Official Synopsis:
Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise deliver "three knockout performances" (Vue Weekly) in this powerful, provocative thriller that explores the consequences of taking a stand. An idealistic professor (Redford) in California attempts to inspire a student to do more with his life, while a charismatic Senator (Cruise) in Washington, D.C. pitches a new Middle East war strategy to a probing TV journalist (Streep). And halfway across the world, two of the professor's former students are trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, fighting for freedom - and their very lives. As the tension mounts and the bullets fly, these Americans will change each other's live and the world in ways they never could have imagined.
  
Our Take:
Matthew Michael Carnahan. That is a new but important name in screenwriting (for both Lions For Lambs and The Kingdom). His brother, Joe Carnahan, is a bit more well-known right now for two of his directorial efforts, which are the near perfect Narc and the insanely fun Smokin’ Aces. While I love Joe’s work, it’s his brother two screenplays that have staying power and importance written all over them.

Both of the films that Matthew has written cover the subject matter of the current war we’re in, but what else they have in common is how they’re written; both films are dialogue driven (Lambs more so than Kingdom). There is a lot of talk going on here and every bit of it is important. In fact, I believe this to be the only downfall for some viewers as I understand that people don’t want to see a couple of people sit down in a room and talk for an hour and a half. But hey, that’s no loss on my behalf as I don’t mind that kind of set-up.

There are three sets of stories at play in Lions for Lambs. All of them take place in different parts of the world but all of them have a connection in some past or present way. We have the senator and the journalist discussing the latest military operation at play; the military operation itself and how it’s playing out; and then a teacher and his “lost” student as they talk about a person’s potential and the teacher’s past two greatest students. All three stories take place at the same time but not everyone knows what’s happening in any of the other stories.

Lions For Lambs is written more like a play than a film. The upside to that is with a good director attached you can get something that a play can’t give you and Robert Redford easily manages to give us that something special. Redford also compiles a cast that gives us performances that I doubt we would ever see on stage. There’s Redford himself, Meryl Streep, Michael Pena, Deke Luke, Peter Berg (who directed Matthews’ other script, The Kingdom) and Tom Cruise. That last name will, sadly, scare some people away. It did during its theatrical run and it likely will for its DVD release.

Cruise is more than a competent actor. In fact, he’s a great actor; I don’t care how crazy he is in real life. As long as he keeps professional in his film work, why should it change our opinions as viewers about his screen presence? Watching Lions For Lambs and Cruise’s performance I’m reminded of A Few Good Men, which was a play first and is also a dialogue driven movie with just a few characters and a few rooms. Cruise was great then and he ‘s great now. The man knows how to deliver dialogue (and these are just two examples of this; Magnolia anyone?).

There may not be a long list of special features on the DVD but they are all packed to the fullest:

* Commentary by Director Robert Redford.

* The Making Of Lions For Lambs (21 minutes) – Interviews with everyone you’d, want especially Carnahan.

* Script To Screen (Not sure how long this is because the check-disc I received wouldn’t let me finish the featurette) – Really just the powers at play here discussing the screenplay and our current state of affairs.

* UA Legacy (7 minutes) – A history of United Artists. Interesting, but more or less a throwaway extra.

So, I’ll say it again: Matthew Michael Carnahan. He is more than a great writer and somehow his first two films (which came out in the same year) went vastly overlooked by all the major award ceremonies. But don’t let that, or Tom Cruise, or your beliefs on the war, steer you away from watching Lions For Lambs. There are great characters here and watching them hash things out like this for an hour in a half is more than good time spent.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Overall Picture:
Movie: A
DVD: B+

- Landen Chase Pelish
Staff Writer