Robert Redford's new movie "Lions for Lambs" began garnering buzz months ago with its glitzy cast - Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise and Redford himself - and hot-button focus. But behind the pretty faces and reports of bunker-building, Redford takes a hard look at the public's views on and participation in the war process.
"Lions for Lambs" concerns the interlocking stories of a U.S. senator and the reporter interviewing him, two soldiers stranded in Afghanistan and a professor encouraging an intelligent student to be more active.
Michael Pena plays one of two American students who, inspired by their professor (played by Robert Redford), join the war effort in Afghanistan while Andrew Garfield takes on the role of Todd Hayes, a college student who has an apathetic view of the war.
Redford, Malley and Garfield spoke to the Daily in a college press conference call about their participation in the movie as well as their thoughts on public opinion of the film and the war in general.
Question: Michael, you play men in uniform quite a lot. Is this intentional?
Michael Pena: No, it's kind of a Hollywood thing. Before this, in my earlier career, I was always playing gang bangers, which is kind of a safe zone, then I played a bunch of college kids - on "Felicity" I was always hitting on [Felicity]. Now, all my favorite directors are doing war movies, and I tend to gravitate more toward the directors. I'm sure it's going to be over in a year or so.
Q: Why do you think we're seeing so many Iraq war movies?
MP: I think it's time now. The American public is ready to see it; we've been in it for a while.
Andrew Garfield: I don't know why; they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Do you have any theories?
Q: Uh ... public opinion?
AG: Yeah, but we're still there. Maybe we're more ready for it. But you go on IMDb.com, and it's all people calling ["Lions for Lambs"] "that communist Robert Redford movie."
MP: I've seen these big debates on it. Mostly they start talking about Tom [Cruise].
Q: What do you think Redford was aiming to say about war with this movie?
MP: Smartly enough, he focused on the intentions of the characters and stayed away from political agenda.
Robert Redford: You learn over time: Don't expect that a film is going to change anything. You have to make it entertaining. If you want to inform while entertaining, you have to be very careful with the balance, because if you go too far to one side or the other, you don't have the kind of film that I like to make, which is the sort of film that doesn't give you the answers, it just raises the questions. I think it's a very tricky thing to do.
Q: It seems that, with the Iraq war, so many reporters were seduced by the "access" granted by the politicians. Is Streep's character meant to represent this?
RR: Well, there are some ethics to her. [Her character] wrote an article about [Tom Cruise's senator character] when he was on the rise, but what she finds out through her interview with him is, "Oh my God, I have culpability here."
Q: Andrew, are you getting perspective on the debate here in America?
AG: We [British people] see it pretty black-and-white. I know it's wrong, but so many of my friends say, "God, America's f-ked," or "God, George Bush is f-ked." I was born in Los Angeles, so I've always been protective of America.
Q: At Harvard's screening, there was some contentiousness among people during the Q&A.
AG: Maybe a lot of those guys didn't need to see this movie and thought they were being talked down to. That's fine, that's totally fair. But hopefully those people will appreciate that some people do need to see this movie.
MP: I think there's kind of a barrier to learning. If you think you know everything, you're not going to learn anything. Sometimes, that can get in the way. We're presenting something to entertain first and foremost, but also so that people will ask their own questions and we can learn together.
RR: I wanted to put it to the audience: How would you feel if you were [Andrew Garfield's character]?
Q: Robert, how did you end up acting in this movie?
RR: I hadn't ever played a professor. I thought it would be interesting. There was some irony there; I got kicked out of school. I was a bad student. Partying and sports and mountains ... My mind was always out the window at school.
I sensed that my education was going to come from adventuring in the world, which it did. When I went to Europe when I was 18, that was such an education; that's when my mind opened up. I started to see my country from a different point of view. I had had no interest in politics until I got asked questions about my country that I couldn't answer. I began to read the New York Herald-Tribune. That turned me.
AG: When I first read the script, I saw this character, and I saw myself in him. I saw a lot of the reason why we're in this f-ked-up place in him. I started really thinking about the issues and what we're shown [by the media] and what we're not shown and the war, and I started thinking, "Yeah, that's me. I've suppressed my need to change things and stand up for what I believe."
I saw a lack of hope in myself. It was as if someone had opened a door to my brain and shone a light on something. Watching my character, I was like, "My God. What a cock."
MP: I used to be that guy. I was apathetic, I dropped out of high school - I just didn't care to finish.
I was always asking, "How am I going to apply this in life?" Which is more of an answer than a question. It was up to me to decide how I was going to apply this in life.
I had one teacher who opened my eyes, and I felt like I had woken up. At first, I was acting for the money, but now I really like being in good movies because I know the effect it has on people from all walks of life. That's my purpose, and I'm just trying to keep that going.
Q: What relevance do you see this movie having for future generations?
RR: In the last six years, a lot of mistakes were made because of people not paying attention. Young people in particular, but also the media and journalists, maybe. There were a lot of people not paying enough attention to say, "Wait a minute."
After 9/11, we were told to go shopping so we wouldn't question. I'd hope this film would remind people of what the factors are that get us into these situations. There's a repeated pattern of behavior for this: Iran-Contra, Watergate, McCarthy ... The film asks us to stop and look hard at this.
