"You call me evil, but unfortunately for you, I'm a necessary evil."

Rating: 8/10 (15 October 2006)

The "Lord of War" (LOW) is a simple story about a man who tried to earn a living by selling arms. The problem, as the French saying goes, "all arguments in life are about taste and tasting, "and does his story leave a smooth honey taste in the mouth to cover up the toxic poison just tasted. There are so many twists and turns, ups and downs in this movie that my short review will not do it justice. I highly recommend this thought-provoking movie that is based on true events.
There are several characters that the LOW revolves around:
Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage): A pragmatic nihilistic "It is none of our business!" gunrunner/narrator. Over twenty-five years, Yuri meets powerful people from presidents to the scum of the earth while selling his wares during every war being waged in the world. A few of Yuri's quotations sum it all up:
"There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?"
"I sell to leftists, and rightists. I sell to pacifists, but they're not the most regular customers."
"They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails.""
"I sell guns to every army but the Salvation Army."
"I never sold to Osama Bin Laden, not on moral grounds, but because his checks were always bouncing back then."
"it's not our war and no matter what we do, we can't stop it "
Vitaly Orlov (Jared Leto): Yuri's conscience plagued brother/ business partner, who after a while cannot look the other way, and uses drugs to escape what he has done.
Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan): Yuri's trophy bride and super model, who after many years, discovers Yuri is not into "transportation" when the cops show up asking questions.
Interpol Agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), Doggedly hounds Yuri for years until Yuri's business and family life starts to fall apart. Only to find out from Yuri, at Jack's moment of triumph, that reality is not black/white or good/evil. He in a retort tells Yuri, "I would tell you to go to hell, but I think you're already there."
Simeon Weisz (Ian Holmes): A big league rival arms dealer who says, "Bullets change governments far surer than votes." He sees his services as beneficial to the world.
Normally, I do not think Nicolas Cage was a good fit in several of his movies, but LOW is the sparkling exception. I can not think of any actor, other than Cage, that could effectively pull off the role as a detached arms dealer who makes the audience feel sorry for his dilemmas. The rest of the cast are also very well matched.
The film is also eerily bright, clean, and colorful. One minute you are seeing clean ordered city life, then the next minute you are in a quiet third world country with bright red blood being splattered everywhere. No matter the location, Yuri is always in an expensive suit, looking clean, and strangely out of place (Deus Ex Machina). This greatly adds to his "Lord of War" aura.