excerpt:
On their way to the Rome Film Festival, where the movie received its world premiere on Tuesday, before its showing the following day at the London Film Festival, Redford and his co-stars Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep stopped in New York to promote a film they all feel strongly about...
... the story takes place on three tense emotional fronts. Presidential hopeful Senator Jasper Irving (Cruise) is about to give a sensational story about a new war strategy to a probing TV journalist (Streep) as the two carry on a fierce cat-and-mouse game of wit and evasion. At a West Coast University, a once idealistic professor, Dr Malley (Redford), confronts a privileged but blasé student (Andrew Garfield). Meanwhile, in the heat of battle in Afghanistan, two of Malley's former students, Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Peña) lay bare the arguments of mentors and politicians...
....The screenwriter set out to explore the ways in which different people face demanding times. The movie features two soldiers who have risen out of poverty to serve their country; an ambitious politician pursuing his beliefs with secret military missions; an influential reporter unsure of her role in a world where journalists themselves have become part of political agendas; a wearied professor whose last great hope is to make an impact on his students; and a cocky college kid who has never taken a real stand...
...It's a film about personal responsibility, about people accepting their role in shaping the future, about how we each deal with our choices in life to try to make this a better world."
Streep was impressed by the subject's urgency. "It's a story about making the right choices, but it's also about how easy it is not to make a choice at all," she says. "The film says that it doesn't matter what you think or feel if you don't do something about it, if you don't stand up and jeopardise everything."
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Kings of the Hollywood jungle
By Emanuel Levy
Published: October 27 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 27 2007 03:00
What attracted me to Lions for Lambs ," says the film's star and director Robert Redford, "was the way the story uses the war as a catalyst for major issues, such as the role of the media, of education, of politics and youth in America. It's a provocative film that addresses big questions head-on, while compelling the audience into thinking about where we are right now, and how we got here."
On their way to the Rome Film Festival, where the movie received its world premiere on Tuesday, before its showing the following day at the London Film Festival, Redford and his co-stars Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep stopped in New York to promote a film they all feel strongly about.
Covering the events of a single day, the story takes place on three tense emotional fronts. Presidential hopeful Senator Jasper Irving (Cruise) is about to give a sensational story about a new war strategy to a probing TV journalist (Streep) as the two carry on a fierce cat-and-mouse game of wit and evasion. At a West Coast University, a once idealistic professor, Dr Malley (Redford), confronts a privileged but blasé student (Andrew Garfield). Meanwhile, in the heat of battle in Afghanistan, two of Malley's former students, Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Peña) lay bare the arguments of mentors and politicians.
One of Hollywood's most articulate thinkers, Redford emphasises that, while Lions focuses on current events, its themes dig much deeper and the film is not a war drama. Rather, he sees it as "a human drama that dares to ask the viewers to question".
"In the end," says Redford, "the questions raised by the film go to the audience: 'What would you do? How do you feel about this?' "
Redford has always been drawn to stories about the fabric of American institutions. This interest, which has marked his diverse career as a movie star, producer, director and guru of the independent movement, drew him to this script by the relatively unknown Matthew Michael Carnahan.
The screenwriter set out to explore the ways in which different people face demanding times. The movie features two soldiers who have risen out of poverty to serve their country; an ambitious politician pursuing his beliefs with secret military missions; an influential reporter unsure of her role in a world where journalists themselves have become part of political agendas; a wearied professor whose last great hope is to make an impact on his students; and a cocky college kid who has never taken a real stand.
When Carnahan, who also wrote the current action thriller The Kingdom , set in Saudi Arabia, finished his screenplay, he joked to producer Tracy Falco that perhaps he should send it to Redford. He couldn't believe it when the joke became a reality. "I talked to Bob for the first time last September and a few months later we were in production. It's amazing how much energy and enthusiasm he brought to this project."
Although Redford hadn't directed a film for seven years, the script struck a nerve. "It came out of the blue," Redford recalls, "I was surprised by it because it was political. There's so much commercial insecurity about political films these days that only the safe ones get made. Those that are risky, that force you to think, are harder to come by."
As a director, Redford has explored the turmoil within American families in the 1980 Oscar-winning Ordinary People , the temptations of TV culture in the 1994 Quiz Show , the vital connections between landscape, nature and the American soul in The Milagro Beanfiled War and The Horse Whisperer . He has also influenced American filmmaking by founding the Sundance Institute, Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Channel, which have nurtured a young generation of directors making bold and original stories, those largely untold by mainstream Hollywood.
But Lions for Lambs was not just about taking chances. Redford says he was drawn to the idea of sparking real debate and invigorating young audiences not used to seeing such big issues tackled by movies. "I hoped this film would provoke audiences to contemplate where we are in this country," says Redford. "To me, it's a story about much more than the current issues now. It's about the deeper factors that lie behind the issues and how they are experienced on a personal level by real people. It's a film about personal responsibility, about people accepting their role in shaping the future, about how we each deal with our choices in life to try to make this a better world."
Redford was further compelled by the taut storytelling and artistic challenges. "I'm not interested in political films for history's sake. There had to be a character-driven story," as there was in the 1976 All The President's Men about the Watergate scandal, which Redford produced and starred in with Dustin Hoffman. Redford's films as producer and actor have centred on populist American themes, as evident in The Candidate , a critical look at the political process. But Redford adds: "I would never want to do something that was abject propaganda. Lions shows different points of view and we have to respect all of them. I want the audience to have an open reaction to each story."
The final, irresistible pull for Redford was the fact that Cruise had already expressed interest, not only as an actor playing the slick yet impassioned senator, but also as executive, making the film with his long-time partner Paula Wagner as their first project in the new United Artists. "I don't think the film would have been made without Tom," says Redford. "The idea of Tom playing a senator was different and intriguing. Then I called Meryl Streep and said, 'I'm interested in this, how about you?' and she said, 'If you do it, I'll do it.' That's how it came together so quickly, and for a relatively modest budget."
Streep was impressed by the subject's urgency. "It's a story about making the right choices, but it's also about how easy it is not to make a choice at all," she says. "The film says that it doesn't matter what you think or feel if you don't do something about it, if you don't stand up and jeopardise everything."
For Cruise, the movie represents the kind of bold, unexpected story he and Wagner hope will form the foundation of the reinvented United Artists, the company that originally began in 1919 to give Hollywood artists, such as Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, creative control over their work.
Cruise says: "It's a very powerful script, and it's a great film to kick off the new UA, especially with Bob Redford, a true maverick who has defined so much of modern cinema with his championing of independent cinema.
"I never thought of this as a war film but as one that will promote dialogue and challenge the audience's ideas - no matter what their point of view."
'Lions for Lambs' goes on general release in the UK on November 9
[trailer at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
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