Starring Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise

Directed by Robert Redford

Three sets of people wring their hands about the future. A brash Republican senator is selling his war-stopping plans to a seasoned journalist; across town, a leftie lecturer tries to guide a cynical student by citing two men who enlisted to make a change: although they’re lost in Afghanistan and waist deep in trouble, they’re doing the hard work while others sit and bitch.

If this sounds like a typical Sunday morning across the Western world, it should. Lions For Lambs takes its title from a German poet who likened slaughtered English soldiers as lions compared to their lamb-like leaders. Redford draws comparisons between foot soldiers and a duped public, and today’s Middle Eastern mire. His point is about action; that Rome is burning and everyone must stand for their beliefs. “Envelope stuffing is action,” he says and for better or worse, even the senator is stepping up to the line.

Though largely a political yak-fest, Lions For Lambs is a surprisingly tense, sometimes thrilling reflection on combat. Redford, Streep and Cruise deliver bold performances; the film’s newcomers are no less engaging. It’s an impassioned movie that stands in poignant defiance to the wet-dream ravings of The Kingdom; a timely body blow to apathetic hand-wringers everywhere.

4/5