Film Review: Lord of War

Director: Andrew Niccol

A 2005 crime drama which was written and directed by Andrew Niccol who was mostly known for writing the screenplay to The Terminal and The Truman Show. The human rights group Amnesty International officially endorsed the film for highlighting the problems with arms trafficking and the international governments that either aide it or ignore it.

Yuri Orlov (Nicholas Cage) in the Soviet Union after the end of the Cold War

Yuri Orlov (Nicholas Cage) emigrates from the Soviet Union to the USA with his family at a young age. With all the Russian mobsters now battling each other in New York he decides that everyone will always need weapons so he decides to become an arms dealer. He gets his first big break in Lebanon during the war in 1982 where he sells guns to both sides in the conflict and goes on to greater things from there but not without a few brushes with Interpol and Agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke).

The subject of international arms dealing has been an ongoing problem for years and has now ramped up significantly since the Second World War, this film does help bring this to light but also fails to really cut deeper into the heart of the subject. It throws some thinly veiled criticisms at governments on the UN council at the end but spends more time discussing the issue of the wars continually fought in Africa where most of Yuri's customers lived and ruled. This was a prime opportunity to put Western governments in the spotlight which was missed until the final few seconds of the film. But overall the film itself depicts a world that many are unaware of and brings an intriguing topic to light.

André Baptiste Sr (Eamonn Walker)

Nicholas Cage is smooth and slightly smug as the character should be but his constant narratives proved slightly irritating and annoying as the film wore on. His rules for being a gunrunner were entertaining but I feel the film focused too much on the character of Yuri and his life with his family and new wife back in America. I understand that they need to create the character around Yuri but felt this was taken too far at the expense of a deep story about the illegal arms trade. The star performer is Eamonn Walker as the ruthless dictator André Baptiste Sr who is waging a civil war with his people in Liberia.

The plot itself takes on numerous different settings but fails to have one overall arc that keeps you enthralled, the threat of being caught by Interpol is often too easily dodged. Ethan Hawke comes across as a bit too rough and uncouth to be an Interpol agent working in the field, I expected him to be a more intelligent character in his attempts to hunt down Yuri and catch him in the act of trading weapons. Overall this is a decent, entertaining movie with a message but could have been so much more.

2/4 Intelligent examination of gun trade but doesn't live up to its potential