Hollywood goes to war

Just out of the Lions for Lambs premiere in Leicester Square. It is the latest of Hollywood’s celluloid attacks on the White House, and a call to arms. The plot: Tom Cruise is a senator with presidential ambitions giving a reporter (Meryl Streep) an exclusive on his latest strategy in Afghanistan – ongoing as they talk. It backfires and two soldiers end up stranded on an Afghan mountain top, hoping they’re rescued before the Taleban arrive.

Robert Redford (who plays a university professor, trying to talk those two soldiers out of signing up) directs. His message is that it is time for good people (Democrats) to intervene, and stop the war. As his character says, “Rome is burning, and the problem is not the people who started this. They are gone. The problem is us, who are dancing around the fire”. Rather than extinguish it which is what Redford suggests outsiders should be doing.