| Product: |
Lord Of War (DVD) |
| Date: |
13/03/06 (101 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Good performances, entertaining, good dialogue
Disadvantages: Not as serious as you'd like, the subject matter sometimes feels a little stylized
“There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?”
Major studios normally baulk when it comes to financing anything political. Such is the case with Lord of War, a film about global arms trading. Needless to say that no bigwigs were forthcoming with the money so it was up to independent financers to foot the bill. A $24 million US gross from an estimated $42 million budget would seem to suggest that the bigwigs were right.
Nicolas Cage plays Yuri Orlov, an immigrant to the USA at an early age who decides to leave the family business and make his own way. Realizing that regular business holds small margins, he instead set’s his sights on bigger fish and becomes an arms trader. His clients include some of the biggest world powers, there will always be wars and because of that there is always the need for weaponry. Throughout the course of the film Orlov contends with the morality of his business dealings, tries to juggle a legitimate home life and stay one step ahead of Interpol.
Lord of War must be given some credit for at least trying to tell an interesting story. From the outset with it’s skilful opening titles you can see this is a film that will have some style.
I don’t really know anything about international politics but I’ve no doubt that every country deals in the kind of tactics depicted in the film. Orlov is an interesting character. Your take on him will really depend on your morals. On one hand he is a complete scumbag, creaming millions of dollars for his own personal benefit at the expense of countless innocent lives in a war torn country. On the other hand he’s just a businessman doing his job and not getting involved in the dirty business of war. He simply sells his product to the customer, takes his money and leaves. Cage brings a sense of normality to the role. I personally liked Orlov and understood his motives; Cage and Director Andrew Niccol do a decent job of not making him a complete monster that you detest for two hours. Had that been the case then Lord of War would have been a complete turnoff.
I have to say I enjoyed the film but also saw it as a missed opportunity. But then the subject matter is difficult to approach. If you’ve seen the adverts on TV for the dvd then you’d think it was a bit of a black comedy. It’s certainly nothing like that as there’s nothing funny about seeing a mother and child attacked by machete wielding gangs. It’s a tough sell, the makers have adopted an approach that simply tries to tell a story and entertain whiles offering a small piece of education and comment on arms trading. It doesn’t go for the dramatic and political approach that needs a serious tone and stark reality.
Director Andrew Niccol in the past has shown his smarts with scripts such as The Truman Show and Gattaca. In Lord of War he peppers the film with some smart dialogue.
“Selling a gun for the first time is a lot like having sex for the first time. You're excited but you don't really know what the hell you're doing. And some way, one way or another, it's over too fast.”
However he does tend to rely on a hell of a lot of voice over to tell the story. A lot of filmmakers see this as a big no no. I didn’t have a problem with it at the beginning but found it a tad tiresome after about an hour.
As a piece of entertainment I have to say I enjoyed Lord of War. It’s certainly not boring, features some nice performances and a nice bit of black humour. Where it suffers is that its subject matter is perhaps too complex and serious to have entertainment out if it. It’s certainly a difficult sell and I would have liked to have seen a darker tone at times. But it is worth a rental and at least makes you think, which is more than I can say for a lot of films out there on the rental shelf.
Summary: War! What is it good for? Three Stars In This Case
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