Lions for Lambs (review)

Don't forget "Shut Up and Sing" in that list. It is one of the most chilling indictments of blue-vs-red-state/post-9/11 America I have ever seen.

As for "Lions For Lambs", I'll definitely check it out!

I know what Mary Ann is saying, but will opt to rent this out on DVD, after reading all the other mostly all negative US critic reviews LFL has got, that are a little harsher on the film, but at least give some valid reasons why. I expect North American audiences will mostly stay away from the film.

The real solutions to the mess we've made over the last several years isn't going to come from political leaders, it's going to come from us.

We've got to get informed, get organized, and get active. Then elect people from the ground up who are willing to work for the betterment of our communities and for our country.

Publicly funded elections would be a good start. The tweedle dum / tweedle dee politics of the GOP and the Dems is not working to solve issues that really effect most Americans.

If we don't get to work, we'll get the country we deserve.

I'll get off my soap box now.

Bravo, MaryAnn, I knew you would get this movie right! I saw it on opening day, and had already noticed reviews that barely tolerated it, so I went in with dread. I came out fired up, and can hardly wait to recommend it to my friends and listeners. I've long felt that Cruise will play to the level of the script, and here he's really scary good. But it did look like Meryl Streep's journalist sold out again at the end. I liked the idea of doing the whole film in real time, which added a sense of urgency.

The New York Times didn't think much of LFL in it's negative review and Roger Ebert gave LFL two and a half stars in his mostly negative review (I expected that he'd have liked it). It's interesting seeing MGM give LFL a day and date release pretty much the world over, as it's unlikely to pay off in financial – box office terms (since the cost of doing so would be much higher than the film's low $US 35 mill budget), due to the high costs involved (it costs about about a $US 100 mill to do a date and date release the world over, with the cost of prints, hence the reason why the studios usually only do it for their more bigger budgeted tentpole films, not for serious dramas).

A North American box office result of $US 2.2 mill (as of Saturday) is a pretty abysmal and disappointing, but not terribly unexpected result for LFL. I'll wait for DVD, but the main thing I picked up from most of the all negative US reviews I read, is LFL doesn't say anything about America's involvement in Iraq that most filmgoers don't already know. If the actors in this project weren't so full of themselves (in regards to their attitudes to TV), this should've really been done
as a network TV movie, so as many people as possible in the US would've got to see it.

I appreciated the challenge for each of us to live more consciously, and agreed with most of the opinions in the film, but the method Redford used to get these points across was so offensive, I found the movie unwatchable. For a full description of this dangerous film (though not politically), check out my review HERE

We at www.action4justice.com (AXJ) have very much enjoyed this movie since many of us feel reflected in the students and soldiers 40 some years ago while Vietnam was going on. Our Administration lied to us then same as our Administration has lied to us now. Sadam never had Weapons of Mass Destruction and Cheney and Bush should be impeached for lying to the American People. Our Media is also responsible for selling a lie to the American people and not rectifying. They will start hurting now, as thousands of websites not only like ours, but all the grass roots meetups around Dr. Ron Paul start igniting the flame of Truth, Freedom, Justice of a great Republic that we are. One such Organization is AXJ and specifically Latinos for Dr. Ron Paul ( www.latinoronpaul.com ) which is getting the message of peace to our Latinos in the USA. Time for a change of Government. All of them. AXJ

“Lions for Lambs” is not a bold film because it points out hypocrisy, short-sightedness and a general lack of historical perspective when it comes to the current United States war policy—which it does, by the way. It is a bold film because of its stubborn adherence to shoehorning in every possible talking point about western civilization and its penchant for war, with nary a thought towards pacing, believable dialogue, a compelling plot, visual storytelling or character. And it is a dangerous film because it seems to carry on a discouraging new trend in movie-making. This brand of insulting preachiness has become more than acceptable lately. It is now, sadly, in vogue. Even though it raises legitimate points, Redford’s movie is equally offensive—not in message, but rather in method. Because of this, it just doesn’t work. We are too smart for this kind of cheap trickery. Like “Crash,” it sets up false expectations for flimsy character types whose discourse is limited to one specific topic and then dashes those expectations to the ground for its own didactic purpose.

