Business as Usual: A Peek at the Weapons Trafficking World

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2006)

Director/writer Andrew Niccol makes films with layers of meaning, the kind that find us laughing at inappropriate moments because contemporary life is like that: what on the surface seems like an entertaining story has very dark roots. His previous strange films include 'The Terminal', 'The Truman Show', 'S1m0ne 'and 'Gattaca' and now LORD OF WAR takes its place in that arena of black comedy. Niccol really releases his last spear when at the end of the film there is a statement 'Based on Actual Facts' and at that point the film takes on an altogether new significance.
Yuri Orlov (Nicholas Cage) and his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) immigrate to the US to Little Odessa with their parents (Shake Tukhmanyan and Jean-Pierre Nshanian) who have posed as Jews to escape the Ukraine in 1980 - before Glasnost. Yuri is bright and sees gunrunning as a lucrative business and after his first tiny success in the gang infested Little Odessa, he convinces his dreamy-eyed brother to be his partner. The business grows exponentially as Yuri discovers his best customers are countries at war: in time he is wealthy, has married his dream sweetheart Ava (Bridget Moynahan) and settles in as one of the more successful gunrunners in the world. He buys weapons from stockpiled American ordnances after the US has 'finished' a war and sells them to Eastern European, African and South American revolutionaries. He is tracked/stalked by Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) who in his role as a government agent is determined to stop Yuri's dispersal of deadly weapons that result in needless deaths when disseminated to countries in the throes of political change.
Though Yuri is first for business, he does care deeply about his wife and child, and about Vitaly whose entry into the world of wealth is soon squandered on a cocaine addiction requiring frequent detox. Yuri is not a mean spirited man: he sees his business as just that, salesmanship of items for which there is a huge demand and he does not see himself as the perpetrator of violence. His life has moments of compassion, many moments of financial success, moments of pride in being the gifted gun-runner he has become, and moments of introspection. He hobnobs with dictators, revolutionaries, fellow gunrunners and the law. The resolution of the story is not an end but merely a tapering off.
The film is narrated by Yuri and for the first part sounds almost comedic - until the visual depiction of the killings are on screen. Niccol appears to be showing us a factual business that is legal in the eyes of the government ('Washington encourages gunrunners to take care of aspects of world control they can't be seen as condoning') and it is his gift to drive his message home about how human lives are wasted for the sake of business and weapons proliferation. The film is painful to absorb on this level.
Nicholas Cage gives a powerful performance as the opportunistic Yuri and the criminally under-used Jared Leto once again proves his fine-honed acting skills as the drugged addled innocent Vitaly. Likewise Bridget Moynahan is excellent as the wife who elects not to question her source of wealth. Key cameos are keenly provided by Ian Holms and Eaamonn Walker. The film is rapid-fire paced, the cinematography is excellent, and the impact of the film is powerful. It is unusual for a director to take on topics this controversial and end up with a film this entertaining. Recommended. Grady Harp