Product Details

• Actors: Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Michael Peńa, Andrew Garfield
• Directors: Robert Redford
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Surround), French (Dolby Surround), Spanish (Dolby Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: United Artists
• DVD Release Date: April 8, 2008
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (126 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0013FCWUW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,299 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Lions For Lambs (Widescreen Edition)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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 fall of 2007, it already felt like old news. --Robert Horton

Product Description

Robert Redford, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep deliver "three knockout performances" (Vue Weekly) in this powerful story about how the decision makers at the top affect American soldiers on the ground half a world away.

An idealistic professor (Redford), a charismatic U.S. Senator (Cruise) and a probing TV journalist (Streep) have opposing viewpoints about the actions of our nation and the attitudes of its citizens. But the human consequences of war become chillingly clear for two of the professor's former students, who find themselves trapped behind enemy lines, fighting for freedom... and their very lives.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

226 of 238 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars It takes time for the punch to be felt... April 9, 2008

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

LIONS FOR LAMBS as a movie has the courage to do just what the message of the film attempts to do: encourage the American public to stop being so apathetic about our position in the global community. The dramatization of three points of view about the Middle East conflicts (it not only takes on the Iraq debacle, but adds the Afghanistan and Iran problems as well) could, in lesser hands than Robert Redford's direction of Matthew Michael Carnahan's script, be a preachy bore. But while the 'action' of the film may not grab the viewer, the afterburn of the message will haunt the thinking person.

Three scenarios interweave (at times a bit bumpy in the editing, and at times a bit distracting): adamantly pro-war Republican Senator Irving (Tom Cruise) is interviewed by veteran 'thinking' journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) and each defends/attacks the current strategy of the war in Iraq (Irving is taking calls about the latest 'expansion' into Afghanistan); Professor Malley (Robert Redford) tries to resurrect a sense of involvement in a student Todd Hayes (Andrew Garfield) once bright but now sinking into the apathy of living the good life; ex-students of Professor Malley - Arian Finch (Derek Luke) and Ernesto Rodriguez (Michael Peña) - have committed to the idea of acting for change and have ended up being dropped in Afghanistan in the very 'new' war Senator Irving is addressing. By stirring these three approaches to the manner in which the public is currently addressing the war in Iraq in a concurrent conversation, the film involves the viewer in the crossfire of apathy and misinformation that come from failed education, faulty governmental intervention and the media sellout to get ratings.... It is not a pretty picture, but then our current state of affairs is not one of which we can be proud.

There are no answers here, just harsh realities and questions as to why we can remain so passive as a nation involved in the lowest state of global respect ever known. The film has flaws, but if the viewer can digest the information illustrated by some very fine acting, perhaps there may be a chance for a wake-up call. Watch it for the message, not expecting a thriller or an action movie. The mind is what is engaged here. Grady Harp, April 08 Read more ›

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars For those who dare to be challenged May 31, 2009

By D. Diggs

Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's unfortunate that many don't demand much of movie-making and even less of themselves. I for one demand a great deal from both.

This movie was complex in the sense that it didn't provide a neatly summarized and easily digestible answer to what is a very complicated question, mortality (i.e., how to get the best value out of ones life).

By interweaving the different plots it conveyed a contrast that couldn't have been accomplished otherwise.

But most importantly, this movie was about choices. Whether your a journalist who realizes you are doing a disservice to your profession by going along to get along, or whether your a student that finds comfort in being cynical as opposed to buckling down to change things for the better or perhaps if you choose to put your safety in harms way for the greater good, these are all choices that may not fit easily in one's comfort zone. Tough choices indeed, and as such should not be expected to be dealt with cavalierly.

