Lord of War (2006, DVD)

... A Message Movie!

This Film starring Nicholas Gage, Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke is entertaining as well as telling a gripping story of what is happening out in the 'real' world in a 'reel' story.

Nicholas deadpans a lot of the story, as he is telling it from the beginning, but it one that will hold your interesst from when he starts it to when he ends...

Fascinating story based on 'actual events', so much so that you really believe that is real!

It is on the 2nd disc, with the Bonus Features, that you really see that this film is setting forth a message. It gives the background of current arms deals, why the mountain of small arms has moved into West Africa and other conflict areas in the world.

This is not a light movie, not a popcorn movie, but a movie that conveys what it wants to say in an entertaining way.

The three named actors all portray their roles very well, and you are immersed in the story due to all the detail that is placed in by the writer/producer Norm Golightly. Recommended for viewing, but this film is not an upbeat movie!

"Lord of War," despite the fact that it fits in a jewel case, is not a movie: it is a message. Writer and director Andrew Niccol pounded that message home with a large hammer, but in so doing seems to have deliberately sacrificed most of the possible ways that a motion picture can draw the viewer into itself.

Start with the narration--a lot of it--by Nicholas Cage, mostly speaking off camera in voice-overs while the action goes on, but sometimes reducing himself to a talking head, staring into the camera, punctuating his lines with a puff on whatever he is smoking at the moment. The quantity and quality of the narration overwhelms the rest of the movie, leaving a great ensemble cast with nothing to do but shuffle on, do the cardboard bits that Cage has just told us to expect, and shuffle off again. Ethan Hawke (Training Day), Bridget Moynahan, Donald Sutherland, and of course Cage himself are all fine performers with much more potential than they are allowed to use.

Eamonn Walker, as Liberian dictator Andre Baptiste, Sr., is perhaps the most entertaining of the subordinate characters. He prefers things his way, and it is his habit of re-casting certain English words into eccentric phrases (e.g., blood-bath into "bath of blood") that gives the film its title, when Baptiste/Walker turns "warlord" into "lord of war." The only thing is that he repeats that gimmick four times--and it has to be explained to the audience, in case anyone missed it. In this manner, potential "nuances" like Walker's quaint speech pattern, Cage's grammatical tobacco inhaling, and also Cage's character's preference for one and only one sexual position, all become not nuances, but simply cliches.

True, Jared Leto achieves an emotional break-through when he has an epiphany during the final stages of negotiating a particularly unsavory arms deal. Niccol does his best, however, to dampen the impact of this by having Cage direct everybody's attention to Leto's character before the key scene is acted out. Hey, watch the kid, everybody!

The transition from nuance to cliche almost makes it to farce if anyone stays around for the closing credits. The viewer by that time has glimpsed--and I mean glimpsed--a shadowy Marine lieutenant colonel played (at) by the talented Donald Sutherland, who must play a mannikin with lots of campaign ribbons. In the credits, his character is identified as "Lieutenant Colonel Oliver SOUTHERN." Chick-a-boom! For viewers too young to remember, LTC Oliver NORTH, USMC, played a key role in the Iran-Contra arms deal scandal under the Reagan Administration. I get it, Andrew, I get it.

The individuals in the cast of "Lord of War" don't have to take a back seat to the equally stellar crew that did "Traffic," but comparison of the conceptual design of those two movies speaks volumes about how, IMO, a global problem can and cannot be treated effectively in a dramatic presentation.

Wikipedia says Amnesty International loved this movie. I'm sure they did. They are pursuing a noble cause and have a right to be pleased when that cause is publicized, but as a dramatic production, this left me totally cold. With the one exception noted--Jared Leto as Vasily Orlov--the characters are what they are from start to finish, with no development allowed inside the Niccol straight-jacket of Cage's narration. Only an NBA ref could endorse Ann Hornaday's Washington Post verdict that this is a "stylish, provocative thriller."

Great movie love to watch it at lease once a month. Great acting, great story & all around awesome.

GREAT DVD FOR ANYONE WHO THINKS THAT MONEY CAN BUY LOVE AND LIFE-ALSO SHOWS HOW MANY OF THE WARS AROUND OUR WORLD GET STARTED AND THE FALL OF THE POOR PEOPLE THAT JUST WANT TO LIVE THEIR LIFE FREE

THIS MOVIE SHOWS ALOT OF HOW THE GUN WORLD REVOLVES.FROM THE PEOPLE BUYING THEM,TO THE PEOPLE USING THEM.TO THE PEOPLE SELLING THEM.NICOLAS CAGE PLAYS A GREAT ROLE AS AN ARMS DEALER.I DONT WANT TO SPOIL THE MOVIE.SO THATS ALL ILL SAY.THIS FILM IS GREAT.

This movie is perhaps the best example of Nicolas Cage's ability to do deadpan black humor. Cage plays a Ukrainian immigrant to the U.S. who becomes a high-stakes international gun trader. The movie raises all sorts of questions about the morality or lack thereof in arm sales but it also points the correct finger at governments rather than the individual dealers. Politics and your position on guns aside, the movie is very entertaining as you watch Cage coldly learn arms dealing one deal at a time and narrowly escape arrest or death in deal after deal. Beyond guns and international intrigue, the movie has plenty to offer on just the concept of how fixation on business takes a toll on family. And if you really don't care about any of that, you can just sit back and be entertained by such scenes as watching African locals completely dismantle and carry off an entire Soviet-era cargo plane in a matter of hours but condensed by time-lapse photography to minutes.

It makes you wonder if the goverment we have today is doing the same stuff to the people. Its all about power and money and how it can control your life.

This is an awesome movie, the main reason I purchased the movie was because of Nicholas Cage. He is such a wonderful actor. There is plenty of Action in the movie that makes it worth watching over and over

Nicholas Cage is wonderful in this movie... he plays a great gun dealer! Ukraine native brothers begin a gun trade, selling multitudes of guns to war leaders of different countries around the world. The business is a risky one and a definite trial of morals, but seemingly worth the payoff. Yuri (Nicholas Cage) performs one of the world's necessary evils and loses his wife, his family, and his brother in the process. Lord of War is a filled with drama, action, and sometimes comedy. The movie is based on true events.

This is a very well constructed film about a subject not portrayed in film very often. The acting all around is solid with kudos to Nick Cage and Ethan Hawke. The director uses visuals to bring home a feeling, rather than dazzle us with tricks. I can not recommend this film enough to people.

I bought the DVD as a just because present for my boyfriend. I also really liked the movie. The plot was interesting and realistic. It reminded me alot of goodfella's because it shows how exciting life on the edge can be, but if you don't know when to bow out gracefully you're going to fall.

One of my favorite films, the commercials for the movie made it seemed like an action packed thriller but it is instead a dark, sobering movie.

To me, this is not a comedy movie, however it does have the Nicholas Cage touch to it. It is a great story and very related to real life. I am a Nicholas Cage fan and love all hir movies, but this one is one of his best movies ever.

I thought this was a really cool movie. This guy and his brother sell guns all over the world. A relentless customs agent pursues them. They have their ups they have their downs. But that’s life when you sell thousands of guns a year to people like Liberian dictator Andre Baptiste and his rather crazy son.