Omar P.L. Moore writes that a trio of American icons from the last 40 years of Hollywood film continue to stand tall, with Robert Redford directing himself, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise in next month's "Lions For Lambs". Mr. Redford also talks to several journalists including The Popcorn Reel's Mr. Moore about the state of the U.S.A. and his abiding commitment to change its current political course and dampened reputation
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the black and white image above, taken from the MGM movie poster for the new
film "Lions For Lambs", they preside like a Hollywood Mount Rushmore, distinct
American icons from three different generations (the 60's and 70's, '80's and
'90's, '90's and '00's respectively), from left to right, a confluence of
causes, acting strength, directing prowess and megastar wattage. All of
three remain a huge part of the movie-making landscape in Tinseltown.
Robert Redford is now 71 years young and his mind
is razor-sharp. While many become more conservative in their thinking as
they reach senior status, Redford's beliefs and political outlook remain as
assured and impassioned as ever, as is his commitment to the ideals of the
United States of America, a country about which he is gravely concerned at this
very moment in history. Redford founded and runs the Sundance Film
Festival, which plays each January in Utah. Sundance is now, and has been
for a few years America's most prominent and important international film
festival. Mr. Redford remains an ardent activist and environmentalist.
Iconic roles in "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid", "The Candidate", "All The
President's Men", "The Three Days Of The Condor" and "The Great Gatsby", and
directing films like the Oscar-winning drama "Ordinary People", "Quiz Show" and
"A River Runs Through It". More recently, Redford could be seen in films
opposite today's big names like Demi Moore in "Indecent Proposal" and Brad Pitt
in "Spy Game", and with contemporaries like Helen Mirren in "The Clearing".
And sometime in the next year or two he will be on the big screen as Brooklyn
Dodgers baseball owner Branch Rickey, in a new biopic on Jackie Robinson, the
legendary Dodgers baseball player who penetrated the barrier of racism in
American sport to become the sole Black player in Major League Baseball sixty
years ago, in 1947.
Meryl Streep, 58, is one of the world's greatest actors of all time. Where
several other gigantic veterans of acting have become self-parodies, Streep
continues a grand reinvention of an acting carousel that for her doesn't revolve
but instead travels in one direction and one direction only: up. With two Oscars on her mantle
and her latest nomination (for "The Devil Wears Prada") back in January, Streep
moves from strength to strength, appearing in three movies in this calendar
year, including Mr. Redford's "Lions For Lambs" (which opens in the U.S. and
Canada on November 9), 22 years after being onscreen with the red-haired legend
in Sydney Pollack's "Out Of Africa". In Hollywood, a film industry that
largely discards women in the acting game who are over 40 -- with the notable
exceptions of Lauren Bacall, Jane Fonda, Jessica Lange, Sigourney Weaver and
Susan Sarandon among those proving the rule -- Meryl Streep is not only
legendary, she continues to improve her craft, and heighten her activism.
No old lion or lioness, Streep, like Redford, isn't content to slink into the
background or journey into the sunset to pass the mantle to another film star to take on
important causes. And whether she is in "Evening", or "Rendition" in small
roles, or chewing scenery in "She-Devil" or "Prada", Ms. Streep still
electrifies, galvanizes and entertains audiences around the globe. Her
signature roles include "Sophie's Choice" and "Kramer Vs. Kramer", for which she
won Oscars. Streep has been Oscar-nominated a record fourteen times.
She was memorable in "The Deer Hunter" and "The French Lieutenant's Woman".
Within the next year she will re-team with Robert De Niro for the comedy film
"First Man", in which she will play the president of the United States, with Mr.
De Niro as her husband and campaign manager. Right now, she is busy
filming "Mamma Mia", based on the record-smash hit Broadway musical of the hit
songs of ABBA, the superstar Swedish pop quartet of the 1970's and early 1980's.
Forty-five year-old Tom Cruise has been at the top
of the world's movie star tree for 20 of the 30 years he has appeared on the
silver screen. He continues to thrive despite media controversy and his
acting skills are severely overlooked. One look at "Rain Man", "Born On
The Fourth Of July", "Interview With The Vampire", "Magnolia", "The Last
Samurai" or "Collateral", Cruise films from three different decades, reveal
layers of the charismatic star's acting. Mr. Cruise's movies have brought
in over $6 billion (with a "b") worldwide. He has worked with every major
American film director -- Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson,
Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Brian De Palma, Stanley
Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann and Robert Redford -- only Woody Allen,
Jonathan Demme, Clint Eastwood, Mike Nichols, George Lucas, Sidney Lumet and
Spike Lee are missing from Cruise's resume (and for at least a year there have
been persistent Internet rumors about a future collaboration with Mr. Lee.)
