Lord of War

Rating: 5/10 (11 March 2008)

There was a current story in the news that "Lord of War" arms trader Viktor Bout arrested in Thailand. This made me interested in seeing the movie that was more or less inspired from 5 such characters of global arms traders like Viktor Bout.
Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) is Ukrainian immigrant to US, and finds a niche in dealing with arms supply  first locally and then with big money coming in  goes international / global. He pulls his brother Vitaly Orlov (Jared Leto) to join him. The illegal trade fetches Yuri  good money and richness, a super model as his wife Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), global trotting from one continent to another  but he looses his brother Vitaly in drugs, makes many enemies, and distanced himself from humanness and morality that even poor kids from Africa using arms to kill each other does not touch his heart. Even though Yuri substantially faces emotional and moral losses  the movie still ends in a note that "Arms trade is a chic thing to go into!" A very good topic to make movie on, which the New Zealand born writer / director Andrew Niccol has always loved to rake contemporary problematic issues. Surely, this movie throws enough light on arms trade and how it takes place. Where it falls flat on its face is the inter-weaving of Yuri's family life with his business. It is poorly scripted. In addition, he has created a very superficial, one-dimensional character of Yuri, and the screenplay does not give enough scope to the Oscar winning actor Nicolas Cage to give his best. He is good, I would say above average in his role, but nothing extra-ordinary. Jared Leto over-acts. Bridget Moynahan has hardly anything to contribute to the movie.
The movie has surely some funny and engaging sequences, like the Boeing landing on remote African mud-tracks, or Russian collapse and the boost in trade etc. but it could have been a lot better.
Indian musician A.R.Rahman sold his theme music of the movie of "Bombay" for a small scene  which sounds so absurd in the scene. Why should Antonio Pinto  the music director of this movie pay such a high price for this theme and put it in a most absurd situation? May be it is creativity of highest level, that we can not understand.
(Stars 5 out of 10)