A bold if rudimentary satire, "Lord of War" is a satisfying crime drama

Rating: 6/10 (2 February 2006)

This film is, much like its granddaddy "Scarface," a guilty pleasure. Andrew Niccol's "Lord of War" is in many ways a standard crime lord rise-to-power saga, but manages to shine through the myriad of imitators with a number of daring and refreshing moves. While the plot is perfectly predictable (with a few exceptions), the cinematography is excellent and the subject matter of gun running leaves the possibility of some gutsy satire. Don't expect cinematic genius or a film that will become a cult treasure; just expect to be satisfied for two hours.
Nicolas Cage plays Yuri Orlov, a Ukranian-American who has taken to gunrunning to make his living. I must admit that at first, the name made me cringe and chuckle at the same time, but after a while I was used to it. In his pursuit is the enjoyable but entirely flat Interpol Agent Valentine (Ethan Hawke). The story follows Yuri's rise to power, his marriage to hometown beauty Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), his struggle to defeat veteran gunrunner Simeon Weisz (Iam Holm), and his evasion of Agent Valentine's painfully by-the-book pursuits. The plot can be predicted almost entirely by supplanting the standard near-misses with the law, desires to go legit, compromises of morality, and inevitable downfall. What is most impressive about this film is not the story but its sheer irreverence for moralization.
Most poignant is the introduction and opening credits. Cage's disembodied voice relates some statistics about guns that you might hear from "Bowling for Columbine." There is one gun for every twelve people in the world. We then see Yuri and he says, "The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?" After a pause for a guilty snicker, we follow a plate of metal from factor to firearm in an impressively well created (though cartoonish) point-of-view crash course in gun trafficking. The final image in the sequence is the bullet being fired from an AK-47 into the head of an all-too-young African "soldier." This seems cruel and overly graphic, but it is done in such a way that it is detached and satiric, setting the tone for the rest of the film.
The relentless clip at which the film moves helps it avoid plunging into soap box mode. We see Yuri's clearly immoral and illegal acts rapidly enough that we haven't the time to consider them wrong. Niccol's script gives Cage's narration wit and craft that makes us cheer for Yuri's slights of hand. Yuri is clever enough that we entirely forget that he is selling guns to genocidal dictators. On top of the dialog are subtle stabs at American foreign policy and philosophical hypocrisy with quips like "I sell to leftists, and I sell to rightists. I even sell to pacifists, but they're not the most regular customers." Blood splatters onto blue and white windows to make less-than-subtle patriotic images. When the dictator of Liberia rigs an election and Yuri chastises him, the dictator flashes a newspaper showing the Supreme Court intervention in the U.S. Election of 2000. While not subtle, these tactics help steer the film from being preachy for the first half of the film.
When Yuri hits his requisite moment of moral decline, the film comes to a complete halt. Nicolas Cage enters melodramatic mode and looks like he might fall asleep as he tries to portray Yuri's descent into hell (which according to the movie is Africa). The palace of the brutal, but likable, dictator is replaced by the shacks of AIDS-infected hookers. Instead of laughing at the wake of destruction left by Yuri's trade, we are left to wallow in shock-value atrocities just in case we couldn't tell the film was a satire. It is unfortunate that the film reverted to such hackneyed tactics, as it is otherwise a well crafted criticism.
Thankfully the film picks up itself up with a witty ending and more scathing remarks. It also departs from the standard crime saga with one final stab at US foreign policy and at our expectations in an ending that makes up for most the film's faults. What this film lacks in originality it makes up for in the guts to deal with such touchy subjects with comedy. "Lord of War" is appealing and satisfying enough to be worth the time.