Regretfully, Cruise didn't get to work with Robert Altman, who passed away last
year. Tom Cruise isn't afraid to take chances. He has played a
misogynist ("Magnolia"), a murderer ("Vanilla Sky"), and a contract
serial-killer ("Collateral"). He does virtually all of his own stunt work,
famously scaring the beejeesus out of John Woo on the set of "Mission: Impossible 2", who
feared that Cruise would meet an early death in New Mexico while scaling the
rock formations and mountains there. And he has worked onscreen with the
world's best actors in Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, Meryl
Streep, Jason Robards, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack.
Known for his generosity and hospitality, Cruise is a producer and has (with the
immeasurable help of long-time producing partner Paula Wagner) revitalized
United Artists as a major Hollywood film studio, with Wagner as its chief
executive. MGM has the trademark lions head, so in a sense it is fitting
that "Lions For Lambs" is the first film under the new UA banner. (Cruise
is also among its executives. He is currently filming "Valkyrie" for Bryan
Singer, where he plays Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg, leader of the real-life
plot to kill his Nazi commander Adolf Hitler in the mid-1940's.)
Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise. These three icons fill virtually
every minute of screen time in "Lions For Lambs", a drama directed by Robert
Redford about choices, apathy and consequences. Derek Luke, Michael Pena
and Andrew Garfield also star in the film, as students of Mr. Redford's college
professor Dr. Stephen Malley character, located at an unnamed university in
California. Tom Cruise plays U.S. Senator Jasper Irving, a Republican
politician who appears to have his mind set on running for the White House.
Meryl Streep plays veteran journalist Janine Roth, a writer for Time Magazine,
who asks the critical questions of Senator Irving during her hour-long meeting
with him for the story she is seeking to write about the popular politician.
"Lions For Lambs" is geared not necessarily to an over-30 audience, but rather
primarily to a college-aged audience, since more than a third of the film occurs
within the confines of Professor Malley's campus office. Of all the
conversations in the film, the dialogue between Malley and Todd (played by Mr.
Garfield) is the most prescient, while the most immediate portion of Mr.
Redford's first directing effort since "The Legend Of Bagger Vance" in 2000
features Mr. Luke as Arian and Mr. Pena as Ernest, former college students in
Prof. Malley's class who make the decision to enlist in the U.S. military and
fight in Afghanistan.
Meryl Streep at a recent premiere of "Rendition", a film which she stars in that
opened on October 19. Earlier this year, she joined Nicole Kidman, Mary J.
Blige and Oprah Winfrey at an Oscars after party. (Photos: Michael Vespa/WireImage)
Mr. Redford spoke recently in San Francisco to several
journalists about his new film. Atop the roof of the Clift Hotel, Mr.
Redford arrives to the assembled press group. At 71 he is lean and trim,
and refreshingly wears age, unaided by any plastic surgery that would likely
adorn other legendary Hollywood film faces. Wearing a pristine, spotless
sky blue shirt, blue jeans and eye glasses, Robert Redford, a Santa Monica,
California native who has made his home in Utah for more than a decade, is
relaxed but no less passionate about the state of America, a nation he cares
passionately about. The actor-director is no stranger to political themes,
with his appearances in such notable films as "All The President's Men", "The
Candidate" and "Quiz Show" (which he directed.) On a Monday earlier this
month he declares it a beautiful day -- "physically, it's a beautiful day", he
says -- an analysis made not by accident, because he remains committed to the
environmental and conservationist cause, dedicating much of his time to
combating the dangers caused by global warming, an issue that has become
radioactive in both its urgency to spurn action to stem it and in its adverse
affects on the planet.
He decries the sound bite interview, calmly saying that he is fed up of it,
adding that some in the American mainstream media and many of his colleagues in
Hollywood disdain it. He confesses that marketing "Lions For Lambs",
a film which he received the script of in October of 2006 -- one he said
numerous people passed on -- was going to be "very difficult, because there's so
many films out." It was solely Mr. Redford's idea to hold screenings in
several U.S. college towns, including Berkeley, California, where he was to host
a Q&A for students there following a screening later in the day. The idea
was for the seasoned actor-director to open a forum of dialogue with the college
and university students in Berkeley and in other campuses across the country.
"Lions For Lambs", which was shot over the first two months of 2007, is less
about the current affairs events in politics, says the director -- noting the
daily shifts in political situations -- than about the underlying framework that
begets them. "What are the fundamental factors that keep repeating
themselves, that create these situations like we're in right now with this
administration, this country, having lost so much in the last six years.
