Lord of War (DVD, 2006, 2-Disc Special Edition)

... 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!

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.

Nicholas Cage is perfect at Yuri Olav, a Ukrainian native who's family moved to America years before. They run a substandard Russian restaurant that serves borscht (beet soup) as a staple. Their father has become a devout Jew. And Yuri and his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM) help with the restaurant. Then one day, after witnessing a failed assassination attempt, Yuri receives an epiphany: everyone needs guns. Thus the stage is set for him to become one of the premiere arms dealers in the world.

Against the backdrop of Yuri's life, we get to see the effects of his chosen profession upon his brother's psyche. Vitaly gets into drugs and women, anything he can to help him forget that he and his brother are involved in a business that allows people to kill other people. And when Yuri gives up gun running for a while, Vitaly too comes back to a semblance of normalcy. But when Yuri returns to guns, and asks Vitaly to join him, the stress becomes overwhelming (this is something that I have yet to see any other reviewer comment on and, the way Jared Leto pulls off his excellent portrayal of Yuri's brother, it's a pretty powerful message.)

I also think that many reviewers may not understand the mentality of a sociopath. Their moral compass is broken, according to our standards. So when Yuri (Cage) doesn't grow out of his morally ambiguous state, it didn't surprise me one little bit.

Also, Nicholas Cage is a deadpan actor, and that's probably why they chose him. Remember RAISING ARIZONA and the diaper scene in the convenience store? Or LEAVING LAS VEGAS? Or BRINGING OUT THE DEAD? Cage was the only person I could think of who could pull off a convincing Yuri.

I also need to comment on the brutal message that smacks the viewer. From the opening sequence in the film where we see Yuri standing in a war-torn street surrounded by a paved street covered in spent gun shells, to the scene where Vitaly witnesses the execution of children in Africa, there's not a single moment in the film where the biting reality of what Yuri does and how it effects those around him isn't displayed.

One thing that really intrigued me, too, is that I saw the film's trailer on TV long before the movie came out, and they always showed the bit where Yuri is in the airport and is approached by agents from the ATF, and Yuri says "I guess this isn't about the alcohol or tobacco." I laughed at the trailer. But interestingly enough, once that scene came up on screen in context to the rest of the plot, there was very little comedy in it and the message much more powerful and poignant.

This film definitely had it's comedic moments, but laughing at it is oft-times painful to think about because of what we see Yuri and his brother go through later.

One of my favorite movies. Excellent plot with meaning and great action. Excellent cast. Great reviews also.

Great movies it thought a lesson and great directing and script. will watch and send the dvd to movies

We love Nicholas Cage! He is an awsome actor! This movie is awesome, like all his other movies. I bought it to add to my collection!

The movie was what I expected. Nicolas Cage plays a gun runner between multiple war lords around the world. While the U.S. agency in charge of Guns, Alcohol, Tobacco are constantly on his back, when he is finally caught it seems the U.S. government needed him to continue his business. The price he paid was his family. An enjoyable movie, not one to watch a second or third time but enjoyable.

If you are a Cage fan you will LOVE this movie. No "blood & guts" but it is based on reality of the black market gun runners. I woudn't JUST recommend this movie... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this movie!!!

Features Actors: Jared Leto, Nicholas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Bridget Moynahan, Ian Holm & Eamonn Walker.
Running Time: 122 Min.
Rating: R

"Lord of War" is about a man named Yuri (Nicolas Cage) who in the early 80's decides that he doesn't want to just work in a restaurant for the rest of his life and decides that instead he wants to be an arms dealer. Once he makes his first sale, Yuri is hooked on the feeling of making big money for selling firearms, and continues to sell the firearms but he wants more and more of a profit and more and more of a challenge. It's not until an Interpol agent (Ethan Hawke) is hot on Yuri's case that he begins to question the nature of his business and whether what he is doing for a living is moral and if he should be responsible for the hands these weapons get into and what they are used for. A powerful performance by Nicolas Cage, as well as a great thought-provoking movie ensues… I love movies like this one for a few reasons. The main reason is that for the most part you can't predict what is going to happen next or where the film is going. Another reason I like movies like this is because it's powerful and its makes you think. And lastly I like a movie like this because it doesn't end in a typical way and actually leaves you feeling blown-away and surprised.

The filmed starred Nicolas Cage who lately has done of some the best work of his career. His performance here is top-notch and powerful. There are so many other people in the film including Jared Leto, Ian Holm, Ethan Hawke and Bridget Moynahan to name a few who are also very good at the roles they played. This film is written and directed by Andre Niccol the same man who wrote "The Terminal" and "The Truman Show".

I guess this movie all comes down to how open minded the movie-goers who see this are. I guess it also amounts to where you stand on the political fence. The film is not for those who don't have an open mind about things that are going on in the world today. The movie is based on true events so be warned that some of things shown in the film are happening in real life or did happen at one point in time. To be honest, I do believe what the film states in the end, it doesn't seem at all far fetched. It's like Yuri says in the film "it's not our war and no matter what we do we can't stop it" and that's true it's like smoking kills people every day but there are people who run cigarette companies everyday knowing that they are killing people every single day and getting people addicted to something that in the end will kill them. Is that moral? What can we do to stop it? These are questions this film asks and leaves it to the viewer to decide on.

Hope this helps you decide.Thanks for reading! :)

I had seen this movie once before and my husband hadn't seen it yet, so I bought it as a Christmas gift. We watched it earlier. This movie is a GRIPPING story of a gun runner who is trying to live the Amercian Dream. It is w wonderful movie. It may not be suitable for children, but it is simple A GREAT 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

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.