This movie made its point abundantly clear. Which is to say, we all have a part to play in making the world a better place. We just need to determine which is the best way for us to do our respective part.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Think about why and how our leaders make decisions January 27, 2009

By Robert J. Doyle

Format:DVD

Yes this movie requires the viewer to pay attention. Yes it will make you think about your past experiences with college, the government and the media. I bought the DVD to give to my two grandsons who are in college and facing the reality of being an adult in today's world. But first I will give it to my sons, who, like me, faithfully served in the military and found our country's leaders and media lacking. This movie brilliantly shows the real world interplay of social and political forces that shape and alter our lives.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "SO SAYS THE MAN IN THE AIRCONDITIONED ROOM" November 25, 2007

By Shashank Tripathi VINE™ VOICE

Format:Theatrical Release

If you are among the restive viewers who have been ignoring War on Terror films in droves, or if the patter of perspectives usually found in stage plays is not your bag, then let me say first up that Lions for Lambs is not for you. A conventional "plot" is conspicuous by its absence, about 80% of the film is polarized chitchat, and it throws more questions into the fray than pat answers. Caveat emptor.

If, on the other hand, the idea of witty back-and-forth on issues very germane in this day and age does not make you want to run back to Seinfeld reruns, here's a taut script packed to the gunnel with some gloriously insouciant dialogue.

We follow three separate strands of it. Tom Cruise plays a presidential hopeful (but, in customary irony, he emphatically denies ever wanting to be one) who has engineered a secret new war strategy to tame the new kind of enemy that lurks overseas. The dubiously labeled "forward operating points", we learn. He announces this ever so speciously to a veteran reporter, played by Meryl Streep. Two soldiers, played superbly by Michael Peña and Derek Luke, implement those new orders and land in serious peril. That's the second thread with actual combat action. In parallel, Redford completes the trifecta as a political science professor in "a California university", down but not out by the apathy of students, trying to galvanize one of them who is drifting from studies.

All talk and no play could make Jack a dull boy. But Redford's assured direction has the clip and the pizazz to make the static seem kinetic. Streep and Cruise electrify simple banter about popularity polls and botched invasions that feel like they took place last month. There's a liberal dollop (pun intended) of wit and erudition to her talk.... As though spurred by her refined touch, Tom Cruise is on a "Magnolia"-caliber roll, bringing a creepy charisma to a senator clearly in love with the heft of his role.

Surprising, too, is how equal the newcomer Andrew Garfield is to the task of countering Redford as the wayward student whose surfer dude mannerisms conceal a keen mind. On occasion, this professor-pupil talk makes for the worst kind of dialectic--a dry and cliched public service announcement more than clever drama. But thankfully just when we are about to check our watches, we are rescued by provocative interludes of US soldiers stranded in the inclement peaks of Afghanistan. Al Qaeda's militants are depicted as shadowy creatures, literally, which is a touch disingenuous but it's not hard to overlook. The two former students who joined the US army bring enough chemistry to their roles to add an emotional edge.

But to me, therein lies the biggest ham in the script: the portrayal of these hard-working scholarship boys who trundle off into war zones because they want to do "good". There's been a tendency in recent years to aggrandize the common soldier which, while properly laying the blame on the political management, risks offering an unrealistic look at the experience of war. Remember Jarhead? Ultimately, these are scared kids lost in a foreign country, a reminder of the human life put at risk by high ideals and political sloganeering. Ahem, Mr. Redford.

As a critique of modern politics, however, it plays an even hand. Cruise's senator's assertions hark back to the now-(in)famous Tony Blair speech that gave a short shrift to evidence, vaguely acknowledges past mistakes while repeating them, and displays bafflement for the adversaries who refuse to play by his rules. But Streep's reporter isn't fully devoid of blame either, compromised by the media's early cheer-leading for the Iraq War and her inability to effectively question the party line.

It's rare to see a high-profile movie out of mainstream Hollywood that goes so far out of its way to include everyone, not just the like-minded. It may smack of armchair moralizing, but boring it is not. And unlike some other recent films such as Rendition, which I nonetheless enjoyed, it isn't preachy either. Instead, to coin a phrase, it's urgeful: whatever you believe, please do something about it.

A timely message wrapped in delightful theater. Read more ›