If there is one firearm in circulation for every 12 people on the planet, how do you arm the other 11?
This is the question on the mind of Yuri Orlov – suave, debonair and gunrunner extraordinaire. Orlov, flawlessly captured by Nicolas Cage (Adaptation), is the title character in Lord of War, which hit theaters last Friday.
In the tradition of Blow, Lord of War takes a fun, frightening and painfully realistic look at the quiet world of international gunrunning.
Stretching from the early 1980’s to the present, Lord of War is the story of one man’s odyssey around this very private sphere of commerce.
From the moment that Yuri Orlov, a poor Ukrainian immigrant, sells his first gun, he is addicted. A slippery man with a sophisticated flare and a knack for languages, Orlov rapidly finds himself right at home at the right hand of warlords, dictators, Soviets and American generals. Orlov, as he happily admits, doesn’t take sides – he just supplies them.
As Orlov’s sphere widens and his many parallel lives are pressed dangerously together, his situation becomes volatile, and Orlov is forced to decide exactly which battles a lord of war is capable of winning.
The movie is filmed with a unique and pervasive sense of grace, undoubtedly thanks to the brilliance of director Andrew Niccol, whose work you remember from The Truman Show and The Terminal.
The cinematography is reminiscent of a Russian ballet, and yet the brutal commentary that is inevitably included in a movie about arms dealing is woven in with unforgiving skill by the filmmakers.
Nicolas Cage, in true form, gives a stunning performance of Orlov. He is smart, slick and only a little psychotic.
He plays across from Ethan Hawke (Training Day) who embodies Jack Valentine, the zealot of law enforcement who has made it his business to bring Orlov down.
Complimented by lovely appearances by Bridget Moynahan (Serendipity) as the supermodel wife and Eamonn Walker (Tears of the Sun) as Andre Baptiste, Lord of War commands attention at every angle.
This movie is undoubtedly one of the best-crafted films to be released this year.
It is comic. It is bloody. It is passionate.
Above all, it paints a portrait of the world in which we live that is so vivid that you often have to shield your eyes from the brilliance.
The cinematography is beautiful, and the soundtrack is flawless.
The characters are all amazingly personified, and Lord of War is a showcase of individuals that span from endearing to deadly.
Clumsy political movies do not inspire me. 0Pretentious artsy movies do not arouse me.
This film is neither clumsy nor pretentious, and the elegance of its purpose is conveyed by characters and story so dynamic that I humbled by attempting to describe it. So I will stop trying, and leave you with this – see it. Soon.
Lord of War is deservedly rated R for violence, drugs, sex and language. It runs 122 minutes and is currently showing at Carmike Cinema near the Mall.

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