The Fact Much Of It Is Made Up Explains A Lot

Rating: 5/10 (22 June 2013)

One thing I didn't find clear with Andrew Nicol's 2005 film LORD OF WAR of how does a nobody called Yuri Orlov find himself becoming an international arms dealer ? One minute he's selling a firearm in New York then in the next scene he's in Lebanon selling weapons to different factions of a particularly bloody conflict . Let me get this straight , a conflict that has been waging for several years that has seen thousands die and has many thousands of combatants armed by regional and international powers needs a man who's just come off an aeroplane for its arm supplies ? He must have been carrying very large suitcase . Like wise airport security must be very lax in that part of the world . As the story continues and we get constant voice over Yuri Orlov globetrots all over the planet getting richer as he sells more and more weapons but never gets round to explaining the mechanics of how all this works . There's a very good reason for this
LORD OF WAR opened to great acclaim from organizations that aren't known to comment on films such as Amnesty International and the fact that anyone praises a film starring Nicholas Cage makes you sit up and take notice . The fact is despite being based on real life events and characters Yuri Orlov is a composite character . This explains a lot as to how a son of a New York store owner suddenly and implausibility becomes a major player on arms market and supply around the world but at the same time it means a film portraying an important topic ironically loses its own integrity
Like so many other films that have an important topic as its subject matter LORD OF WAR has received more acclaim than it probably deserves . As a piece of film making it is deeply unsatisfactory , The scenes jump around from location to location or rather one different warzone to another different warzone every few minutes without much explanation . The film is also too reliant on voice over and yet as with the locations there's little filling in the audience as to how Orlov set up the deal or even who he is dealing with . I know the film feels the need to scream " Oh Orlov is a bad man because he's selling guns to make money " but more explanation is needed as to the why , how what and where of the scenes - especially the how . Compare this to the narration used in so many Scorsese movies and you'll see how unsatisfactory Nicol's screenplay is
And LORD OF WAR is in humble opinion a very unsatisfactory movie along with being a very simplistic one . Orlov is a bad man because he sells weapons to people and the film gives the impression that if he is caught by Interpol the whole world will suddenly ascend to perpetual peace . In other words the arms trade in general and the illegal arms trade led by men such as the composite character Yuri Orlov is to blame for the world's conflict . This totally misses out the point that most countries experiencing conflicts are caused by failed states , the international drugs trade and refusal of government to legalise drugs , religious intolerance and a lack of democracy and the arms trade is only a symptom of the disease . Don't believe me ? Then name me a war between two secular democracies ?