Robert Redford patronizes America

Rating: C+

Lions for Lambs is Robert Redford’s latest cinematic creation. It is all about the problems concerning the war in Iraq and tries to simplify the complexities by making it an argument on three fronts:
The first level in this film is centered on an interview of an influential senator (portrayed by Cruise), during which a prominent reporter (Meryl Streep) attempts to separate the truth about a new strategy from all the political BS. The second subplot is that of two army rangers in Afghanistan who are embarking on the aforementioned mission to finally “step on the terrorists’ throats” and thus finally win the war on the Taliban. Redford’s character occupies the final narrative thread, where he is a professor trying to teach his most promising student the need for political activism in today’s youth.

The problem is, the discourse is so superficial that it practically insults the viewers’ intelligence. The mistakes made by the current administration, as well as the media’s wholehearted embrace of the post-9/11 frenzy has already been widely discussed – anyone who has seen an episode or two of The Daily Show, will have known this for years. It’s simply old news – we know Bush was wrong, people want out of Iraq. This discussion was basically over even before Petraeus’ report before congress in September (just look at national polls).

The two soldiers’ subplot was probably added to remind the audience that Redford isn’t attacking the troops – he’s attacking those in charge. This can more seen most clearly when he quotes a German general’s line “Never have I seen such lions led by such lambs”. This subplot merely distracts from the main discourse.

The supposedly bright young students in Redford’s class, don’t seem all that bright. In fact the rhetoric seems juvenile and thus won’t strike a chord with anyone who is not two weeks into their freshmen year in college. In fact, this is the film’s major flaw – it tries to teach us all the lessons we already know by using logic is too simplistic to convince us had we not known them in the first place. Preaching to the converted is one thing, but this film even manages to offend those of us who would agree with Redford’s basic arguments in the first place. We are not school children, so please give us a more nuanced view of what’s going on in the Middle East (by the way, not a single frame of film was used to show what the local population of Afghanistan was going through). In the mean time, remake this movie into a cartoon and ship it off to grade school, where it’ll reach the hearts and minds of its intended audience.

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