This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
What Fools We Mortals Be
Plot Overview
Invaders have historically come to grief in Afghanistan
“since before Alexander was great.” The Romans invented
the fort to keep their occupied lands under control, but neither that
nor anything else was effective there for its many would-be conquerors.
Now America under Bush is under-performing. Republican Senator Jasper
Irving (Tom Cruise) has the ear of the President more than does the
Secretary of Defense. He has devised a plan to use smaller, platoon
size, special forces units for point of contact engagements emerging
from the high grounds. Meanwhile, the Taliban is swelling its
ranks through local recruitment and from axis-of-evil augmentation.
Senator Irving holds a one-on-one meeting with friendly journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) to try to get her to persuade the (suspicious) public to go along with it. She's got a bad feeling about the whole thing but her boss Howard (Kevin Dunn), chief editor at ANX, isn't interested in a story about her feelings but one on pending military action. She's in a financial pickle and must do it his way regardless.
Meanwhile, a California
University poli-sci Professor
Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) has spotted a gifted student Todd Hayes
(Andrew Garfield) who's neglecting his innate talents to waste his life on
mediocrity. He gives him a long pep talk to try to motivate him to better
apply his genius.
He uses two examples of student
hopefuls from earlier years: scholarship athletes Arian
Finch (Derek Luke) and Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Peña,) “an
African American and a Mexican.” For athletes they are klutzes.
Arian drops the papers he's holding to the floor and Ernest falls
out of a moving vehicle. They've got slow reflexes in the bat-the-hand-
away game they play with each other. As for academics their classroom
debate is not very articulate. But they're willing to do something;
they join the army to be all that they can be. Californians may consider
these minorities a reservoir of needed “hope,” but to
this reviewer they look more like cannon fodder.
They get to be the tip of the spear in America's new effort to rid
one third world country of the bad Taliban. What I remember Rhudyard
Kipling having written about the wholesale slaughter of crack
British troops over there seems sadly applicable:
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut off what remains,
Just lay to your rifle and blow out your brains,
And go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Ideology
Political and sometimes
military conflict may arise when one enters the fray to try to make
a better world. This along the lines of, (Prov.
30:33) “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter,
and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing
of wrath bringeth forth strife.” The idea in the proverb is that a state of peace and
conciliation can erupt into to one of conflict just as a fluid (milk)
changes to solid (butter) through continual agitation (churning.)
Or hit a critical area (nose) and it bleeds. L4L illustrates the former with colored coed
Muna patiently waiting with the foyer habitués outside
the professor's door until past the time posted (8:00) for his
availability, then she suddenly bursts in to enquire about her
unacceptable C+ grade. The latter is shown by the professor's
scars on his forehead, which he received at a protest in Chicago
after he returned from Vietnam.
Todd ducks out of the office to go think over what he was told. He plops down on his fraternity's couch in front of a TV exposé of a movie star on foreign tour ignorant of basic geography. That's followed by a news announcement of America's new miliary strategy in Afghanistan. There the movie ends. We suppose that if Todd grew bored with gossipy news or if he were motivated by the death of his school's alumni, he might take it upon himself to get involved in something to make a difference. However, I think the idea is for us the audience to consider what part we may play to help change the world.
Production Values
“” (2007) was directed by Robert Redford. It was written by Matthew Michael Carnahan. It stars Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Andrew Garfield, and Michael Peña. A stellar cast did a great job. Only Kevin Dunn who played a pacing editor seemed slightly unprepared.
MPA rated it R for some war violence and language. The political discussions seemed geared to college freshmen level. The military sortie was based on a real one. It avoided propaganda. There was no sex and barely any women—and they were full of argument. Runtime is a long 1½ hours. The dialogue was easy enough to follow, just hard to stay awake to.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Christian symbols were absent even from Arlington National Cemetery. Compromises were societal and up to us to figure out. I can see how this one could spark discussion. It's more elevated than most movies but has less of what movies are good at. I suppose most anyone could appreciate it as much as would a nerd.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
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