A meaningfully deep film on the state of international arms dealing marred only by unnecessary dramatization

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2020)

Nick Cage is one of the stranger actors in Hollywood. His name associates with a cult following in memes and low-budget films. In fact, the more I write this, the more I'm unsure if he was the best choice for the casting of this film (he's not bad in this movie, but it's hard to say he added value to the script). The merits of Cage aside, the story of this film is wonderfully well fleshed out. The opening sequence of Cage's Yuri Orlov musing on the "undersaturated state" of global firearms followed by a quick and brutal montage of the life of a bullet from production to a child soldier's head sets up both Cage's character and the tone of the movie well in an impactful and concise manner. It's one of the best opening sequences in film and something that really sets expectations for the movie.
The strongest aspect of the movie is far and away the writing. The movie is speckled with gems like "They say, 'Evil prevails when good men fail to act.' What they oughta say is, 'Evil prevails.'" as it trots along in it's unfortunately realistic sense of pessimistic narration. For the most part, the writing is enough to hold your attention and redirect it from the immersive and superfluous dramatization of INTERPOL agents, women, and Yuri's "melodramatic" wife, but these parts didn't contribute positively to the narrative of the overall movie.
In all, Lord of War is a good movie that executes on it's themes and narrative well but could improve with several revisions in casting and dramatic portrayal.
7.8/10