Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Nicolas Cage plays Yuri Orlov, the 'Lord of War' in the movie of the same name. - CONTRIBUTED
IT SHOULD not take two seconds for one to realise that Lord of War is a wonderfully conceived and brilliantly executed film. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol, it puts on display the polygamic marriage of politics, guns, conflict diamonds and drugs. It explores this world through the experiences of one man.
Nicolas Cage takes on the role of Yuri Orlov, and he delivers a great performance that allows you to simultaneously admire him, despise him and be charmed by him. In Lord of War (the extreme version of the warlord), Orlov moves from a seemingly aimless life in Little Odessa, New York, to life as an international arms dealer. Through the sale of guns he finds a purpose for living.
The Lord of War is sharp, insightful and as penetrating as the amour piercing weaponry that Yuri peddles. It often proves shocking and is refreshingly devoid of pretensions. Though one would hope that Lord of War is completely fictional, one does not need to see the tag at the end of the film to know that it was based on actual events for the reality of the situation to sink home.
The film is riddled with dark humour, some of which is so horrific the laughter may simply stop short. With one smooth shot it draws the line from gun manufacturing to the wholesale slaughtering of the underprivileged peoples of the world. It is a world where death is big business traded in by the big governments that put themselves forward as the guardians of life, freedom and liberty as well as those "freelance" agents who seize the opportunity to make a killing out of death.
The film breaks the rule of limited narration. It is as heavily narrated as a documentary but it works as the narration is continuously entertaining and consistently adds to the films dark humour as it provokes us to simultaneously laugh and be shocked at the abhorrent.
Lord of War features several great performances. Chief among them, of course, is that of Cage. He makes a great poster boy for the face of modern evil because he looks as though he could be a shoe salesman. He is that perfectly amoral beast of capitalism, who can provide the means to a slaughter and then declare that it is neither personal nor is it his business to stop the killing.
Sammi Rotibi as Andre Baptiste Jr., Jared Leto as Vitaly Orlov and Bridget Moynahan, as Ava Fontaine all deliver engaging performances. However, Eamon Walker who had artfully played Said in HBO's OZ stands out. He gives a gripping chilling performance as Andre Baptiste Sr.
It is not surprising that Yuri's journey from New York takes him quickly past the war torn areas of Europe to Africa where it appears that genocide has become the world's hobby. Lord of War makes it clear that not only is warfare big business, but that it suits the many nations of the world to allow this business to continue.
It takes the warfare out of the hands of soldiers and highlights how it affects the ordinary civilians. Furthermore, though it never seems to be preaching, despite or rather because of Yuri's constant narration, it makes the point that children - whether they are armed or unarmed casualties, are often affected.
In short, Lord of War is a shot of excellent film making that goes straight to its mark where it makes a clean entry but is far from bloodless upon its exit.
