Last night I watched the movie: LIONS FOR LAMBS. A Robert Redford film that left me with a lot of questions when it suddenly ended. Questions about what sort of difference I am capable of making and all the judgements I've made since 9/11/2001.
Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Michael Pena (who I loved in Crash) and Andrew Garfield all do an excellent job in their roles. And I don't agree with all the negative reviews of the movie. I think the point of the movie is to leave the viewer with some questions about the life they are leading or the life they are sitting back and watching.
I love the idea that is in quote number 5! When that came up in the movie I sat up in bed and yelled 'right on!' what a wonderful idea!
Below are 10 of my favorite quotes from the movie:
1. "Political science, Doc. What's scientific outside of the psychology behind how much shit voters will swallow before they notice?
The science part,it's really only about how to win. Not how to govern, not how to make anybody better, just how to win. No matter how stupid or two-faced or criminal you look."
2. "Like, I should be a congressman bigger? Oh, yeah. Super. I get to be one of those turds in DC - and I do mean pure pieces of shit -who make our laws? I get to be a doughboy who parts his hair like everyone else? The guy who never says anything though he never stops talking.
Do I get to be the guy who lectures you on morality while a page jacks me off under the table? Oh, yeah, please. The guy who funnels away a million and bawls like an evangelist when he's caught. And how many never get caught, Doc?
Hey, if that's something bigger than being a good Joe with a good job, fuck it."
3. "Then why did it take three years to up-armour our Humvees?
- They're up-armoured now...
- Add-ons don't provide the same protection, Senator, you know that. Why does the president insist on spending billions on subs and fighter planes that are useless in this kind of war?
- What do you think I'm working on?
- And why did we send 150,000 troops to a country that did not attack us, and one tenth that number to the one that did?
- How many times are you people going to ask the same question?
- Till we get the answer."
4. "The first guys to sign up to fight are the ones this country doesn't treat well. Here are Ernest and Arian growing up in these neighbourhoods where people butcher each other for simple-minded shit.
"You were raised in a neighbourhood two blocks south from mine." Bam!
"The rims on your car are better than mine." Bam!
What do they do after scraping themselves up and getting outta there in one piece? Fight for the country that ignores these neighbourhoods unless there's a riot or a drive-by epidemic.
On the flip side, you got kids that can take advantage of every gift this country has and usually they're the first ones to take a big step back when it comes time for volunteers."
5. "Engagement. Engagement is the foreign-relations concept that we would like to apply here at home.
We're pretty good with it abroad. Our secretary of state has travelled more miles than any in history and we have more embassies than ever. We see it abroad but we don't see the same on our streets.
No, we totally turned away from the biggest problems here at home. The best way to double the size of the problem is to turn your back on it.
America needs to do more. Like do away with your junior year of high school.
There's three options instead of going to school.
A.) A Peace Corps year abroad,
B.) an AmeriCorps year here in one of the 500 poorest zip codes
C.) or an ROTC-like apprenticeship here or abroad,
but everybody picks one and nobody gets a note from Mom."
6. "Nowhere else have I seen such lions led by such lambs."
Christ, that statement is so dead-on right now. These starched collars that started this war, that are running it now, nowhere near the best and the brightest, not even in the same galaxy. They're the ones that, when our men are blown to bits in the middle of a gun battle, say shit like, "The enemy has bloodied our nose, but we're learning from mistakes."
7. "The men who lead do work when there's work to be done. Will you step up when you're needed, or will you just sit back and let the other people do the lifting?"
8. "What good is a $90,000 Benz if there's not only not enough gas in the tank but the streets and highways are decaying to the point of becoming Third World? If all your rants about Congress and politics are true, if things are really bad, as bad as you say they are, when thousands of American troops are dead and more are dying as we speak, you tell me, how can you enjoy the good life? Rome is burning, son, and the problem is not with the people that started this. They're past irredeemable. The problem's with us - all of us - who do nothing, who just fiddle, who try to manoeuvre around the edges of the flame."
9. "The decisions you make now, bud, can't be changed but with years and years of hard work to redo it.
And in those years you become something different. Everybody does as time passes. You get married, you get into debt. But you're never gonna be the same person you are right now.
And promise and potential...It's very fickle. And it just might not be there any more."
10. "You're an adult now. And the tough thing about adulthood is that it... it starts before you even know it starts, when you're already a dozen decisions into it. But what you need to know is that no lifeguard's watching any more. You're on your own. You're your own man, and the decisions you make now are yours and yours alone from here until the end."
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