Nicolas Cage’s screen presence can often change an average film into an enjoyable. Even with the brainless brawn films which are full on action feasts, such as Con Air, Cage manages to offer a commanding role. With Lord of War, Cage provides a much more sombre role as Yuri Orlav, a small times arms dealer wanting to make it big in the trade. He even has aspirations to have a relationship with the intially unattainable Ava Fontaine, a model that moves in different circles to Yuri.
The opening scene is brilliantly ironic as we watch the making of a bullet from it’s very first stages in life, to the moment it is loaded into the chamber of a weapon, and fired through the skull of an African child. It’s an unrelenting, humourous opening that poses many questions for the viewer to ask, rather than hand feeding morality with a spoon as is often the case with films from Hollywood.
As Yuri grows in stature, and brings his brother on board, the stakes grow with each trade, and competitors take note to take out the competition. His brother develops a cocaine habit, and disappears after one particular trade. Death also rears its head as Yuri puts himself and his brother in greater danger, resulting in the murderthe of a family member in Russia.
His family is oblivious to the truth of what Yuri does for a living, except perhaps to know that he isn’t doing anything legitimate. Add to this, his brother’s continued free fall into additiction and hedonism, and Yuri has more than a fair handful of human issues to deal with.
What Lord of War manages to offer is a solid story, where a man is selling arms not on any moral grounds, but on the basis of capital. Yuri states at one point that he chose not to sell arms to Osama Bin Laden, on the basis that his cheques bounced every time. Here is a man that does not see the world in black and white, but in dollar bills. As he states, this is a job he is good at, and that is why he cannot stop.
Of course, he does draw the attention of the authorities with Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) on his tail. It’s a brilliant case of cat and mouse, with Cage calling on the expertise of those he pays to swing his way to freedom everytime Valentine makes his appearance. Fortunately for Yuri, Valentine always plays it by the book, and even when he has the opprotunity to eliminate Yuri from the face of the Earth, his conscience comes into play.
There are some great performances, with Nic Cage being as charismatic as ever, and Jared Leto as his brother playing a pretty good brother turned low life. The direction is fairly well paced, and many of the events often ask you questions about the morality of what is taking place on screen. Having said that, the film doesn’t really offer a point as such, instead giving you some of the facts (with artistic license) and offering the final verdict to the viewer.
The only criticism I can level at Lord of War is that at times it’s unrealistic, and requires the suspension of disbelief to enjoy, and it’s also a rather predictable film. We pretty much know what’s going to happen, to who it will happen, and how it will happen, the question really is when will it happen, and it’s not far off from when you first thought of the questions. That is perhaps a flaw that can be levelled at any Hollywood film: spoon feeding a plot. It doesn’t take away too much from the enjoyment as the actors do a really good job on all accounts, which balances this annoyance somewhat.
Verdict: An entertaining and enjoyable moral drama carried by solid performances