Niccol Trucks On With Another Good Film

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2007)

In an industry that has been brimming with socialistic enthusiasm and leftist political ideology, it takes a relative unknown to release a smart film that proves to be an entertaining watch whilst delivering a provocative message to the viewer. Directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, S1m0ne), Lord of War tells the story of Ukrainian-born Yuri (Nicholas Cage) who eagerly tries to escape the slums of Little Odessa and, in doing so, joins the thriving arms business. The film jumps from America to the crumbling U.S.S.R. to the African state of Liberia. While the obvious direction for a film depicting rich merchants suppyling arms to the third world would be an emotionally-stricken drama filled with grief and fury, Niccol takes a surprisingly fresh turn by delivering a semi-satirical film that paints Cage's character as a different kind of monster: a brilliant entrepeneur.
While the constant narration may grate some viewers, Cage's monotone voice matches his performance on screen. He's like a used car salesmen; cool and persuasive, manipulating the strings from his icy exterior. Proving to be valuable foils to Cage's largely emotionless performance, his unstable brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) and the Liberian "lord of war", Andre Baptiste (Eamonn Walker) even out Yuri's virtues and vices. The other performances, however, are secondary to Cage's solid performance. As an actor who never impressed me in the past, his recent films, including Adaptation and even National Treasure have proved him to be a more quirky, if not more versatile, actor.
The film itself is of the slow variety. As in Ted Demme's Blow, the film progresses in a linear fashion, demonstrating Yuri's growing business from year to year. The opening scenes of the film are among its most powerful; we see Nicholas Cage standing amidst a sea of bullet casings, and as a fly on a wall, we are placed on the back of one bullet, tracing its path from his warehouse, being traded and carried across the seas and ending up in a firefight in Africa, until it is shot into the skull of a young boy. Swallowing the relative slow pace of the rest of the film after this heavily stylistic intro is made an easier task due to the satirical nature of each scene, similar to Three Kings. One particular scene has Yuri evading a persistent Ethan Hawke and dumping his weapons cache into the arms of enthusiastic African peoples; the image parallels the UN food deliveries in the third world, and is one of the greatest examples of satire in the film. Despite a tone that mimics the sombre figure of Cage, Niccol manages to include a few moving images that highlight the reality of third world living (following the weapon drop, a brilliant fast-forward scene depicts an entire cargo plane scavenged for parts). There are also enough twists and betrayals to keep any viewer glued to their screens. Lord of War will not go down in history as one of the greatest films of 2005, but any film enthusiast would be amiss to give it a pass. (7/10 Good)