Dir. Robert Redford, US, 2007, 92 mins
Cast: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise
Review by Carol Allen
Taking place in real time in one hour plus a few enlightening flashbacks, the story concerns three sets of characters in three different parts of the world. Streep is Janine Roth, a 57 year old veteran journalist in Washington, who is given an exclusive interview by ambitious young Republican Senator, Jasper Irving (Cruise), in which he reveals his new strategy for the military in Afghanistan. At the same time, in a West Coast university, Dr Malley (Redford) is trying to inject some political fire and commitment into talented, privileged but apathetic student Todd (Andrew Garfield). In the course of their meeting he cites the example of two former students Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Peña), who fought their way to college from impoverished backgrounds and then gave up their chances of well cushioned futures to fight for their country. As Malley fights for the soul of his pupil and Irving smugly outlines his policy to a sceptical Roth - tactics which, she points out, are merely a rehash of those that failed in Vietnam some forty years ago - in Afghanistan itself Arian and Ernest are fighting for their lives in the mountains, victims of Irving's so called strategy.
In contrast to screenwriter Matthew Carnahan's previous movie, The Kingdom, which was an action flick with an unconvincing political background, this is a tightly structured, articulate and intelligent drama about the morality of America 's actions in the world today. The film's critical stance of the way democracy and political ethics have been eroded in America, and awareness of how this has affected the world's view of that country, are unequivoca,l and it's easy to see why Redford as a director was drawn to the material. As Malley, his now weathered features and air of gravitas give authority to the film's moral argument that responsibility lies not just with governments but individuals, while Streep as the once idealistic journalist, who is painfully aware of how somewhere along the line the media put pandering to majority opinion in place of searching for the truth, is in some ways Bernstein and Woodward of All the President's Men grown middle aged and disenchanted. Cruise oozes an appropriately oily charm as the Presidential wannabe with his right wing superiority complex, convinced that "America is a force for righteousness". There's a lot of talk in this film but it's talk well worth listening to. The only "action" in the conventional sense comes from the two boys marooned in Afghanistan, heroes who are made pawns by the politicians' game. Otherwise, the drama is in the interaction of the debate, which is very much about America and makes an interesting complement for us in this country to the recent Channel 4 drama "Britz", which dealt with our society's responsibility for the effects of the so-called war on terror on the Muslim community here. Different situation but broadly the same ethical issue. As Malley says in the film " Rome is burning and the problem is with us, who do nothing".
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