Redford unveils anti-war movie at Rome Film Fest
Gina Doggett

ROME—Veteran US director Robert Redford on Tuesday unveiled his anti-war polemic “Lions for Lambs” at the Rome Film Fest, counterpointing war, politics and the media in three dovetailing stories.
The film starring Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and himself, is “about the effects and the consequences of the last several years in my country” since the September 11 attacks, Redford told a news conference.
“We see the truth finally as to why we went to war, where we went to war and the costs,” he added. The film is being shown at the festival out of competition.
Cruise plays a senator with presidential aspirations who offers a scoop about a deadly military operation to a broadcast journalist (Streep) who bristles at his attempt to further his agenda through her.
Redford is an idealist college professor who tries to galvanise his students to develop a social conscience.
These two plot lines alternate with scenes from the snowy Afghan battlefield with two of the professor’s former students who enlisted in the US army, as well as shots of their commanders viewing satellite images of the fighting.
Cruise praised Redford’s ability to “construct and develop important ideas in a way that’s compelling, entertaining and intelligent.”
Redford, describing himself as a “pessimistic optimist,” said: “This film doesn’t attempt to offer answers, it just poses questions.”
The 71-year-old Redford revealed that when he was growing up he “couldn’t care less about politics” but that when he studied art in Florence, Italy, and travelled around Europe, people asked him, “How can you not care?”
“It was devastating, embarrassing,” Redford said.
“Lions for Lambs” — a reference to a German officer’s comment during World War I about the bravery of British soldiers compared with their commanders — was shown on university campuses in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia.