Review of Lord of War (2005) by Dawdlingpoet — 24 Nov 2021

This isn't the war action film you may expect it to be, don't expect lots of fast paced action scenes, though there are a few and its not really escapist in one sense either. Its quite a somber movie that seems pretty realistic and so is quite chilling at points. It has quite a sort of crooked ending too, though it may be seen as a bit predictable which is the movies main downside, by some, if you put a great deal of thought into where the story is ultimately headed.

It is a moral movie in a sense, certainly by the end it could have you thinking about what the movie teaches you, which I wouldn't want to give away but it ends with some rather saddening statistics and there's the element of the developing world versus the developed world and how crooked things may be in reality, much against what some people might think, if that gives a clue. It is interesting to see the way that Yuri is treated by some of the people that he deals with and the situations that he finds himself in. He shares some of his observations by way of narration at points, one dry comedy moment of sorts being when one of his clients didn't take too kindly to his rejection of being given drugs as payment for a shipment when he doesn't want to get involved in selling drugs, only firearms and the guy shot him with one of his own guns, whereby he advises that 'The first and most important rule of gun-running is: Never get shot with your own merchandise.'(!). There is a fair bit of dry humour to the narration, so expect a fair bit of that. The story itself I thought was a bit slow and certainly it wasn't what I was presuming it to be in terms of a fast paced action movie but I suppose I should have perhaps expected that with it being a Nicolas Cage movie, in that he often appears in more quirky movies that aren't quite what you expect and I thought that it was quite interesting in exploring the issues of such an industry, if industry is the relevant term(?). You can't quite figure out, as a viewer, I felt, whether or not Yuri was really evaluating the morality of what he does or not. He seems a pretty clued up kind of person that I think it becomes clear in some way that he takes the conscious decision to distance himself to a certain extent from things but what ends up happening may prove that its not possible to distance yourself fully... and thats all I'll say as far as giving away anymore of the story is concerned. There is a fair bit to it, so I don't feel that I have given away the entire story, its quite long at about two hours long.

I thought that Cage was probably a good choice of actor for the main role as he plays the part of a seemingly unflinching, fairly macho businessman quite well and he has the right sort of European ethnic look I suppose too that perhaps would seem to match his characters name and the sorts of places he tends to trade in.

Of course you might wonder if there isn't some degree of stereotyping in a sense, given the fact that the countries shown as doing the deals with Yuri in the movie are primarily in Eastern Europe (such as the Balkans) and at times Africa, rather than Mexico, South America or elsewhere closer to the US, where im sure they have and use firearms (Columbia?) but like I said under 'story', it is set during a specific time line in the 1980s and 1990s when the main wars happening were in those areas I believe, so it is fair enough in that respect I suppose.

I think that its more of a philosophical movie in a sense and at the end, it might well make you question some things. Its quite well acted and its about something serious that does go on, which makes it worthwhile being made, I feel, although it is perhaps a little slow and, again, not what some may expect or be wanting. Otherwise, yes I would recommend it.