No doubt there are truer examples of films that might be called Socratic in their methods than Robert Redford’s “Lions for Lambs,” starring Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise and Redford.
Yet, as written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, “Lions for Lambs” seems to fit that description well. It unfolds as a series of philosophical dialogues wrestling with ideals and ideology.
The catalyst for the film is a clandestine military operation launched in Afghanistan.
Army Lt. Col. Falco (Peter Berg) stands before a roomful of soldiers soon to head out in the night above jagged terrain. (Berg directed Carnahan’s “The Kingdom.”) Dodgy recon leads to disaster. Two soldiers end up wounded atop a ridge. The surveillance images Falco watches show Afghan fighters closing in.
The movie spends equal time in a professor’s office in California and a senator’s office in Washington, D.C. The meetings on the coasts and the action in the far reaches of Afghanistan take place in the span of less than an hour.
At 88 minutes, the movie is just as compact.
Redford is college professor Stephen Malley. Cruise and Streep square off as Sen. Jasper Irving, a White House hopeful, and TV journalist Janine Roth.
Arian Finch (Derek Luke) and Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Peña) are the lions of the title, which comes from a World War I German commander’s quote about the bravery of English soldiers: “Never have I seen such lions led by such lambs.”
Lying feet apart, the two soldiers push each other to live. Will the cavalry arrive? Or are they a battlefield duo waiting for a Godot?
Malley calls an early morning meeting with Todd (Andrew Garfield), an underperforming student he is bent on challenging.
The last “kids who cared,” Malley says were two guys on athletic scholarships. Their names: Ernest and Arian.
Because Roth once called Irving the great hope of his party, the ambitious senator has decided to feed the reporter an exclusive about the military offensive in Afghanistan.
She’s intrigued but suspicious. He’s deft at playing her ambivalence and ambition. “We both put our fighting men at risk,” he chastises her.
There’s something honorable, even elegant, in having characters with profoundly different social influence grapple with an shared war.
The questions posed – about the role of education, of the media, of politicians in sending soldiers to battle – are authentic.
But the characters engaging them stateside seem less than flesh, bone and personal history. At times, Streep’s depiction proves the exception.
Forced by Irving’s hubris, she must act as a rapt audience to his political performance. And Streep, behind big glasses, pulls off the gamesmanship required of her potential scoop.
Redford delivers a relaxed performance. It’s hardly a stretch for him to take on the didactic tones of a concerned elder. And newcomer Garfield slouches in his chair and eyes his would-be mentor in a style peculiar to American collegiate privilege.
One problem is that Cruise never achieves that uncomfortable moment when, even if you dislike Irving, you believe that he believes his point of view. Instead, the senator’s machinations and Cruise’s performance feel shot through with the character’s passion for power and the star’s incandescent ache to be affecting.
Last month, Redford told an audience at the London Film Festival that “maybe, at least in my country (the movie) might be seen as a call for action.”
That doesn’t seem likely.
“Lions for Lambs” is a civics lesson, necessary to be sure, but leaving us drained of resolve, wading in the morass it hoped to pull us out of.
Luke and Peña are personable, and their characters’ plight provides the film’s truest heartbeat. And in the film’s richest scene, these heroes are given the kind of guns-a-blazin’ moment immortalized by outlaws Butch and Sundance.
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com; also, blogs.denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
“Lions for Lambs” R for some war violence and language. 1 hour, 28 minutes. Directed by Robert Redford. Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan. Photography by Philippe Rousselot. Starring Meryl Streep, Redford, Tom Cruise, Michael Peña, Derek Luke, Andrew Garfield. Opens today at area theaters.
