Forgive if this was blogged when the movie was released in theaters. It came out on DVD this week.
I just finished watching "Lions for Lambs," and I'm feeling one part swindled and two parts dumbstruck.
I love Robert Redford. I'm twenty-four and watch "The Way We Were" at least twice a month. I'm inclined to think everyone loves Redford, which is why I'm disappointed in his limited, gratuitous speech-filled plot here.
The first of two major conversations in "Lions for Lambs" is between an aging poli-sci professor/ Vietnam vet, and a politically apathetic student. The major riffs of their respective messages, you would find in even the most casual elbow rubbing between left-wing bloggers on a daily basis-- for the last seven or so years.
Ditto the conversation between a big-paper journalist and the Republican senator who is asking her to buy his "win the war" plan for Afghanistan, and peddle it to the masses.
Really, Redford? The media handed Bush the press-reigns for his war? No way! We should support our troops if we don't support the war? Check. Is there anything else you'd like to bring to the table?
I also couldn't shake the feeling that there were viewers who might learn something new from this film, and I didn't know whether that would be a good or bad thing. If some of it might be relevatory would "Lions for Lambs" end their search for answers? It certainly was not the slightest obstacle to mine.
Addionally, and sadly, "Lions for Lambs" portrays two soldiers stranded in Afghanistan as the only real action going on in the small world of this film. Redford's talk of "licking envelopes" is as much a look as we get into politics outside the closed office doors of the professor and of the senator.
Manohla Dargis says it to my liking: "It tells us everything most of us know already, including the fact that politicians lie, journalists fail and youth flounders. Mostly it tells us that Mr. Redford feels really bad about the state of things. Welcome to the club."
Anyone else see it for the first time this week and/or give a shit?