"Please, Sir, Will My Arm Grow Back?"

Rating: 9/10 (16 September 2005)

Combined with the recent release of "The Constant Gardiner", September 2005 is shaping up to be a good month for films concerning, even in part, Africa. While both films use the tried and true device of having white protagonists through which the (one assumes) white audience can relate (do you ever think that white people will ever be allowed to see black people as fully human?), "The Lord of War" seeks to comment on how Western arms dealers, and their client manufacturers and nations, cause misery and strife on a global scale.
Director Andrew Niccol helps Nick Cage deliver a relatively understated performance in a film that teeters on farce, but never quite goes over the edge. Niccol directs his actors in a uniformly believable manner. The script, director and actors all appear to have taken this project on as their moral statement. Like "Gardiner" "The Lord of War" gives a damn.
Some of the situations depicted are far too gruesome to make light of. Cage portrays an American arms merchant who travels the world to enrich himself, and to accumulate the accouterments of success. His character arc is that of an individual debating the morality of what he does, even as he is confronted with the immoral results. The purveyor of death, though, is hardly allowed to have the "good life". Can he emerge at the end of the film redeemed or punished? Or, is there another dramatic outcome? The film is as close to as perfectly constructed as one could hope: the domestic scenes counterpoint the globe-trotting and worldly events, as well as contradicts them: can one who contributes so much social disruption be allowed to have a 'normal' life? The cinematography provides some beautifully constructed shots. The locations are authentic (Czech Republic and South Africa). The music spans cultures and accentuates the drama, rather than trying to sell soundtrack albums. Producer Nick Cage appears to have put his ego aside to develop a film that is entertaining while at the same time preachy and didactic. Cage is definitely part of a greater whole, that whole being one of the best films of the year, and required viewing for people who give a damn.