Tom Cruise plays a Senator Jasper Lrring who supports the war on terror and Meryl Streep who plays a journalist who is critical of the war in lraq. She is critical because of the US governments incompetent mismanagement of the war. There is also Robert Redford, who plays Professor Stephen Malley, who is idealistic about society. His attitude inspires Todd Hayes to make something out of his own life. Two of the professor's other students are in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban because they think it is a right thing to do for their country. The students Ernest Rodriguez and Arian Finch are also idealistic about the work they are doing to spread Democracy in Afghanistan.
The movie is corporate and pro-government propaganda telling a story that is fiction because the US government sent the troops to Afghanistan to meet the agenda of protecting US interests in the Middle East. Janine Roth, the journalist who is writing a story critical of the war for U S A Today, New York post, Boston Globe, and Guardian, gave Lions for Lambs a bad review because it is liberal propaganda, that is saying there are good wars and bad wars, she makes comparisons between the current war and the one in Vietnam. Michael Pena and Ernest Rodriguez volunteered and were sent to Afghanistan, but Professor Malley was in Vietnam due to conscription. Vietnam was a different kind of war being fought in a different time, as was the first world war.
Professor Malley has strong ideals and thinks he can change society. Senator Jasper Lrring also wants to change the world by fighting for plutocracy in the US and over who controls the world.
The mainstream media was critical of Lions for Lambs for being honest about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I would give Lions for Lambs three stars. Lions for Lambs is based on liberal ideologies and asks the viewer to question the motives for America's war in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also think that Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Robert Redford are good actors.