Yes, it was indeed a "bold" film in that as a movie it presented the director's point of view regarding a political situation in the world. The truth of the matter is we FREE Americans are sick and tired of supporting the rest of the world. You lazy Europeans go back to WWII, perhaps it should have ended a different way and cost US less money. We are tired of fighting your wars and American Soldiers will not pay with one more life. You handle your problems with the middle east, we are out of there in less than 1 year. We are going to elect Dr. Ron Paul and become a great respected Republic again. Don't like it. Tough. Don't even think of coming to the USA. www.action4justice.com

Once again the British badmouthing US and our Directors. Robert Redford is one of the best actors and directors in the world. Like it or not he is doing a good job of critizing our modern world and especially the hypocresy of some...As for the Brits and Europeans, first put your houses in order. First Judge your Queen for Treason and cut a few heads off like the French had the guts to do in 1789. Who really killed Lady D? Was it the British M5, Secret Service, James Bond, or was it the French that covered it all up for you. Why isn't this supposed Trial taking place in Paris, France where Lady D and Jodi were assassinated? "Make it look like an accident"...and they did. We are cleaning up our act and on Nov. 20, 2007 we will publish the fotos of who really murdered JFK...Stay tuned and pass it on. AXJ-The only true INDEPENDENT UN BIASED MEDIA IN THE MODERN WORLD...AXJ...THREE LETTERS...AXJ

Wow. I didn't think it possible for anyone to be less coherent than LaRouche, but AXJ seems to have accomplished this feat.

FBI Raids Liberty Dollar – Confiscates All Ron Paul Dollars
Bernard von NotHaus, WhatReallyHappened.com

[rest of rant deleted by MAJ]

OK, great movie. Tells the truth about this illegal war. What else can we say? That is why we are trying to impeach Cheney and Bush. Anything else?

I think AXJ is a pretty good spokesman for the antiwar cause. He seems to be a little too reserved though. You need to open up a little more if you want to be a part of the cause AXJ.

Based on the disastrous US and overseas result, the LFL film (which really should've got a limited release) will surely post a considerable loss, especially with the foolish (and expensive) move to roll it out the world over, in the same week.

Good post by D (11/12/07). Great points. It is nice to see an open minded review.

America's war on universities:

Yes, my Dear, here is a brilliant summary about worldwide C.I.A. espionage at universities!

"University Spy - A True Story"

Behavioral science teaches that small changes in a man’s sex-life can have large effects on keeping secrets!

These investigative interviews will plunge you, the reader, into the murk of the abnormal psychology and mind boggling career of W. B. Paterson from hell-bent taxi driver to hysterical C.I.A. Chief-of-university-spies!

It was morning in America, the alcoholic Chief had just finished vomiting, was hung-over and had a pathological need for homosexual intercourse. Working in the Chief‘s office was like coming to an U.S. war-of-aggression zone where sexual degradation, torture and rape flourish. As the sexually harassed male employee of perverted Chief Paterson I uncovered sinister secrets ripe for a journalistic tour de force!

Chief Paterson is the inheritor of American multi-billion dollar conglomerate Paterson Inc., a globally operating university supplier which doubles as a C.I.A. spy contractor! Chief Paterson has the command over a hidden espionage archipelago stretching across the world from university to university, capable of any treachery. It’s scary, very scary!

Evil exists! In vicious violation of privacy and security of professors and students, Paterson Inc. is giving the C.I.A. a thousand eyes on academia, research, political enemies, fingerprints, bank accounts and much more. "We are a covert operations contractor for the C.I.A." The Chief wobbled back and forward like a drunken tip-over doll, his incendiary lips set on fire by a bottle of whisky. "We are kicking academic ass since five decades", he barked with frothing-at-the-mouth, biting the hand that feeds him!

