Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this movie is about an international arms dealer and includes explicit images of explosions, gun battles, dead bodies. An early, striking sequence follows a bullet from manufacture through sales and shipping to its eventual endpoint in a boy's head -- the screen goes red. It also features frequent cursing, smoking, sexual promiscuity and unclothed female prostitutes, as well as drug use; one of the dealers becomes a serious cocaine and heroin addict, the other becomes addicted to the rush of selling contraband. The film reduces complex points about international markets and politics.
Families who see this movie can discuss the brothers' relationship: how does Yuri take advantage of Vitali? How does Yuri's lying to his wife, Ava, become a metaphor for lying to himself? What is the function served by dogged Agent Ryan, whose moral position seems almost quaint alongside the high stakes rolling of the arms dealers? As the film argues that Yuri's deals are small potatoes next to corporate and government contractors, how does it take a stand against Yuri and/or how does it generate sympathy for him?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
Ambitious, uneven, and occasionally philosophical, LORD OF WAR ultimately argues against war and violence. While this is hardly a new idea, it's rare to find a movie so determined to make its case -- sometimes too heavy-handedly, though always earnestly. This despite the fact that Andrew Niccol's movie is something of a comedy, in that it frames its subjects -- violence, militarism, cutthroat business practices, avarice, depression, and addiction -- with dark irony.
"Selling guns," says cynical arms dealer Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), "is like selling vacuum cleaners." And with over 550 million firearms currently in circulation, sold by governments and individuals to governments, warlords, and drug dealers, Yuri looks at his chosen profession philosophically, or maybe just practically: if he wasn't making money off it, someone else would be.
Ukrainian émigré Yuri sees himself as a good enough American, having absorbed the moral, political, and legal lessons of his adopted home. He and his brother Vitali (Jared Leto) grow up in Brooklyn's Little Odessa, scamming for money and status, passing as Jews, surrounded by gangster violence. As the film skips through their childhoods, Yuri insists in his persistent voiceover, "You don't have to worry: I'm not going to tell you a pile of lies to make me look good." In fact, he does lie, in ways that are both pathological and self-deluding, but also good for business.
Yuri gets into business during the Cold War, attending conventions where bikini-clad girlies hawk tanks and ordinance. Refusing to take sides when he sells -- to highest bidders or repeat customers -- he reasons sides are unstable anyway. Nations, including the U.S., take up with allies who are most convenient and useful at any given moment. Yuri's "first break" comes after the terrorist bombing of the Marine base in Lebanon, when the U.S. leaves behind an impressive array of munitions. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Yuri's Uncle Dmitri (Eugene Lazarev) has access to much of the $32 billion worth of arms that goes "missing." And so the ambitious young entrepreneur leaps into the global not-so-black market (competing with a mysterious seller named Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), backed by his compliant muscle, Vitali.
Though Yuri talks you through Lord of War, the film hardly assumes his perspective. Rather, it underlines his many moral missteps, beginning with his inability to deal with Vitali's abrupt slide into drug addiction and including his longtime relationship with brutal Liberian warlord Andre Baptiste (Eamonn Walker) and his military officer/psycho-killer son Andre (Sammi Robibi).
Less effectively, the film sets Yuri against Interpol Agent Ryan (Ethan Hawke), who essentially embodies the legal system that has so little to say about international gun-running. Similarly schematic is Yuri's primary prize, literal supermodel Ava (Bridget Moynahan), first revealed in his version of events as a hometown/dream girl, waving in slow motion in a Brighton Beach parade, then locked in his memory and eventual present as ultimate object of desire.
While Yuri plainly gets off on risk -- the threat of violence, the possibility of getting caught -- he's also broadly representative of cavalier attitudes toward risk concerning vulnerable individuals and communities. As he resists considering moral or cultural dimensions when making sales, he becomes an addict himself. Though the film is not subtle, it does make its case: taking sides is inevitable.
Families who enjoy this movie might also like Niccol's Gattaca, a similarly pointed examination of genetic engineering. Other movies that consider the moral questions raised by international and corporate corruption include The Constant Gardner, Terminator 3, Jackie Brown, and, most sensationally, Team America: World Police -- for adults only.
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Sexual ContentProstitution; several undressed women and R-rated sex acts. |
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ViolenceExplosions and action, as well as brutal torture and murders. |
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LanguageHard, pointed cursing; frequent f-words. |
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Social BehaviorIn spite of an ultimate stand against violence, the arms dealers are not redeemed or sorry for what they do. |
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CommercialismTheme is selling arms, with references to commercial culture specifically. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking, smoking, drug use; addiction is a theme. |
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