Political satire, and still a very good movie

Rating: 8/10 (6 December 2007)

The best thing about Lord of war: It doesn't take itself too serious.
It is very political and deep inside pretty moralistic, but it always has a more or less cynical point of view. And that is to my mind the only way to do a film about a theme like arms trade.
The alternative would be to take things serious. And show the audience the consequences. But one cannot do that! One cannot display the horrors of real life, of real war, of real genocide. That would be worse than any splatter movie. A documentary could do it. But not a feature film.
Being a cynical satire the characters in "Lord of War" lack some depth. The main character Orlov for example does not really develop into an arms dealer, he just decides to be one. Or take the sub-plot of his wife. This could have been a deep psychological study. Fortunately "Lord of War" does not really care for psychology.
The film just tells us a story about a very nice arms dealer. A man who never thinks too deep. A man who is just making money by indirectly killing thousands. He knows he may not care too much about this.
And yet one gets a very clear idea about his guilt. His relation to Baptiste (dictator and war lord) is the pivotal aspect of the story. Baptiste is dangerous, is a killer, and yet a perfect business partner. And Orlov treats him like one would with any business partner. And everyone including Orlov knows that Baptiste is a monster. One has to have a very special view of the world in order to deal with persons like Baptiste. Frightening how easy this can be achieved.
And that is what makes the whole story. How easy moral can be overrun by business.
A message presented in a laid back manner. And that is why it reaches the audience.