Lions for Lambs

In our last English class, we saw an American drama film called Lions for Lambs. The film drew connections between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter and a California college professor. The movie is telling three different stories at the same time that are somehow connected to each other. Jasper Irving, a Republican senator, is launching the government's new military strategy to the journalist Janine Roth. He hopes that she will sell the public on the strategy. Meanwhile, a professor named Malley is trying to convince one of his promising students, Todd, to keep up with the schoolwork and set higher ambitions in life. He had the similar talk to two former students who also had become apathetic about their schoolwork. After the talk, they decided to enlist themselves to serve the U.S. in the Iraq war.

Meanwhile the professor chats with Todd, his former students are engaging in the exact military strategy that the senator are discussing with the journalist. The mission went terribly wrong, and his former students ended up in enemy territory. Throughout the movie, the senator and the journalist discusses the military strategy, professor Malley chats with Todd about his goals in life and the two U.S. soldiers desperately wait for rescue. The movie ends with both of them getting murdered by the enemy Taliban.

Professor Malley asks Todd to get involved. I believe he means that Todd needs a wake-up-call to understand that with his talents, he ought to try to use them. Malley is frustrated due to the fact that the special individuals who have the ability to make things change do not use their abilities. Todd seems very critical towards how the political system is working in America. At the same time, he shows no desire of getting involved with it. In my opinion, taking Todd's critical eye on the government's decisions into consideration, he could have involved himself in the politics by joining a political organization.