Redford roars political significance but makes a “baaa-d” movie: a review of Lions for Lambs (2007)

Review by Zachary K. Parker

The title comes from an anecdote told by Professor Stephen Malley, played by Robert Redford, about a German officer in World War I, who observed the courage of British grunts and their thoughtless commanding officers: “Nowhere have I seen such lions led by such lambs.” In this way, the film contrasts the folly of American leaders with the seemingly lost self-sacrificial spirit of American people.

The film focuses on this contrast by showing three different scenes about a pair of American individuals. In the first character setup, liberal reporter Janine Roth, played with a convincingly persistent attitude by Meryl Streep.

She is scheduled to have a one-hour interview with Republican Senator, Jasper Irving, played by Tom Cruise. Cruise’s personal life shenanigans are laughable, but in Lions for Lambs, Cruise reminds the audience that he’s still on top of his game as an actor.

Senator Irving has a new plan for ending the War on Terror, allowing the one-hour interview so that Janine may present his ambitious goals as an exclusive, meant to put “hope back in the hearts and minds of the American people.” He’ll do “whatever it takes,” regardless of the “how” and “why.”

His plan consists of small Special Force units chipping away at the remaining terrorist forces throughout Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. Janine opposes Jasper’s philosophy and ideas based on her experience with the failure of similar military strategies in Vietnam, as well as her disgust with all prominent figures of the Republican party.

            In the second character setup, Professor Malley has a one-hour advising session with Todd Hayes, played by Andrew Garfield, about what Todd will do with his life. Malley sees the potential in his political science student, and questions Todd’s sudden disinterest in politics, essentially challenging Todd’s typical apathy.

Todd is thus faced with the challenge to make something of his life or continue in his stagnation, which Malley points out will only cause him to evaporate. Malley’s advice is based on his experience with two former students-turned-soldiers, Ernest Rodriquez and Arian Finch, played by Michael Pena and Derek Luke respectively.

The third character setup focuses on these two soldiers as they lay stranded and wounded in the snowy mountains of Afghanistan for an hour, waiting for help or death. It is this sequence concerning the soldiers that makes the film the most interesting, as they try to escape their predicament wounded, and defend themselves against incoming terrorists. 

            The sequences involving the “talks” between Janine and Jasper, Malley and Todd tend to drag on, like watching a stage play without any movement or visual interaction.. Not only through his character, Malley, but through his direction of the other conversations, Robert Redford pounds his political left-wing message into the viewers as if screaming hellfire at an apathetic congregation.

While films are a wonderful medium for changing the hearts and minds of people, if your film is less cemented in the concrete experience of life than in high-minded debates about politics, then it ceases to be a movie.

Flannery O’Connor once said, regarding writers who only write to preach their religious view, “Judgment will be separated from vision, nature from grace, and reason from imagination.”

Substituting a religious perspective for religiously preaching a political one, Redford should realize his own folly in making a movie that does not impact its audience anymore than a political essay.

At one point, Todd asks what he can do to make a difference in the world, asking how licking envelopes is a way of putting himself on the line. Malley responds, “[It’s] infinitely more than just talking.”

However, Redford can’t seem to learn from his own advice. He preaches about lions led by lambs, and though his film may have a good heart with the passion of a lion, it only has the monotony and ignorance of a lamb.