As is becoming for an objective reporter, I use the method of dramatizing and narrating each morally offensive quotation from Chief Paterson. He is a source of untreated and disease-laden sewer language and behavior, stranger than fiction. Let‘s go for a visit to one of the Chief’s great moments - and I promise the hatemonger never used more lofty cross-references: “University people are late-term abortions who crawl out of classrooms“, he screamed with a demagogy usually reserved for Adolf Hitler!

The juicy revelations of the Chief going anal are off the record; Walt Blair Paterson’s real name, his official job, whereabouts and the name of his gonzo company were changed and rendered anonymous - to protect my ’deep-throat’ for legal reasons!

Semi-literate but schooled in violence, the background of the Paterson Inc. spy-troopers read like gravedigger roll calls: "Former Army Delta forces; Marine snipers; U.S. Army rangers; Special Operations officers". The hired guns from C.I.A. & Paterson fight a dirty war inside universities around the earth.

Every Paterson Inc. teaching tool brazenly peddled in university lecture halls bears the chill of torture whips in the faces of kidnapped victims molested by perverted, sex-starved male and female Americans in secret C.I.A. prison gulags - replicas to commemorate the lynch mob history of American slavery!

America, my most favored democracy: One dollar, one vote! C.I.A. espionage contractors such as Paterson Inc. are NOT SUBJECT to the Freedom of Information Act!

Crime pays fabulously in America! An obscure law allows the C.I.A. to block all congressional and public inquiries into the secret files, the budget, the number of cloak-and-dagger agents and the entire power structure of the Pater$on Shadow Company, the recipient of vast amounts of U.S. government money!

Sons of bitches! Who are Chief Paterson’s unpredictable Washington masters? Their names read probably like a Who is Who of instable U.S. corporate and political power. They are busy scrounging around the world for more billions of dollars, money used by Paterson’s swines of ignorance to steal more pearls of wisdom!

The U.S. will go down in history as the country that breeds the greatest scientific pilferers! Who are the shameless American ’scholars’ and at which benighted U.S. universities do they work, these dim-wits who helped dreadful C.I.A. & Paterson to conceptualize the hellish ‘intellectual’ framework for global university espionage?

Yankee go home! I feel strangely prejudiced against Paterson’s turncoats eavesdropping from spy outposts hidden at foreign universities on scientists and steal their works of genius. Chief bandit Paterson, the undersized super hero of American ’scientists’, delivers huge volumes of stolen research data and filched intellectual property into U.S. hands, where it is duly parroted at provincial universities as genuine research!

If the burly men from beastly Paterson Inc. tilted the global academic playing field in favor of U.S. ’scientists’, and if this helps explain America’s unparalleled share of Nobel prizes during that curiously energetic U.S. ’research’ period over the past five decades, synchronized with the C.I.A.’s university espionage history, then so be it!

This compelling study shows impostor Paterson Inc. is unfit as a university supplier! America’s pesky spy attacks on universities are on trial. The undeclared U.S. doctrine of large-scale targeted research theft has to be stopped with a nuclear ’nyet’!

A company to shut down! Which unapologetic investigative reporter is going to identify and expose the reckless ‘university supplier’, to which fictional ‘Paterson Inc.’ lent its imprint?

All this I took in like a Teutonic spy on tiptoes, interrupted only by the Chief’s disgusting demonstrations of affection and while his ungentlemanly hands fondled among my pink boxer-shorts!

The unorthodox pillow conversations with the closeted Chief, who had up to my ‘interviews’ suppressed his homosexuality, are positioned to hit the proverbial fan to spread his creepy whispers fast and far. Defrocked Chief Paterson must have considered the possibility of blowing his spy cover, but figured my uncut wiener was worth the risk.

Yours, Truly
Dr. H.R. Goetting

Spread the word! Forward to a friend! Report the theft of your research data or violation of your privacy on Facebook.com @University Spy and on Twitter.com @universityspy

amazon.de/University-Spy-Helmut-Richard
Goetting/dp/3000295607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258101736&sr=1-1

scribd.com/doc/21672611/University-Spy