just remember - he never sold to Osama Bin Laden

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2013)

Nicholas Cage stars with Jared Leto, Ethan Hawke, Ian Holm, and Bridget Moynahan in "The Lord of War," a 2005 film directed and written by Andrew Niccol.
Cage plays Yuri Orlov, who comes from the Ukraine with his family and settles in Brooklyn. He goes on to become the biggest arms dealer in the world, with the law (Ethan Hawke) on his trail, constantly trying to get something on him. Yuri has everything - money, the woman of his dreams (Moynahan), a son, and a thriving business. But as he says himself, "There are two types of tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it." The main character is based on a real-life arms dealer, Viktor Bout, who was finally arrested in 2008 during a sting operation and convicted in Manhattan in 2011 of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens.
Despite its chilling subject matter, "Lord of War" manages to be funny at times, with brilliant dialogue -- and no easy answers. Narrated by the main character, we see the violence, the terror, the politics, and the corruption all around war and arms deals. Yuri tells us, "I never sold to Osama Bin Laden. Not on moral grounds, it's just that his checks kept bouncing back then." How it's possible to make any part of this film funny, I don't know, but Niccol gives us some great lines to remember. The humor is mostly in the beginning; later on, the film becomes deadly serious, almost like Yuri himself. It starts with selling a gun in his room for extra money; later, he's sitting with heads of countries.
As the cynical Yuri, Nicholas Cage is fabulous and makes you like him despite his profession and the fact that he starts down a slippery slope and keeps sliding. Jared Leto does a fantastic job as his coked-up brother and partner Vitaly, who, when faced with the reality of what they're doing, has feelings about it not entertained by Yuri. Yuri remains detached; it takes the drug addict to see arming so-called "freedom fighters" for what it is.
A very different kind of movie, beautifully acted and produced, that gives one a lot of food -- and ammunition -- for thought.