Lord of War is the story of Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), a Ukrainian who immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a young boy. Yuri grows up and works in his parents restaurant, where he first sees his dream woman and eventually his wife, Ava Cordova (Bridget Moynahan). The course of Yuri’s life is altered when he witnesses and survives a shoot out between to rival Russian mobsters. At that point, Yuri had a revelation as to what his destiny was, something that was kind of similar to working at his parents restaurant…
“You go into the restaurant business because people are always going to have to eat. That was the day I realized my destiny lay in fulfilling another basic human need.”
Together with his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto), Yuri goes into business for himself, running an arms dealing business. He sells weapons to “every army but the Salvation army”, usually to warlords of poor countries. Yuri rationalizes his career path by stating that “he doesn’t pull the trigger”, basically stating that while the weapons he sell kill innocent people, he isn’t the one who does the killing, he simply gets rich provided a service someone else would if not for him.
Of course there are other arms dealers, and naturally Yuri isn’t exactly a friend of the rival Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm). In addition to the rival arms dealer, Yuri also has another problem, an Interpol agent, Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) is right on his back.
Lord of War is defiantly a good movie, reaching close to four stars if it didn’t drag in parts. Don’t go into the movie expecting a ton of action, as might be suggested by the trailer. The action is certainly there, and plenty of it, but the movie is a drama. If anything though, the drama of the movie only serves to enhance the action and the humor that is present within. The movie is narrated by Cage as Yuri, so if you’re not a fan of movies that rely on a narrator, you probably won’t like it as much.
There is something for everyone though, with the exception of young kids, though of course it is rated R. It’s certainly worth a rent at first. If you’re a Nicolas Cage fan, as I am, then it’s one that you’ll want to add to your collection.
Lord of War gets a three out of five: SATISFYING.
