Robert Redford and Tom Cruise get serious in their new film
Lions for Lambs, Hollywood's latest take on US foreign
policy and the military fallout from the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks.
The film brings together what at first seem three separate story
lines, playing out simultaneously, to look at the sacrifice of US
soldiers, the relationship between politics and the media, and the
need for young Americans to take a stand.
The first strand has an up-and-coming Republican senator, played
by Cruise, trying to sell an "exclusive" over Washington's new
strategy in the war in Afghanistan to a television journalist,
interpreted by Meryl Streep.
Meanwhile in California, Redford is a university professor
confronting a gifted but lazy student to shake him out of political
apathy.
Thousands of miles away, in Afghanistan, two US soldiers who
used to be Redford's students are part of a small advance group
sent out into the mountains to fight the Taliban.
Presenting his film in Rome on Tuesday, Redford, who returned to
the director's seat after a seven-year break, was candid about his
views but said Lions for Lambs did not attempt to give
answers and only raised questions.
With the only real action happening on the Afghan battlefield,
the film's biggest challenge is its lengthy dialogues.
Early reviews praised Cruise and Streep as the politician mixing
personal ambition with a real belief in America's role as a force
for good, and the veteran journalist who feels she is being
spoon-fed military propaganda.
Cruise, who showed up more than an hour early on the red carpet
later Tuesday to sign autographs, is also an executive producer of
the film after taking over Universal Artists.
Redford famously played alongside Dustin Hoffman as one of the
two journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal.
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(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies October 26, 2007)
