Lions for Lambs is a 2007 film directed by Robert Redford and starring himself, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, who had little success in theatres. In part because of its structure based almost entirely on dialogue, partly because of the low interest that have aroused movie with at the heart the theme of the war on terrorism, as happened to the equally beautiful In the Valley of Elah.
But Lions for Lambs explains and tells what happened in America and the world in recent years with exceptional lucidity. The character of Robert Redford is a university professor in a long meeting seeks to awaken the interest of a disheartened student, who decided to ignore all the problems of society to devote himself solely to entertainment. Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise are a famous journalist and a young rising Republican politician, who meet for a long interview when the politician decides to announce a new operation to win the war in Afghanistan. And then there are two former students of the teacher, a black and a latino, who have enrolled for idealism and end up involved in the same tragic Afghan offensive.
The topics covered by the film are many and all very current: the way politics manipulates journalism and how journalism can be manipulated. The disengagement of young people who do not find a way to change society and so just give up. And then there are the lions of the title, that is, in this case, the two idealistic soldiers sent to death by a propaganda operation, a reminder of the historical phrase "I have never seen such lions led by such lambs", said by a German official during the First World War, after he saw the British soldiers sent to die in thousands against machine guns by their arrogant and inept commanders.
And the sense of the film is really a very tough debate on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wanted by the Bush administration, planned and organized badly by politics on the skin of the soldiers, without any long-term strategy that would ensure the emerging of truly stable democracies in the two countries.
The topics covered by the film are many and all very current: the way politics manipulates journalism and how journalism can be manipulated. The disengagement of young people who do not find a way to change society and so just give up. And then there are the lions of the title, that is, in this case, the two idealistic soldiers sent to death by a propaganda operation, a reminder of the historical phrase "I have never seen such lions led by such lambs", said by a German official during the First World War, after he saw the British soldiers sent to die in thousands against machine guns by their arrogant and inept commanders.
And the sense of the film is really a very tough debate on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wanted by the Bush administration, planned and organized badly by politics on the skin of the soldiers, without any long-term strategy that would ensure the emerging of truly stable democracies in the two countries.
The young politician played by Tom Cruise is a disturbing example of how the propaganda based on patriotism could justify anything, even the crazy plan to extend the war to Iran by any means available, ie the atomic bombs. In the end, the journalist is aware of how the passive acceptance of the principle of national unity against terrorism has allowed an inept and criminal political elite to lead the country in two wars with no outlet, where the news at home systematically disappear among gossip and entertainment. And in the end, the young student see all this on television and maybe becomes aware that the coscience that society and politics have become insane and cynical is not a good excuse to do nothing.
Francesco Defferrari
Francesco Defferrari
The speech of the professor to the student
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