It's not the first time this has happened. It happened in McCarthyism, it
happened in Watergate. It happened in Iran-Contra. So there's a
fundamental pattern that keeps repeating itself that involves the same
characters who think the same way. So you dramatize that in three
categories," Redford said. Aside from the rather noisy traffic a dozen
stories below you can hear a pin drop when Mr. Redford speaks. His tone is
succinct, polite, and quietly impassioned, with thoughtfulness, introspection,
concern and clear analysis flowing in his every spoken word. Redford talks
about today's young generation, which he characterized in this conversation as
apathetic and disinterested. He asserted that several factors, including
the lack of a draft compelling the young to enlist in the U.S. Army as a reason
why many youth disengage from the pertinent matters of the day, and the ultimate
shunning of the political process, the 2004 U.S. presidential vote turnout by
young people in the country notwithstanding. "Things are getting worse and
worse and worse and somebody needs to pay attention . . . and these are all
issues that are put forth in the film." The film, says the director puts
the onus on the young to make up their minds about the course that their future
and in turn, the future of their world will take.
Robert Redford as Professor Stephen Malley in "Lions For Lambs", which
Mr. Redford also directed. (Photo: MGM/UA)
The film does have a seductive character in Senator Irving, and casting Mr.
Cruise in the role was no accident - a smiling, charming politician -- "which
makes him more dangerous," the director says at one point during this interview.
Redford spends a considerable amount of time talking about some of his new
film's structure and events, citing "The Candidate" and "All The
President's Men", mentioning that he's "always been interested in the political
scene, since 1970." Reflecting on a question to him that ponders whether
"Lions For Lambs" could have been made at any time during the last 40 years of
American political history, instead of at this particular moment in time, Mr.
Redford provides a detailed response. "Times have changed so drastically
since the time I started doing [these films] -- because there's always a new
film to be made about the new condition. But this was different because
this is about what is fundamentally unchanged," the director says. "And
they don't go away [those who possess a particular mindset for political
corruption and the orchestration of unjust wars.] I mean, you would have
thought after Watergate that those people that did all the dirty tricks for
Nixon and lied and cheated . . . and his effort to withhold the truth, to hide
the truth, and conceal the truth, and the press going after him. You would
have thought that once that high point was reached that would never happen
again? It is! Only worse!" During the moments he mentions
Nixon, he has pounded the table at which he sits. Mr. Redford then
reflects on his new film's characters. "That's why Tom Cruise [as Senator
Irving] represents something about winning -- 'we gotta win, we gotta win, we
gotta win' -- that's very American, both good and bad. And [Meryl Streep]
representing . . . a category (the press) that was much stronger 30 years ago.
After Watergate, the press was at its highest point. Now look."
Robert Redford is not interested in giving easy answers, or answers at all to
the audiences who will see "Lions For Lambs", which opens in the U.S. and Canada
on November 9. His motivation, he says, is to ask the audience, "what do
you think about this?" He said that he wanted to strictly focus on
impressionistic aspects on the characters contained within the film's tripartite
structure, without creating distractions in the film's narrative which would
yield any concentration on the press reporter, the senator, the students, or the
professor. Responding to a question about a cable news outlet that has
accused Mr. Redford of being unpatriotic and a hater of America because of his
activist and conservation work, the legendary figure is quick to say that he
loves his country and does not want to see it continue down the path that he
says it has slid down on. The filmmaker later reiterates that he is
"worried about my country, obviously." He continues on, saying that "I'm a
little bit in mourning for what I've known in my life -- pretty great things . .
. I've lived through a lot of events -- from World War Two, McCarthyism to the
assassination of a president, and a vice president. And Iran, and
upheavals. I've never seen my country in as bad a shape as it is now . . .
how it's seen . . . on the world stage, how we're perceived. What one
single administration can do to trash so many categories. It makes me sad.
It breaks my heart. So what can I do about it? The only thing I can
do is to create a drama out there that would put certain things out there for
people to think about, because if we don't get involved, somehow, someway, it
will continue. And I don't know they'll be . . . many chapters."
There is a weighty and regretful tone in Mr. Redford's voice as he articulates
his feelings in this response, perhaps an indication that contemplation of Mr.
Redford's twilight years and a retrospective outlook at the generations through
which he has lived and observed are all rushing at him in an instant and that he
is treasuring all of the great memories once again at this very second.
"All I would hope for is that they (young people) take some action.
And it's not, 'everybody should go into the military.' You can create
another peace corps. You can start community activism. You can
get active. And don't let this kind of leadership ever come
again. Ill-equipped. Incompetent."
"Lions For Lambs" opens in the U.S. and Canada on November 9 and is written by
Matthew Michael Carnahan, who also was a producer of the film.
Robert Redford
Speaks: Click Here To Go To Mr. Redford's Interview page of audio clips
Tom Cruise with Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Chris
Gardner, the business millionaire (and formerly homeless single father) whom Mr. Smith played in last year's "The Pursuit Of Happyness", in a
photo taken in January 2007. Tom and Jada starred together in Michael
Mann's "Collateral" in 2004. Mr. Smith (Photo: Ray Mickshaw/WireImage)
Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise in Robert Redford's "Lions For Lambs", in which Mr.
Redford also stars. The film opens across the U.S. and Canada on November
9. (Photo: MGM/UA)
