Excellent real-world fable

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2006)

Nic Cage is the world's most successful arms dealer in LORD OF WAR, which follows his story from childhood to middle age, at which point he is on the verge of losing everything that is dear to him as he continues to heed the call to arms. The script is a marvelous distillation of the madness and mayhem of the wars that have taken place across our globe in the last 30 years. Cage is compelling as a manic gun dealer, and plays his role in a most deadpan and droll manner. The cinematography is astonishing, especially in depicting massive convoys of war planes and tanks and endless weaponry rolling through the war-torn landscapes of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Russia. The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Jared Leto as Cage's drug-addled brother and Bridget Moynihan as Cage's adoring but disillusioned wife. A must-see.