Lord Of War (2005)

"There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?"

What can you possibly say about a movie that starts with those words? Amazed? You wanna know the last Words?

"You know who's going to inherit the Earth? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other. That's the secret to survival. Never go to war. Especially with yourself."

Now, what do you do when the person saying those lines is Nicholas Cage? Yes, one actor I've truly admired, for the variety of roles he's attempted.  In a 33 year old career, he has acted in over 60 movies. That roughly works out to 2 movies a year. TWO? In ONE year? That's a lot of work, for just an actor. This movie is directed by Andrew Niccol, a brilliant writer-director, known for having directed S1mone (2002) The Host (2013), In Time(2011) and Gattaca (1997), apart of having written two other brilliant movies, The Steven Spielberg directed The Terminal (2004) starring Tom Hanks and the Jim Carrey starrer The Truman Show (1998). Okay... So, that's why the dialogues in this movie are so wonderful? Right. Got it.

Lord of War is the story of Yuri Orlov (Cage) who starts his journey as a local arms dealer along with brother Vitaly Orlov (Jared Leto) during the 1980s before moving on to international deals during the 90s. There's also a trophy wife-cum-ex model/actress Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan) who just steals your heart, ever since her first appearance. Yuri Orlov is loosely based on Viktor Bout, a post-Soviet arms dealer, who was caught at Thailand in 2008 and is currently serving a life sentence of 25 years in the US.

What I admire about Andrew Niccol is that he succeeds in doing something that I've been dreaming of. Writing a story which is devoid of any emotions. Yuri starts trading arms after he sees a failed attack on a Russian mob-king. He lets go his parents, his brother, his wife and even his child during his journey from dealing arms locally to becoming the "Lord of War", a title given to him by Andre Baptiste Sr. (Eamonn Walker). On meeting his arch-enemy Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), who once snubbed Yuri during his initial days, Yuri says, "I sell to leftists, and rightists. I sell to pacifists, but they're not the most regular customers. Of course, you're not a *true* internationalist until you've supplied weapons to kill your *own* countrymen." Here, we see the tip of the iceberg of emotionless-ness of Yuri's character. But the fact is, one absolutely cannot the deep abyss of emotionless-ness that is Yuri Orlov. And that's a character one has to be afraid of. To compare him to The Joker won't be wrong. The following conversation gives ample proof to the above claim:

"Ava Fontaine: We have enough. You can stop now.
Yuri Orlov: It's not about the money.
Ava Fontaine: What is it about?
Yuri Orlov: I'm good at it."


But, Yuri is just as witty as he is ruthless.

"I had a flair for languages. But I soon discovered that what talks best is dollars, dinars, drachmas, rubles, rupees and pounds fucking sterling."
"Borneo Officer: We're with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Yuri Orlov: Let me guess... this isn't about the alcohol or tobacco."

"I was an equal opportunity merchant of death. I supplied everyone but the Salvation Army. I sold Israeli-model Uzis to Muslims. I sold Communist-made bullets to Fascists... I even shipped cargo to Afghanistan when they were fighting my fellow Soviets. I never sold to Osama bin Laden. Not on any moral grounds: back then, he was always bouncing checks."

"In the most AIDS-infested region of the globe - where 1 in 4 is infected - Andy's idea of a joke was to put a young Iman and a young Naomi in my bed - and no condom within a hundred miles."

One thing I liked about Yuri is that he is organized, well-informed and no matter what, he always plays by his rules.

1. Never get shot with your own merchandise.
2. Always have a fool-proof way to get paid.
3. Never pick up a gun and join your customer.
4. Never go to war. Especially with yourself.

But you know the best part of this film? The events and characters shown in this movie are as close to real characters and events as possible. This might be fiction, but isn't it always a mirror to reality?

One thing that really stands out amidst the brilliant writing and the flawless performance is the cinematography. Amir Mokri is an Iran-born cinematographer best known for Transformers 3 and 4, Man of Steel, Bad Boys 2 and Coyote Ugly. The cinematography strikes you, right from the first second. The start credits are shown along with the journey of a bullet from the factory to an AK47. That itself, sets a huge bar for the whole movie, in terms of cinematography. Having done that, Mokri lives up to the standard set by him. The establishing shots of most scenes as well as aerial shots stand out, but one can't really pin-point to a scene as the best-shot scene of the movie, thus proving that Mokri maintains his level of work throughout the film.

Why to watch? The wonderful combo of Cage and Niccol makes this movie one of the best. Coming as close to reality as it can, while maintaining the flow of events, this movie is a proper representation of the illegal arms 'bazaar' present in the world. Coupled with witty dialogues and wonderful cinematography of the various war-ravaged locales of the world, this movie has it all.

We always see all the despicable events that happen around us, but do we know who is the puppet-master? There may be a master-mind in the public, but nobody knows who is standing behind the curtain, pulling the strings.