Lord of War (Widescreen)
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Movie Reviews of Lord of War (Widescreen)
Movie Review: Cage-Niccol Collaboration A Tour-De-Force
Summary: 4 Stars
"Lord of War" is a crafty, deceptively powerful film that comes off as a black comedy, but when measured in full effect, also serves as a potent statement on world arms, cynicism, and the very human of mental conditions - rationalization.
The movie follows the career of Yuri Orlov, played by Cage, who steadily but artfully crafts a career as an arms merchant, eventually becoming one of the world's most successful at his trade. Along the way, he accumulates a trophy wife (beautifully played by Bridget Moynahan), his brother (played by Jared Leto) becomes a drug addict, he becomes rich beyond his wildest dreams, and he acquires a mortal enemy in a persistent Interpol agent, played by Ethan Hawke.
It is not an understatement to say that Yuri goes through cataclysmic changes, and loses his soul and humanity along the way. As amoral a creature as we have seen in recent films, he can make excuses and has an answer for everything he does. Cage plays him first as an ambitious hustler who gets in over his head, then as a savvy professional, and finally, as an amoral, venal, megalomaniac who only cares about himself and his business. Everything else is to be managed, lied to, and avoided.
Andrew Niccol has become quite savvy at writing and/or directing films that make very adept and pointed social commentary with films like Gattaca, The Truman Show, The Terminal, and Simone. But he may have topped himself with this film, which take a hard look at the buying and selling of arms like any other commodity. "The Lord of War" is a fine, provocative film that takes a hard look at how cheap life can become when money and power are in play.
Movie Review: Never get shot with your own merchandise...
Summary: 4 Stars
Lord of War stars Nicolas Cage as Yuri, a Russian immigrant who finds an unusual professional calling: he decides at an early age that he has what it takes to become an international arms dealer. The film is "based on a true story" and the accompanying documentary on the DVD makes you believe that the director/writer Andrew Niccol did his homework. Most of the weapons are cold-war leftovers that Yuri acquires from high-ranking former Soviet military officers looking for a little underhanded capitalism.
Jared Leto is featured as Yuri's brother Vitaly and Bridget Moynahan is beautifully believable as Yuri's trophy bride Ava Fontaine. Ian Holm is very effective as an "old school" arms dealer who first dismisses the upstart Yuri, then approaches him later seeking a partnership. Eamonn Walker is chilling as the militaristic dictator of Liberia - a nation that was supposed to be founded as a home for descendents of former slaves, now turned into a perpetual high-stakes gang war. Ethan Hawke shines in his scenes as the "honest cop", an Interpol agent who knows all of Yuri's underhanded dealings, but won't compromise his own integrity or bend the rules to bring Yuri to justice - a fact Yuri exploits more than once.
It's not easy watching a film in which the lead character is such a scumbag outlaw, but Cage brings such an easy-going larger-than-life charm to Yuri that you're able to overlook his significant "character flaw" to get through the film. I remember feeling something similar watching the gangsters in the "Godfather" films.
Movie Review: The World of Arms Deals
Summary: 4 Stars
The acting in this film is well done. They all sell their respective parts. In this movie we follow Yuri Orlov (Nicholas Cage) from his early days in the early 1980s as an immigrant in New York to the present. One day when checking out menu of their family's competition across the street, he is witness to a Russian Mob assassination attempt. Of course the amount of ammo being used grabs Yuri's attention. For he thinks everyone needs bullets. And this is all he needs to try his hand at gun running.
He starts off his business by being a reseller of Uzi's in New York and works his way up to arming countries. As Yuri deals his product, the repercussions of his sales are not glossed over. We see the havoc and death they bring. The sad part of the movie is what Yuri says is true; most of what he does is legal. Yuri is a brilliant businessman and criminal, and can think on his feet. The movie has the feel of reality to it.
When you see the volumes of arms he sells and the death it brings. It makes a strong statement. But I think the bigger statement is the fact that the five largest arms dealers in the world are the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council itself (U.S., China, France, Great Britain and France). And they continue to sell to whom ever will buy.
Watch this movie. There are no spots in where you will be bored. But I will suggest that you do not let your young children watch it, for there are some very bloody and realistic death scenes.
Movie Review: Pretty Realistic - Except at the End
Summary: 4 Stars
Since I gave the movie four stars, it's obvious that I liked it a lot. Nicolas Cage portrayed an admittedly cynical and amoral gun runner (Yuri). The movie could, arguably, be thought of as a capitalist success story in the Horatio Alger tradition. The movie was full of scenes of gritty realism. The street scenes in various third world countries and the contrast to the lifestyles of the local ruling despots merit particular mention. There was unusual cinematography, as well - particularly the "life of a bullet" sequence at the beginning of the movie, that ends with the bullet entering a chlid's brain.
However, I found Yuri's wife Ava's betrayal of him to be unrealistic in the extreme. After all, she had been a dutiful "trophy wife" who had been living off of Yuri's so-called "ill-gotten gains" for years. Why would she, all of a sudden, out of the blue, develop a "conscience"? It made me wonder, was she having an affair with the cop who was investigating her husband, or what? Or maybe the authorities were going to charge her as an accessory or even a co-conspirator, and she "flipped" to save her own skin. Hey, it's happened enough with the mob in real life; why not here, as well?
Movie Review: A Bleak Story but Entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall I enjoyed this movie. The performances were very good. A couple of criticisms, though. The depiction of how Yuri gets into the arms business was weak: he sees someone get shot at and decides that's his career in life? Just like that? Where does he get the money to start? His brother Vitaly. I disagree with previous commenters that the brother goes into drugs because of what his brother does for a living. He was boozing it up before Yuri got into the business. I guess he's supposed to be the conscience for his brother and suffers for it, but his character just strikes me as shallow, before and after. It's a political film that slams the US as a moral cretin for permitting people like Yuri to sell illegal arms (despite the heroic efforts of one particular Interpol Agent) to ruthless and cold blooded dictators, but if not the US and Yuri, then another country and its Yuri. Of course, these same dictators are given a pass because, well, people don't kill people, guns kill people.