Lord of War (Widescreen)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bridget Moynahan, Jared Leto, Jean-Pierre Nshanian, Nicolas Cage, Shake TukhmanyanBrand: LIONS GATE HOME ENT.
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); Arabic (Original Language); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); German (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); Turkish (Original Language); Ukrainian (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-17
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Lord of War (Widescreen)
Movie Review: Bullets Banging Big Bucks
Summary: 5 Stars
- REVIEW
For everyone who says their job is rough, whether it's for being a janitor, pizza delivery man, or being one of the half-wits that worked in cubicles, YOU try working as a free-lancing international arms dealer! In that profession, one thing's clear: you screw up, you get shot. Nicholas Cage gives a nonchalant, yet superb performance in the most nihilistic film I've seen this year, "Lord of War." Dark and violent with black humor that effectively blend the course of the content, this is the kind of film that would make Kurt Vonnegut proud...if he watches films with rarely sedative themes.
The film starts in a field of used bullets, and Nicholas Cage as Yuri stands in the middle of it, surrounding by the sounds of gunfights. Yuri is an arms dealer, and he talks to the audience about his profession. He's not trying to teach you a lesson about his experience, he's just talking about his experience as it is. In a fashionable narrative (the same narrative that people in amazon.com are downsizing about), Yuri strolls down to memory lane when he first came to America in the 80s, and later sees his first sight of gunshots in a restaurant, leading to his fascination of selling guns.
As years passed when he worked as a lackey in a practice to sell guns, Yuri then becomes a sole proprietor of an arms dealing business. With his gifted talent of negotiating deals and getting out of trouble, he alone travels from one corrupted country to another, selling off his "merchandise" to some of the most notorious dictators in world. At the same time, he's playing multiple lives not only for the customers but for his family, besides his brother, who doesn't know his profession.
Because he's working in a black business, there's always the "Zenigata" that tries to stop this "Lupin" from commiting more crimes. Ethan Hawke plays a CIA agent who's on the hunt to find Yuri and arrest him for arms smuggling, though Yuri's always one step ahead by hiding the evidence and make him look wholesome. Even when Yuri gets away from the CIA, he can't get away with the fact that his job is the most hellish thing he must deal with and it alienates him from his family, but he can't help it, because he's good with it.
This is a heavy tale coming from Yuri. Whether he's at Columbia or Liberia, there are graphic killings and massacres happening (and they are based on actual events), and it was all thanks to the guns he sold. But he never questions how customers are using the weapons, since it would hurt his business, and by the end of the day, it's all about the business. He should be considered a bad person for selling arms to criminal countries, but then we're also living in criminal countries. That's what's so nihilistic about this movie: it subliminally shows what the US and other 'civil' countries are doing even before Yuri sold his first gun. As cruel as this movie shows, it's a common practice that continues to reach massive profits, at the cost of massive casualties.
It doesn't hurt that "Lord of War" is also hilarious. Yep, despite the violent elements, the movie has a wicked sense of humor. There are many moments in this movie that laughed my butt off: the scene where Yuri and his family have to become Jewish, even though they are Ukranians; Yuri giving his brother a line of pot to sniff before sending him to rehad; a weapons convention (??); and the vicious moments that deal between Yuri and the high leader of Liberia, whose played by Kareem Sa---I mean, Eammon Walker (Damn you, OZ). Even with its funny moments, it doesn't stray far from being so brutal, and by the end of the movie, the feeling of laughter and sorrow is thought-provoking.
The problems with this movie? Well, more plot could've been involved in Yuri's youth, and the ending could be better without the view of sentimentality. And that's it, really.
"Lord of War" is a sleeper hit, and it's unfortunate that not many people have give this movie a viewing consideration. these people have missed out on the sardonic writing and brilliant concept. Don't you be the one to miss out on this shocking film, so go out and see "Lord of War"; it might shoot you in the heart (figuratively speaking).
This is Del Keyes, saying "Guns are bad, unless they're worth something."
Summary of Lord of War (Widescreen)
THIS CHARTS THE RISE & FALL OF YURI ORLOV, FROM THE EARLY 80S IN LITTLE ODESSA, SELLING GUNS TO MOBSTERS IN HIS LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD, INTO THE EARLY 90S, WHERE HE FORMS A BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP WITH AN AFRICAN WARLORD & HIS PSYCHOTIC SON.Similar DVD Movies
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