By the time the credits rolled on Lions for Lambs, I sat there in the darkened theater as my fellow patrons made for the exits wondering if that's all there is. It felt incomplete and I was not engaged. I like going to the movies... no, I love going to the movies. That said, I do not go to the movies for a lecture. I made that mistake once with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth (the information was good, but it was not a good "movie" and certainly not worthy of its Oscar win).
When I go to the movies I want to get caught up in the characters, their journey, their story, as well as the technique and visual flair used in telling the story. It's too bad I did not get that level of involvement with this. Lions for Lambs is 90 minutes of talking with little in the way of action or character development. The characters are there to fill the needs of the script rather than inhabiting this world, a conveyance for the thoughts of the writers rather than containing any semblance of organic growth. Still, it is not a complete loss; it is watchable although it is rather mediocre and incomplete.
Lions for Lambs is the latest of the recent spate of Iraq war-themed films unleashed by Hollywood upon an unsuspecting movie-going audience. No matter where you turn it seems as if a new one has arrived to add to your cinematic choices. It could also become the latest to be deemed a box office disappointment. By and large audiences are voting with their wallets and are giving these war movies a lukewarm reception. We live this war every day, be it in the papers, the evening news, or all the reports on the 24-hour news nets. Do we really need it on the big screen as well?
Something tells me that these films would be better received if they were disguised as something else, perhaps some science fiction or something more modern but a bit more obtuse. It's hard to ask people to pay to see a cinematic lecture on current world events when they may want to escape reality for a bit into an engrossing film. Then there are people like me who will see just about anything and blow this concept right out of the water.
Article comments
1 - Taffe
Patrons are voting with their feet, and opting not to attend and support movies like this . Hollywood needs a reality check. Movie goers don’t want this type of entertainment.
2 - bliffle
The reviews I've read have all said that it's too preachy. Too didactic. I surmised that it's a leftist movie converse of an Ayn Rand novel.
Sounds boring.
3 - Cha Cha
This movie was very excellent movie. It's a very sad thing when american rather not here about the truth or watch what's happening to us as a country. I believe EVERY AMERICAN needs to see this movie.
4 - Triniman
I found it preachy with too much dialogue. Still, it may be the first film that points the finger also at the media for enthusiastically selling the war to the public.
Hollywood churns out endless crappy films that few people want to see. Despite "voting with their feet," these films continue to be made. Hollywood has never gotten the message because just enough people see these rotten films.