Movie Review: Lord of War
Lord of War is a hard film not to like.
It’s funny because the movie is so pessimistic in its sense of life. It tells the story of a Ukrainian gun runner and his adventures in illegal weapons dealing with African warlords and former Soviet military officers. A film like this could easily fall into the trap of being super preachy or melodramatic, as in films like Traffic or Crash. For me the best way to tackle these subjects is to embrace the darkness and focus on strong characters. This is what Sicario did so well. Lord of War is similar but more stylized and more funny.
The movie opens with Nicholas Cage talking directly to the audience followed by a sort of music video showing the journey of a single bullet ending with it being shot into the head of a child soldier. Like many other elements of the film it’s all rather on the nose but well-executed. From there we have a really well-paced origin story for Yuri as we see his journey from Brighton Beach to the underworld gun trade with his capricious brother Vitaly, played wonderfully by Jared Leto. 30 minutes into the film we get our expected complication — a love interest for Yuri, a model named Ava who ultimately triggers Yuri’s downfall. We also meet Yuri’s antagonist, an idealistic Interpol agent named Jack Valentine who hunts him relentlessly for the duration of the film.
The brisk pacing in the opening allows the movie to take its time on developing its themes and characters effectively in the middle section. We get to know Yuri’s brother Vitaly quite well, we see his struggles with drug addiction and his underlying wanderlust. This makes the tragedy he suffers at the end of the film more impactful. The story beats in Liberia are also quite memorable not only in what they reveal about Yuri’s character but also in their social commentary about western naïveté about much of the continent.
It is not a flattering portrayal to be sure, but it makes an important point about good intentions not being enough when it comes to fighting evil. Yuri sees himself as a symptom of that evil, justifying the lavish lifestyle his arms dealing affords him by saying that if not him some other person would be doing it anyway. He isn’t wrong but it doesn’t make him justified. The film actually takes an interesting turn with this idea by having Yuri’s wife convince him to go legit, which he does successfully for some time until (rather contrived) circumstances force him back into the life.
The final interrogation scene between Yuri and Jack is almost perfect, only slightly undone by Jack’s rather corny final line. The dark reality allowing Yuri to walk out of Interpol custody really sells the film’s cynical theme. It emphasizes the pointlessness of Vitaly’s tragic end. In our fallen world there are no easy answers to questions of sovereignty, violence, and moral righteousness. There will always be corrupt governments and freelancers ready to put expedience over principle. It is perhaps apt that Viktor Bout, the real-life Yuri who inspired the film, was recently released from a U.S. prison as part of a questionable deal with Russia. Art imitates life, life imitates art.
Lord of War is both entertaining and insightful. In its best moments it can even be both, such as Yuri’s line during his ode to the AK-47, “It’s so easy even a child can use it, and they do.” It oversimplifies and can be cartoonish at times particularly the Liberia and Soviet Union sections, but they all serve the broader ideas and characters purposefully. There are no wasted scenes here. What’s more this may be one of Nicholas Cage’s most nuanced and artful performances of his career. That alone should be reason enough for many to check this out. I can also recommend it just for how well-shot it is thanks to Andrew Niccol’s excellent direction. As in Gattaca he shows off a knack for visual storytelling that stays in your head long after the credits roll.
Grade: B+
