"They bank on your apathy"

Lions for Lambs

This weekend I watched an inspiring film called Lions for Lambs. I love coming across films that are intellectually stimulating and/or give you the urge to stand up and do something. Some other films that did that for me were Battle at Seattle, a film about the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, and before that Crash.


Lions for Lambs is a political film that centers on the typical American citizen’s general apathy toward all the shitty stuff that’s going on in the US and the world today. The film is shot in real time and there are two intertwined story lines. A Republican Senator, played by Tom Cruise, gives an exclusive interview to a journalist (Meryl Streep) about a new war strategy in Afghanistan to help beat the “war on terror.” The risky new strategy is a ploy to use young soldiers as bait and put them on the line to draw in the enemy for a surprise attack. The second story line is about a political science university professor who is trying to engage his students to stand up against the injustices of our nation—ie our “corrupt” public officials in Washington. (He said it- not me!!) The story lines intersect in a brilliant way and I encourage you to rent this film. It is truly inspiring and it makes you question the foreign policies and practices of the people in Washington. The film takes a look at many different actors as part of the blame for what is going on in America and how to fix it. The problem starts with the decisions of public officials, but trickles down to the media as well apathetic college students.

I love these types of films. They are not Blockbuster hits, but they are inspirational. The film boasts superb actors as well—Robert Redford (also the director), Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Derek Luke (from Antoine Fisher) and Michael Pena (the Hispanic guy in Crash).



I don’t want to give the entire film away but take a look at the theatrical trailer below.

Theatrical Trailer


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t. childz©