"The professor is trying to persuade the kid not to go in the direction he seems to be going, which is nowhere," Redford said.
It so happens that's where Redford thinks the nation is headed, but he insisted he's not using "Lions for Lambs" to bend hearts and minds to his particular point of view.
"I made a point in the movie not to get bogged down in issues, but to simply pose questions," he said. "It would be presumptuous of me to decide how young people are, however they label the generation these days - x or y or g. I think there is a general level of cynicism and apathy you didn't see 15 years ago, but that's not everyone. And I'm not sure, by the way, that the pendulum isn't swinging back the other way."
The last thing any young person wants to hear, he said, is some old Hollywood fogy preaching to them, or judging them. That's why he structured the movie as a plea - a plea to pay attention, and to become active as your conscience dictates.
"The movie is set up to unfold in real time, so that everything happens fast. I want people to feel that, to feel the meter ticking, because I really do think that time is short," he said. "When we consider what happened to this country in just six years - and here I am injecting my own political opinion - that's quick. That amount of damage in six years is considerable - we had a surplus, our reputation in the world was fairly high, especially after 9/11, there were high hopes for educational reform and since then everything has gone down."
Redford goes on to inject his own political opinion in his description of how "Lions for Lambs" sums it all up.
"We've put all that together symbolically - education, politics, media and the actual military," said Redford, who uses the phrase "actual military" to distinguish it from the administration that leads it. Those folks, he said, are "really not qualified or competent."
"So we put it all together and say, Look, how do you feel about it? That's basically what the film is trying to say to an audience. What does this do for you? Does this spark anything? Does it ring a bell? Do you feel like you want to do more? But that's not for me to force on you, that's for you to decide."
As you might have surmised, Redford has already decided.
"Yeah, it does contain feelings I have about time running out. I'm afraid time will run out and we'll allow things to get damaged beyond repair, like global warming, and so forth," he said. "But I hope it's not preachy, because that is death."*
