Guns are Bad

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2007)

Lord of War attempts to say something meaningful about the global arms trade however it's trapped by the two cardinal rules of big budget Hollywood action movies. Firstly, the star must be likable, even if his actions have evil consequences. Secondly big budget action films must be lively and entertaining and that means lots of violence. Although the film shows some of Africa's problems and implies that selling guns to psychotic leaders is bad it also uses violence to make the film more exciting.
Nicolas Cage is excellent as Yuri Orlov, a Ukrainian immigrant living in New York. Yuri finds working in his parents' restaurant unfulfilling so he decides to become an arms dealer. He starts off selling guns to local thugs. He expands internationally, does well, acquires a trophy wife (Bridget Moynahan) and becomes an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. Cage narrates the story and like Aaron Eckhart's character in Thank You for Smoking, Yuri refuses to accept any moral responsibility for the guns he sells. He convinces himself that the resulting mayhem is not his responsibility  he's just a businessman providing a product. He also really enjoys his job.
There are some aspects of the film that are pure Hollywood invention. Ethan Hawke plays an Interpol agent with unlimited resources who follows Yuri to the Ukraine, New York, Colombia and Africa. In the real world Interpol can't arrest anyone and doesn't have a global SWAT team or own fighter jets in Sierra Leone. Yuri travels to dangerous locations either on his own or with his coke head brother. He doesn't have a bodyguard, which makes him seem more vulnerable, but it's not really believable. The film is good fun if you don't take it too seriously. Writer / Director Andrew Niccol also wrote The Truman Show and Gattaca.