Unusual and refreshing change from the normal film dross

Rating: 7/10 (7 January 2006)

Lord of War is an unusual movie in that it features an anti-hero. Someone who is not perfect, has questionable moral values and is quite happy to get ahead at the expense of his fellow man.
Cage plays Yuri Orlov, an immigrant who, bored of his small-town existence, decides to pursue a career as a gun-runner as a means of getting out of his otherwise dull lifestyle. What's more, he finds he is rather good at it and so begins the tale of his adventures on the shadier shade of life.
Orlvo is an inherently unlikeable man. He trafficks in guns, no doubt causing the deaths (indirectly) of countless thousands of people. He smokes, does drugs, marries a girl primarily because of an infatuation (not love), uses his brother whenever it suits him and is generally full of unpleasant moral leanings. In short, he should be a character we could care less about and, in fact, might hope to be brought to justice.
Yet, in spite of this and thanks in great measure to clever writing and Cage's performance, Orlov grows on you very quickly. You find yourself watching his antics (narrated by Cage himself throughout the movie) with amusement and even, in some ways, admiration.
Of course, if this were a typical Hollywood movie, you might expect that, in the end, Orlov's empire would come crashing down around his ears and he would end up in jail. But this is not a typical movie.
Instead, the final revelation of the film is one that, perhaps, we all know deep down. That, behind every bad man is another man, one step removed from the dirty-hands of the man below him and wielding more power. And behind him yet another, and so on, all the way to the top of the power tree. In short, the movie tells us that power is corrupt and that, no matter how good your intentions, there is always someone more powerful than you who is not so scrupulous.
Of course, Cage's character does lose much in the course of his career - wife, family, brother etc. But in the end, thanks to "the man above him" he walks free.
If there is anything wrong with this movie, it is the rather depressing thought that, no matter how good you are and no matter what you do to try and make the world a better place, there are always at least two people doing the opposite and, unlike you, they aren't hampered by questions of ethics and morals. Whilst perhaps portraying the world in a more realistic light than most movies, this is nonetheless a terribly depressing notion that, far from enhancing the film, actually drags it down somewhat.
However, the movie is fresh and interesting for the most part and a welcome change from the usual Hollywood shiny, happy people movies that we are so often plagued with. A few more like this won't go amiss.