Still, Berg gets some excellent performances from the actors playing the Saudi characters, especially Israeli (!!)Ashraf Bahrom, who plays the chief of police.

In Lions for Lambs, it is Tom Cruise as the slick, upwardly mobile Republican who really impresses. Confident and charming as his conversation with journalist Roth begins, he becomes over the hour desperate and arrogant. Don't you see, can't you see, he says, that his is the right way.

Over that hour, the older Roth and Malley fall silent, almost defeated by the forces at work against them.

As Senator Irving says, “We are willing to do whatever it takes, whatever it takes, to win this war. You do want us to win the war on terror, don't you?” Don't you?