History suspended in the speeches of Lions for lambs by Robert Redford

Abstract

Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs (2007) was filmed six years after the fall of the Twin Towers, which led to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq by a Western coalition. It is, as stated by the director and can be seen in Carnahan’s script, a reflection on the causes of the confusion that seems to prevail in American society and a call for youth to assume their responsibility in building tomorrow. Fourteen years after the premiere, the West has dizzyingly abandoned Kabul, interpreting a retreat that in the Western imagination is reminiscent of the retreat of the last Roman legions against the barbarians; and furthermore, Russia has invaded Ukraine, bordering with NATO and European Union countries, bringing war once again to a continent whose recent identity has been built around peace. The plot takes place in three spaces: the office of a senator with presidential aspirations, interviewed by a veteran television journalist; the office of a university professor, who encourages a talented but frivolous student to take responsibility; a snowy, nocturnal summit in Afghanistan, where a black soldier and another Hispanic have been surrounded by the Taliban. The smooth transitions from one space to another and the articulation of the different discourses -political, journalistic, educational and civic-military- give unity to the action. However, the question of which of the three discourses is the most congruent with reality remains unanswered. In this way, the interrelation of the discourses gives us a meaning characterized by its openness and, therefore, by its lack of definition: History remains suspended.