The following questions are from a round-table interview, with representatives from several Bay Area colleges and a high school interviewing Robert Redford simultaneously.

QUESTION 1: How did you get involved in “Lions for Lambs”? Were you involved with the film from the beginning, or did you come on in the later stages?

ROBERT REDFORD: The project had been around for a while, but people had been afraid to make it — not only because it deals with difficult issues, but because it’s hard to make a bunch of talking heads in a room [which is what much of the film consists of] dramatic. I came on the project in September of ‘06; Meryl Streep was already attached, then [Tom] Cruise came to me later on. It was a very tight filming schedule; we started shooting in January and had it done within a couple of months.

QUESTION 2: You created the Sundance Film Festival in the early ‘80s. How involved are you in the festival nowadays?

RR: I spent a lot of time in [the festival] the first few years. There were only three festivals at the time, and...none existed [exclusively for independent films]. So it was a tough go; the first year I was there we only had one theater.... So I’d be standing out in the street, and some guy would walk by and I’d go, “Hey, come on in!” and he’d say, “Hey, what are you doing here?” Now, though, 60,000 people come to the festival, so as that’s developed, I’ve moved back further.

INTERMISSION: About “Lions for Lambs,” it was interesting to see how you represented all the different viewpoints. I thought that was fascinating.

RR: It would be very easy to make this a piece of...propaganda. But that’s not fair. I mean, the military’s doing the best they can...that’s the problemo. So the film’s trying to say...that the guys who are making the decisions are the guys who were never were in the military. And that’s a direct issue that I think we have to face — -the incompetence of the people who are designing these wars, who are not equipped.

SD: I thought it was very bold that you literally have a senator admitting to the fact that the government made mistakes in the war in Iraq. Have you gotten any response from the government vis-à-vis that indictment?

RR: That’s why I was excited about this film; it’s so complex. We present people with a duel [between Cruise’s senator and Streep’s reporter] and let them decide. There’s very, very subtle stuff going on. [Cruise] says, “Yeah, mistakes were made...but who could have known?” So she [Streep] never really gets him to own up to the government’s mistakes. It’s just meant to make you think that something’s gotta change, and it should change quickly, and the people who are gonna change it are you guys.

SD: What audience are you trying to attract with this film? Is it aimed specifically at college students?

RR: Yeah, it is. I’m hoping not to indict all young people as being like [Andrew Garfield’s] student...where he’s not getting involved in the things that are gonna affect his life. So, yeah, I would hope that young people would look at that and say, “This is the time when we should get involved.” And I would hope that older people would look at it and say, “How can you let people like these — like the ones in our administration — ever get there? How can you ever let that happen?”