BEIJING, Oct. 26 -- Robert Redford and Tom Cruise get
serious in their new film Lions for Lambs, Hollywood's latest take on U.S.
foreign policy and the military fallout from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The film brings together what at first seem three
separate story lines, playing out simultaneously, to look at the sacrifice of
U.S. soldiers, the relationship between politics and the media, and the need for
young Americans to take a stand.
The first strand has an up-and-coming Republican
senator, played by Cruise, trying to sell an "exclusive" over Washington's new
strategy in the war in Afghanistan to a television journalist, interpreted by
Meryl Streep.
Meanwhile in California, Redford is a university
professor confronting a gifted but lazy student to shake him out of political
apathy.
Thousands of miles away, in Afghanistan, two U.S.
soldiers who used to be Redford's students are part of a small advance group
sent out into the mountains to fight the Taliban.
Presenting his film in Rome on Tuesday, Redford, who
returned to the director's seat after a seven-year break, was candid about his
views but said "Lions for Lambs" did not attempt to give answers and only raised
questions.
With the only real action happening on the Afghan
battlefield, the film's biggest challenge is its lengthy dialogues.
Early reviews praised Cruise and Streep as the
politician mixing personal ambition with a real belief in America's role as a
force for good, and the veteran journalist who feels she is being spoon-fed
military propaganda.
Cruise, who showed up more than an hour early on the
red carpet later Tuesday to sign autographs, is also an executive producer of
the film after taking over Universal Artists.
Redford famously played alongside Dustin Hoffman as one of the two journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal.
(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)
