|
 here
is a scene about halfway into Andrew Niccol's
"Lord of War" when international arms
dealer Yuri Orlov justifies his bloody profession
to his younger brother Vitaly with such vigor and
conviction that Vitaly can't help but relent,
replying, "My God, you're good." And so
he is. Good at selling weapons, at lying, at
faking documents, and everything else that needs
to be done in order to get his weapons from point
A to point B. What lies beyond point B is
something Yuri doesn't contemplate; or actually,
he does contemplate it -- often
-- he just doesn't admit to himself that he does.
Written and directed by Andrew Niccol
("Gattaca"), "Lord of War" is
a cleverly told morality tale with a surprisingly
creative screenplay. The direction by Niccol is so
effective and trimmed of any excess that the
2-hour running time flies by in a hail of bullets.
Our anti-hero is
Ukraine
immigrant Yuri (Nicolas Cage), who we first meet
living a pointless existence in Little Odessa, New
York. Yuri has two outlets in life -- pining for
hometown beauty Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan)
and a desire to do something big with his life.
After a chance encounter in a restaurant, Yuri has
an epiphany -- like restaurants, he reasons,
people always needs guns, because people can't
seem to stop killing each other.
And so Yuri launches himself
into the gun business, eventually roping his
younger brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) into the
scheme. As narrated by Yuri, your first gun deal
is like losing your virginity -- "you don't
really know what you're doing, and it's over way
too quick." Yuri discovers that he has a
talent for selling death (one of his clients calls
him Lord of War, much to his dismay), and his life
of international arms dealing takes off. Yuri's
string of successes are made on the backs of
history, from the Berlin years, the never ending
siege of warlords in Africa, and eventually, the
fall of the Soviet Union, which ushers in a garage
sale of munitions that, thanks to family ties,
Yuri gets first crack at. And oh yeah, thanks to
his growing supply of money, Yuri is able to
romance and eventually marry the girl of his
dreams, Ava Fontaine.
So goes the life and times of
Yuri Orlov, narrated by Nicolas Cage in a flat,
deadpan monotone (re: Cage's normal speaking
voice) that charms you at the same time as it
horrifies you. The film opens with a bullet being
manufactured in a factory before being shipped off
to an unnamed African city, where it takes the
life of a young boy standing innocently in the
street during a gun battle between rival warlord
factions. While it is political (Niccol
continuously takes pop shots at the American
Government), "Lord of War" is nowhere
near as political as it could have been. The
film's failure at the box office, more than
anything, seems to stem from the studio's
confusion about how to sell the movie to the
public.
"Lord of War" has a
tremendous and talented cast, from Nicolas Cage to
Jared Leto to Ethan Hawke in the few scenes he's
in. Cage gets so under Yuri's skin that eventually
the actor is replaced by the Ukraine immigrant, a
soulless man who sells guns because he's really,
really, really
good at it. In another movie, Yuri would be the
criminal mastermind our hero cops are trying to
shut down. Yuri's operations of deceit, bribes,
and sleight of hand frustrates Interpol cop Jack
Valentine (Hawke) to no end, as the man uses the
letter of the law like a blunt weapon. These are
all the same scenes you've seen in countless crime
movies about cops unable to "do their
job" because of "bureaucratic
paperwork". Only here Yuri is our
"hero", and the cops are the ones
showing up intermittently, the way the villains
usually do in movies told from the cop's
perspective.
It's this very original take
on what is essentially the tried and true cops and
robbers story that makes "Lord of War"
one of the most intriguing movies you'll see in
years. Is Yuri a villain? Yes, in many ways he is,
but not in the sense that he abuses his wife and
beats his son (he does neither of those things).
Although Yes, he is a villain in that he sells
guns to just about anyone and seeding war is his
business. And yet, this criminal takes care of his
brother, who seems to be permanently on the
precipice of the abyss, and secretly buys his
wife's paintings to encourage her artistry. While
he doesn't actually seem to love his wife, he does
seem to genuinely care and adore her, and in many
ways, he is a good husband and father.
In perhaps the film's most
shocking, and at the same time, horribly funny
scene, Yuri's plane, which is full of guns, has
been forced down in the middle of an African road
by authorities. With the cops racing to reach him
by car, Yuri simply opens up the plane for the
Africans in the area to loot. As we watch children
and mothers grab at boxes full of Ak-47s,
armor-piercing bullets, and grenades like they
were toys, we forget to gasp in horror at what we
are seeing because Andrew Niccol has written and
executed the scene with such brilliance.
It's moments like the one
mentioned above, of which "Lord of War"
has in plenty, that makes Niccol's movie different
from just about every Hollywood film you've seen
in decades. And yes, it is also brilliant, and
brave, and all those other superlatives critics
throw at the latest George Clooney political movie
because it falls in line with their ideology. And
yes, too, "Lord of War" is a must-see.
Moviegoers failed to discover it in theaters, but
don't be a fool and do likewise when it hits your
local video store. This is one damn good movie.
|
