El señor de la guerra

Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) is an Ukrainian immigrant living Little Odessa in New York. Vitaly (Jared Leto) is his brother. His dream girl is the neighborhood beauty queen Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan). After witnessing a gangland hit, he decides to start selling weapons along with his brother. Meanwhile, he's being hounded by incorruptible Interpol agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) and fellow gunrunner Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm).

I love the matter-of-factness to Cage's narration. The story is fascinating and spans the world. But it's Cage that sells it. He still has the charm. Before you realize it, you're rooting for an amoral death dealer, a Lord of War. Jared Leto is terrific as the drugged out brother who's struggling with more than his addiction. This is one of the better black comedies with an anti-gun message.

I recently rewatched this modern classic. Nicholas Cage remains a most accessible and plausible character especially in roles like this, where a clever fellow discerns a golden path to riches and sells his soul during the flawed journey.

In the IMDB trivia, it is interesting this movie was never funded by US sources, probably because the truth hits a little too close to home, and makes people uncomfortable. As the movie ironically points out, the biggest arms suppliers on the planet are also permanent members of the UN security council.

Back to the movie itself. Since it is based on real lords of war and warlords, it's coldly terrifying to see how easy the means for mass murder have been made available across the world. As many have noted, it is far easier to kill from a distance than from up close, giving the killers a false sense of morality and deniability.

This movie has aged very well - the insidious arms trade it highlights is as active and lethal today as it was for the last 100 years. As a beloved game series Fallout points out, "War. War never changes."

A kind of dark comedy concerning a crazy, rogue arms trader (Nicholas Cage) and delivers one of his best ever performances (in a film quite like no other). It contains a very serious message throughout and some highly quotable lines to, such as "The 'AK-47' being the biggest weapon of mass destruction, as it's killed more than anything else". The tile is a clever word play and a featured mad dictator who gets everything backwards, such as "Bath of Blood", instead of 'Bloodbath' and "Lord of War" replacing 'Warlord' and so on. Has a ring of a terrible truth, with death, destruction and murder, being such a lucrative trade.

Apart from the very serious topic, this is just an incredibly well made film. There are many scenes in this movie which stay with you long after the credits have rolled, the darkly funny ones as well as the truly horrific ones, and to me this is something only the best movies ever achieve. Intelligent and stylish: this is one of very few so called "films with a message" that I can watch again and again, because it's so cleverly constructed and so beautifully shot and acted. A personal favorite, 10 stars out of 10.

Favorite films: IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/

Lesser-Known Masterpieces: imdb.com/list/ls070242495/

Lord of War is about an arms dealer named Yuri Orlov who confronts the morality of his work while being chased by an Interpol agent. This is a very interesting film brought by director and writer of the film, Andrew Niccol (Gattaca). This is another great film of his that will boost up his career even more. Nicolas Cage puts up another great performance of the year and although his acting is very ostentatious, his narrating just like in The Weather Man, which came out a couple months later, is perfect. The dialogue is very good and the script couldn't be any better. Most of all, I clearly gave respect to Andrew Niccol, because honestly, he deserves the most credit out of any one who worked on the film. My hat goes off for him. Overall, great film of 2005 and I'll be paying more attention to Andrew Niccol's movies. I highly recommend it.

Hedeen's Outlook: 8.5/10 ***+ B+