"Lions for Lambs"

Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Michael Pena, Andrew Garfield, Derek Luke. Directed by Redford. Who’s to blame for our poorly planned, poorly executed military operations in the Middle East? Well, according to this film, we can blame hawkish politicians (of course), a media that regurgitated what they were told by the hawkish politicians, and an academia that has failed to create awareness among the emerging generation of adults. And because of all this ineptness we continue to sacrifice our best and our brightest on the mountaintops of Afghanistan (although here it looks like they were sacrificed in a darkened Hollywood sound studio). This topic might have been daring had it been told two, three years ago. Today it comes across as polemic viewed through Vietnam-tinted glasses. This is a movie that doesn’t say anything we haven’t already heard many times, and says it as boringly as can be imagined. Grade: D