Not quite sure how to describe this movie.

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2006)

The title comes from one interaction with one of his good customers, the dictator of Liberia, who has a habit of reversing common sayings. So 'blood bath' rolls off his tongue as 'bath of blood.' When he is referred to as a war lord, he says "It is you who are the Lord of War." Nicolas Cage is the Lord of War, Yuri Orlov, raised in the USA and now an international weapons dealer. He will sell to anyone at any time, because he has rationalized that he only sells weapons, he has no control over what the buyers do with them. He further rationalizes that they will get them from someone, so even if he didn't sell them, there would be no impact. But, as he describes later in the movie, he doesn't do it strictly for the money, he does it because he is GOOD at it. Plus, the profit margin on honest work is not very good, because there is so much competition.
This movie seems to work best as a very dark comedy. There are lots of funny things, not the least of which is how Nic Cage plays his character. And how he gets the girl. Former model Bridget Moynahan is Ava Fontaine, and her picture is on billboards all over. Yuri has admired her from afar for a long time, but finally takes action by contracting her for a fake photo shoot on the French coast, and also buys out the hotel so that they are the only two there. They meet on the beach, she laments that the next flight out is in several days, so he offers her a ride on the private plane he chartered, with his name ORLOV painted on the side. he just about went broke doing all that, but he charmed the girl and they were married. During their life together Ava always suspected that Yuri was into a different business but she didn't ask any questions.
This is a very unconventional movie, and may in fact be a commentary on gun sales everywhere. A footnote at the end says that the 5 countries which are on the UN Security Council are also the 5 biggest sellers of weapons worldwide. As usual Cage creates a fascinating character.
SPOILERS. When Ava asked him to quit, after she finally found out his real occupation, he did for 6 months, getting into legitimate business. But the Liberian dictator showed up, shoved a very large diamond into Yuri's hand, and said he needed him. Unable to resist he asked his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) to help. But at the site of the exchange Vitaly saw what was going on, he tried to stop it by blowing up the two trucks of weapons, only destroyed one and was killed by machine gun fire. Back in the States Yuri was arrested and questioned, but predicted he would not spend even one day in court. He correctly predicted that in a minute, a man would knock on the door of the interrogation room, tell the detective (Ethan Hawke) to release Yuri. The last we see in Yure getting a briefcase of payoff, and realize that he is being protected by the countries that have the most to lose if he exposes everything.