Lord of War (2006, DVD)

Yuri Olov is a resident of New York City, working for his parents at a family restaurant. His family is of Russian decent, but are now claiming to be Jewish in order to blend into their surroundings. His life is pretty uneventful, until he witnesses a shooting next door, and convinces himself that he wants to start selling guns for a living. Convincing his brother that they should work together on this endeavor, they set out to be the newest kids in the gun-running business. The movie shows how Olov gets his start selling small guns, and how he moves up the ranks in influence and power over the years. There isn't a person or country that he won't deal with, and he even ends up selling guns to people at war with his own home country. If there is money in it, Olav is willing to sell anyone anything at any time. This is a huge insight into the main character of the film, as we get to see that the only real morality that he has, is the one that he sets for himself. Instead of giving the film a positive protagonist, we as an audience are left with someone who barely even seems to be human, let alone a person with a conscious.

Nicolas Cage is in the lead role of Olav, and Lord of War is really his movie to make or break. We are given quick back-stories on how he got involved in the sale of guns, and then the film becomes almost an autobiography narrated by Olav himself. There are many, many voice-overs that go along with the way this film is made, and there are even times when he turns to the camera and talks directly to the audience. This has been a tactic used many times before, but in my opinion it really fell flat in Lord of War. One of the main reasons it fails, is that the creators of the film want to make Olav seem like he is the lessor of evils involved in gun-running, by showing him as someone just taking advantage of a situation. We are instructed to feel for him, because he is in a position, that if he were to give up, would just be filled by someone else. So this excuse is what the psyche of the character is based on for the duration of the film. Not only that, but Olav can't stop dealing in guns because he feels he is so good at it, that he sees it as a travesty to just stop doing it on a whim.

Playing the role of Olav's brother Vitaly is Jared Leto, who some may remember as Jordan Catalano from the television show My So-Called Life. He is in his normal, be quiet and look good while doing it type of role in the film, as he plays second fiddle to the success that Olav has been having. He is never quite on the same page as his brother, and that causes him to fall victim to many addictions throughout the movie. There are some qualities of his character that I liked, but the film really belittled them by giving more attention to his problems with drugs and alcohol. In the end, his character is not given enough screen time for him to create an impact with the audience, because he is used more as a piece of scenery than a star actor. The third main actor in the film is Ethan Hawke, who plays the Interpol agent that is tracking and trying to take down Olav. He is a by-the-book type of cop, who follows the exact letter of the law in order to bring down the criminals that he is tracking. It is going to be a tough thing for him to do with Olav though, because the man is good at making everything illegal that he does look clean. Hawke is pretty good (I think he always is), but he is another character under-used in this movie.

People will claim that the character Cage plays is supposed to be stomached in comparison to the evil people that he works for and does business with. There are plenty of moments that are intended to be funny, and intended to gain sympathy for the main character in Lord of War, but they are fail miserably in my opinion. The movie intends to depict a gun-runner helping to kill his own countrymen as someone that is just being swept up in the moment, and really has no reason to stop what he is doing. We get to see him lie to women to get them to like him, break many laws in a fashion that is intended to be exciting and humorous, and we even get to see him participate in murder. Did I say get to? I meant forced to. Take away the intentions of the film and all you have is a movie about boys with toys. From guns to helicopters to tanks, you will get your fill of all of the weapons of war, and if you find it exciting to see them put to use, then you may be interested in this film from that standpoint. But if you are looking for a story where you can support the main character, where the story doesn't get muddled by its own attempts at being interesting, or where the ending is worth sitting through 2 hours of gun selling, then you need to go elsewhere. Lord of War was a film that had the acting talent to be so much better, but instead became a movie that will soon be forgotten.