Lions for Lambs

1. Lions for Lambs is a 2007 American drama film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor. Explain how they are connected and what the soldiers are doing in Afghanistan?

The three stories in this movie is twisted tightly together at the end of the movie. They affect each other and create consequences for all of the people in the movie. It begins with the college professor who is trying to make his promising student more engaged to the class. The student, Todd Hayes, puts the blame on the way of college life. He is busy with being the frat house president, his girlfriend, being social, and just living life. The professor called him in for a meeting one morning, and offered him a deal: "I'll give you a straight B in this class, and you do not have to do anything more, not attend class and do not turn in assignment. The other option is to come to class more often again".

He also tell this student about to students he once had, Arian and Ernest. They had fought their way all the way up to get a scholarship and attend a college. They were not A students, but the professor remembered them. They had potential, and was not like all the other students who got their education paid of the parents. The came from bad conditions and had grown up in a not so good neighborhood, and still they got an education. Apparently they had become close with the professor, he had really gotten to them. One assignment they got was something like this: find out what was necessary in the world, what would make a difference? And what will you do to try to make a change? They chose to sign up for the army.

The professor felt like he fail the two students that actually had a potential. When Arian and Ernest join the war, they are assigned an extremely important mission in the war against terrorism and Taliban in Afghanistan. When they are flying over the mountains in Afghanistan, hidden Taliban soldiers starts shouting at the helicopter. Ernest falls out of the helicopter, and Arian decides to jump after him. Together they try to fight the Taliban soldiers as they are approaching. The army back at the base are watching what's going on from a satellite. They send out rescue planes that bombs Taliban. But the last one does not reach Arian and Ernest in time. They get shot right before they bomb the last of the Taliban soldiers.

At the same time a US Senator get a call, informing him about what happened with the mission he just executed. He is in a private meeting with a TV journalist. The Senator has a purpose, quoting;" My honest effort to keep the press better informed about mistakes, and to talk openly about fixing it, step by step". This mission is the way of correcting the mistake of going into Iraq years ago. If they don't do anything with this problem now, they can expect a shattered Iraq, a hopeless Afghanistan, and a nuclear Iran. And the meaning of this meeting was to have her write an article about this mission, not questions about it, but straight up hard facts. Something she has problems with.

As the connection throughout the whole movie the sentence "What do you stand for?" says a lot. The professor also mentions that its better to fail trying then to not try and fail, the important thing is that you did something at all.


2. The professor asks Todd to get involved. What can he do?

The professor notices that Todd is not attending as many classes as he used to earlier that year. Todd was the one student that the professor saw some potential in. He wanted to make Todd realize how things he did today, would effect the rest of his life. He was now a grown up. There were no legal guardians anymore, it was just him, and he had to make his own decisions. He didn't want Todd to waist his time at college with the potential he had. The professors goal wasn't to make the students become something great, but to become something that is important to them and has a meaning in their life. He wants them to become lions, not lambs.

The best thing Todd can do to get more involved is to just show up in class. He is already doing his assignments and achieving good grades. Attending classes was his only problem.