– “Lions for lambs”. This film did not leave me indifferent. I was touched not only by the persuasive performance of the remarkable actors (Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and the rising stars) and perfect production, these aspects compose the artistic component of the work, but also and mostly by the significance of the ethical questions raised in the film.
What did this film make me think about? First of all, it opened a subject of morality and its place in society. We are all human beings and we live in society, our relations are regulated by the public laws. This legislation is different in each country, depending upon the government system and the dominating religion. These laws include legal rules – civil and criminal law. We should mention a number of other various rules and regulations – administrative law, rules of establishment, technical codes, social or mental hygiene regulations and a lot of other commandments and rulings. In my opinion, morality is of highest importance and it plays a leading role in the control over the person’s conduct in a society.
Moral rules, ideals, principles and standards are based on the general idea about the issues which are in the interests of the society and its individuals and do serve for the common good. Process of establishment of moral standards is static and dynamic at the same time, because of the fact that in comparison with other living beings a human is a historical creature. There is no law which can be written for a human being once and for all. Each person becomes different following and perfecting himself according to the program that he prepared himself. Take for example Janine Roth, whom we see transformed while she changes her position from a dependent, in some way corrupted, journalist who writes on the given topics in order to get the desired effect on the mass consciousness to the position of a citizen defending the ideals of humanism, protesting against the war, while refusing to make public the program of a senator. Todd is being changed as well and it happens during the process of considering the alternative proposed by his professor of political science, though we do not know yet his decision.
We can observe that Todd begins to call in question his choice, we see him being disappointed with the chosen path. It is natural. For Todd, as for any other young person, it’s very important to think out the model of his future and to decide what he would like to do and to plan his life. It’s not less important to find the decision and to choose what kind of personality he should be, what his criteria of humanity would be and which values he would use in his life. What would be not only his rights but his responsibilities? What should he do in order to live a full life, to become a worthy man? These are the issues that Todd’s professor broaches during the conversation aspiring to set Todd on the track of the active moral position, the greater the intellectual faculties and talents of the person, the bigger are the responsibilities of this person with regards to his choice (that is the reason why the professor chooses Todd). An individual is always in search of the answer to this question and this human striving is called morality.
Opinion of eminent philosophers concerning the orientation of the mankind to the good is not an illusion or a good intention, but that is the main point of morality. The objectives of morality are being realized in the context of human striving to become good. That is the intention of Erny and Arian and that is their determination – to make their own life and the life of other people better. That is the reason why they propose the specific program of assistance for the deprived population of the United States.
Morality regulates the behavior of an individual in his society. The heart of the question is that people do not control the life of other people, but that each individual formulates his own position being guided by the moral values. It is a question of the self-regulation of personality and the autoregulation of the social environment as a whole. The life of one particular individual is meaningless without the active personal engagement on this point, as well as it is up to an individual to choose the right way in the life and to make his own choice.
We can compare morality, in this regard, to the searching for a way out of the bourgeois mire just like in the famous story about baron Munchausen who pulled himself out of the morass. So I’m responsible for my own aspirations and it’s my duty to fulfill them. That is the reason why the professor gives the opportunity to choose to Todd and he does not try to manipulate his student. He does not put any pressure on him, but he shows the options and provides the example of Erny and Arian letting the young man take the final decision.
Autonomy of the moral consciousness allows an individual to decide on the path to choose, without any references to an authority or law. In case of Janine, the attempts of the senator to manipulate her do not work. She is full of determination not to give up this time the chosen position.
In critical situations morality proves to be the only basis of an individual. As an example, before death, when you can’t do anything and it’s impossible to save you body, the only thing to do is to defend your dignity. We can state this from the final episode of the plotline about Erny and Arian. They realize that there is no way to escape and their death is inevitable and they die with dignity, getting upright and facing the bullets of Taliban soldiers.
Moral consciousness evaluates the world in the special light and marks this vision in the notions of good and evil, duty and responsibility. It’s not the objective scientific study of the world and it’s not the analysis of its structure, but the search of its sense. This aspect of knowledge is not less important for a man. If an individual creates his path, he writes his life, and it means that he gives rise to a world that does not exist yet, but it will begin to emerge owing to his efforts. So we become responsible for ourselves and others. Morals allow realizing the human destiny while serving as a regulatory idea and directing towards the way to construct your life. It is the most important task and the aspect of knowledge which from the objective standpoint can not be studied. After all, the life is not finished, but we manage to pronounce our judgment without full and precise information. Validity of our opinion on the morality is asserted by the partiality of this opinion. From the point of view of the senator, he takes the right decision while proposing his program of the fight against terrorism and ordering to annihilate the enemies of the USA. But Janine is right too as she finds that these enemies are ordinary people.
In order to realize the moral sense of the event, one should initially have the moral attitude to it. The engaged and concerned opinion about the world and people enables you to get the integral conception of the sense of your life and of the lives of others. Erny and Arian give us an example of this kind of the engaged opinion. They know perfectly well the living conditions of African American and Latin American population of the United States. And this very concerned opinion and their commitment to change the situation make them search for their way to help people.
Morality makes a man a Man. Morals does not only teach the observance of the code of laws but also cultivate the ability to follow the ideal standards and “highest” norms. If a person has this ability of self-determination, it is possible for him not only to choose the adequate line of conduct but also to develop it constantly, in other words, to strive towards self-perfection (definition of happiness by Aristotle). All concrete virtues that we can find in a moral person are deriving from its basic ability to act properly, to proceed from integral notions while remaining autonomous at the same time. Arian and Ernest, having chosen their active way of helping people, probably even disputable as regards to the means (military service enrollment), stick to their decision. They risk their lives, being consistent with their choice, and they get killed. In spite of the tragic denouement, these boys are winners, setting an example of the allegiance to friendship (Arion jumps out of the plane trying to come to the rescue of his friend), the allegiance of military oath (they do not give themselves up), they exemplify courage and dignity (they meet the death getting upright and facing their enemy). That is why I have full authority to state that they are people of high moral values.
Accordingly, this film, “Lions for lambs”, shows us the moral choice and the way to it of the main characters of the film and it urges us to take our active stand in the society, whether it concerns the whistle-blowing, threat to the country interests, opposition to corporations that think about their profit more than about public interest or the matters of environmental protection.
