MOVIE: Lord of War
STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Jared Letto, Ethan Hawke, Bridget Hoynahan, Eamonn Walker, Jean-Pierre Nshanian, Ian Holm, Shake Tukhmanyan
RELEASE DATE: September 16th, 2005
WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (HBOMax, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Vudu)
By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)
Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) in Lord of War.
I usually try and start each one of these articles with something funny or insightful about Nicolas Cage films and my history of them, whether it be a lifelong favorite or maddening oblivious to one that is considered a “classic”. This week is a little different because of the subject matter and with the current political climate and some current events, I’m not going to make jokes or anecdotes. The Gauge choice this week is 2005’s Lord of War.
The plot follows 20-year arms dealer, Yuri Orlov (played by Cage) serves as a window onto the end of the Cold War and the emergence of worldwide terrorism. He finds himself reassuring his more ethically challenged younger brother, Vitaly (played by Jared Leto), while adeptly sidestepping the pursuit of federal agent Jack Lawrence (played by Ethan Hawke). The globetrotting arms dealer also pursues the woman of his dreams, supermodel Ava Fontaine (played by Bridget Moynahan). Yuri’s attempts at wealth becomes a power struggle in himself to choose between his life as an arms dealer or going straight to protect his family as violence creeps closer into both of his lives.
Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) and Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) in Lord of War.
This film is “based on actual events” and I am not here to talk about how much of this film is fact vs fiction. What I will say is, as a film, it is good. Yuri’s character development is similar to Tony Montana's in Scarface. Learning the gun trade and manipulating the system to their advantage until it blows up in their face when stuff goes wrong. The only difference is that Yuri ends up stuck in the system, forced to continue selling guns, as his world has already crumbled around him. And Yuri’s character isn’t the only interesting one. Everyone in this film is well-developed, especially when interacting with Yuri.
The only real negative I have for this film is the content. I had a similar reaction when reviewing World Trade Center. It’s too real. I don’t support gun violence and am not the biggest gun fan overall in real life. This is real stuff that is happening as we speak, right outside your backdoor. A movie that makes you think about the world. And the timing of this film coming up on this Gauge with all the U.S. shootings that have been happening recently makes it hard to fairly judge. So, on the Nic Gauge, this falls in between “Good” and “Ok”.
