'Lord Of War has much more to offer than many other conflict-based Hollywood productions'

Rating: 8/10 (8 October 2006)

In Lord Of War, Andrew Niccol is superbly artistic in his presentation of the international arms trade. He combines clever personalities and a witty script with a number of deeply gripping and powerfully realistic scenes. In watching the movie I was entertained, educated, shocked, and above all, drawn in. Because of this, I feel that the movie has much more to offer than many other conflict-based Hollywood productions, many of which provide only a non-controversial piece of historical escapism that has little to do with current issues.
One of my favourite aspects of Lord of War is that, although effective simply as a good bit of entertainment, it does demand a certain element of thought to fully understand the point that the director- Niccol- tries to put across about the state of the modern arms trade and the lives of both those who live off its profits, and those who are dedicated to stopping it. On top of this it, he effectively explores the moral dilemmas experienced by Nicolas Cage's character (Yuri Orliv) and his wife and brother.
Overall, this is a movie that provides everything needed to create excellent entertainment, whilst exploring real-to-life moral issues in such a way as to make the audience think more about the world in which we live and why these things are allowed to exist.