmmaking. Three dramas, all connected, play out simultaneously during the same hour: On a mountainside in Afghanistan, two U.S. soldiers (Michael Pena and Derek Luke) find themselves stranded during a new military surge; on Capitol Hill, a Republican senator (Tom Cruise) tries to sell the new strategy to a seasoned reporter (Meryl Streep); and in California, a professor (Redford) tries to light the fire of commitment in an increasingly apathetic college student (Andrew Garfield).

Director Redford cuts back and forth amongst these arenas, a gambit which thankfully obscures how weak the one non-talkfest (the Afghanistan segment) really is. You can tell Redford and screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan put their juice in the debate between Cruise and Streep, which summarizes Right and Left views on the Middle Eastern wars, and does so reasonably lucidly--although there is little here that would surprise anyone who has looked into the subject. The college section suggests Redford's belief that there are lots of people, distracted by tabloid culture and self-centeredness, who haven't looked into the subject. So he lectures us about it, sounding suspiciously like an old geezer remembering the good old days. If this film had been released in 2004, it might at least have bucked majority opinion, but coming out in the autumn of 2007, it already felt like old news. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Robert Redford directs and stars in this ode to political activism. Boasting a powerhouse cast that also includes Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, the film features three storylines centred on the Iraq war. Cruise is Jasper Irving, a rising Republican senator who has summoned Janine Roth (Streep), the head journalist at a large news corporation, to sell her on the government's new military strategy. It's his hope that she in turn will sell the public on the idea. Meanwhile, a history professor (Redford) is trying to convince one of his more promising students to strive to make a difference in the world. Professor Malley believes Todd Hayes (Andrew Garfield) to be a bright young man, and he wants to know why Todd has become so apathetic about his schoolwork, and, after the two banter back and forth about the nature of activism, Malley tells him about two of his former students, Ernest and Arian (Michael Pena and Derek Luke), both of whom are currently serving in Iraq. Unbeknownst to Malley, at that very moment, Ernest and Arian are engaging in the exact military strategy that Senator Irving is discussing with Roth. Their mission has just gone terribly awry, and the men have fallen into enemy territory. So the senator and journalist argue, the professor and student debate, and all the while the wounded soldiers wait desperately for rescue. These disparate storylines slowly build and converge, culminating in a blaring statement about civic responsibility and social conscience.
Cruise and Streep are a delight to watch, and their battle of words gives the most heat to the film. As one might expect, it casts an extremely critical eye at the state of American politics in the opening decade of the 21st century. However, it veers toward hope and a call to action. Redford, himself a longtime activist, appears to be sending an open letter to America: turn off the celebrity coverage and get involved.

Customer Reviews

liberal dose of simplicity
Don't get it. Just don't get it. If you have any sense or insight into the world you'll already know all the stuff that this film ponderously pummels into you with dull thudding blows to the head.
If you don't know how the world works then you'll never get past the first 10 minutes before falling asleep or being distracted by trivia (and that is a very, very bad thing according to Uncle Robert) and you won't be reading this.

Folly Of The War On Rhetoric
"Useful new things to be said about the debacle in Iraq are in very short supply. I'm not sure that's what "Lions for Lambs" intends to demonstrate, but it does, exhaustingly. Essentially, if I have this right, we should never have invaded Iraq, but now that we're there, (1) we can't very well leave, and (2) we can't very well stay, so (3) the answer is, stay while in the process of leaving." Roger Ebert

'All The Right Moves', and 'All The Right Words': apathy and cynicism, self interest is to have the best life you can have the easiest way, risk , bravery, say what you mean and mean what you say, don't live over a safety net, well reasoned arguments and journalist integrity, making the right choices or don't make any at all, and people who have the least to give, give the most. We have all heard these words and phrases time and again, and in this film we hear them in spades. Aha, I gave my own!

Robert Redford started out with a smart script. He was able to recruit the best of the best, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise and himself. The time seemed ripe, we have a far off war in Afghanistan and Iraq, we have an administration who fooled us all, we have the media who went along with the administration, and we have the American Public full of apathy all. What's not to like? Somewhere, something went wrong in this film. The public was not prepared for 94 minutes of moralizing and facing the music so to speak. We would prefer to move on with our lives, taking the easy way out, why not? What the film forgot was that we pay to be entertained, this was not entertainment, this was a lecture and we didn't want any of it. Too bad.

"Lions for Lambs is so square it's like something out of the gray twilight glow of the golden age of television. Even the military plot, which clunks, seems to be taking place on stage. Yet Carnahan's writing ignites familiar issues with vigor and snap; there's audacity in its attempt to seize us with nothing but a war of rhetoric. Maybe Lions for Lambs wouldn't seem like such a folly in a movie culture that risked making more follies like it." Owen Glieberman

A film that speaks to us all, but all of us don't want to hear.
Recommended. prisrob 05-14-08


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Superb
I was amazed at how short this film was. It concerns an hour in the lives of several different people and runs for only 20 minutes longer than this.

In this hour you see some of the best performances from top Hollywood stars for a long time. For me the best was Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep who are utterly convincing in their roles.

Based on other reviews I was not expecting much - often the best way to approach a film. I'm pleased to say it far exceeded my expectations and is a superb film I am happy to recommend.