Lions for Lambs
A politician and a journalist face off over the war in Iraq.
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Lions for Lambs
Directed by Robert Redford (R)
A politician and a journalist face off over the war in Iraq.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
**
Most political films offer a heaping spoonful of sugar to help the important issues go down, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Lions for Lambs is “all medicine, and doesn’t try to hide the fact,” bravely presenting director Robert Redford’s political concerns without even a drop of Hollywood’s usual plot sweeteners. Redford’s first directorial effort in seven years intertwines three pairs of characters: a liberal journalist (Meryl Streep) and a Republican senator (Tom Cruise); a California professor (Redford) and his apathetic student; and two ex-students of the professor who are serving as soldiers in Afghanistan. Together, they broach nearly every topic on the national agenda, particularly “the arrogance of war-on-terror politicians” and “the superficiality of the press.” But Redford’s talking heads never know when to stop, and they argue each issue to death, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. His movie tries hard to stand for something, but it ends up as a “feature-film version of the FCC’s Fairness Doctrine.” Most of the lectures are “too dull and self-satisfied” to engage us on anything more than an intellectual level, said Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. Without Streep and Cruise, “looking like an old lion and a young jackal circling each other warily in the jungle,” Lions for Lambs would be as entertaining as a policy debate.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Today's political cartoons — October 1, 2023
Sunday's cartoons - retail theft, Bob Medendez's bribery charge, and more
By The Week Staff Published
-
10 things you need to know today: October 1, 2023
Daily Briefing Government shutdown avoided as Congress passes temporary funding bill, Supreme Court to begin new term as major cases await, and more
By Justin Klawans Published
-
6 thrilling reads chosen by Ken Follett
Feature The historical novelist suggests works by Frank Herbert, Charles Dickens and more
By The Week Staff Published