Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

They say, “Evil prevails when good men fail to react.”
What they ought to say is, “Evil prevails.”

Lord of War stars Nicholas Cage as an arms dealer who ignores his own morals until he gets in too deep with the gunrunning game. It co-stars Jared Leto (Fight Club) as his younger brother and Bridget Moynahan (The Recruit) as his wife. Ethan Hawke (Training Day) has a supporting role as an ATF agent who chases him all over the globe. This film was written and directed by Andrew Niccol, whose previous credits include Gattaca, The Truman Show, and The Terminal. This $40+ million movie bombed at the box office last year.

The film opens showing a sea of spent cartridges with Cage’s character standing in the middle. He quotes some number about the ratio between guns in the world versus the population, then comments on how to put guns in everyone’s hands. For the credits, we are treated to a brilliant and chilling CGI montage showing a bullet being produced in the factory, shipped overseas, and ultimately loaded into a rifle and fired into the head of a young boy. After that, it shows Cage and his brother (Leto) working in a kitchen of a small restaurant owned by their family. They are Ukrainian immigrants living in the Little Odessa area of Brooklyn, New York. Mob violence is all around them, and one day Cage gets the idea to get into the gun trade and make it rich.

At first, Cage only deals in providing small amounts of automatic weapons, such as Uzis, to various seedy characters around town. As business slowly develops, he begins to branch out into international territory and selling to warlords and rebel leaders all over the world, primarily in Africa. He tried to remain objective about his job and say that all he does is supply the weapons and has no responsibility for what his customers do with the guns once they get them. This film gave me the impression that it was making an example of gun manufacturers who are often sued by victims of gun crimes. Even Cage’s character makes the argument that cars kill more people than guns each year, but it is discounted. It tries to say there isn’t much difference between legal gun sales and selling guns to criminals whose soon-to-be victims are standing nearby, waiting to be killed. Apples and oranges. The implication is that only bad guys buy guns, which I wholeheartedly disagree with.

I don’t think the NRA would like this movie very much. As an NRA member, I tried to ignore some of the left-wing leanings of the film and enjoy it for what it is – a tale about a man getting involved in dirty business and having to face the consequences of his actions. This film reminded me a lot of Blow, the Johnny Depp film about the man who helped bring cocaine into the United States. Even the story moves very much the same way. This film claims to be based on actual events, but I haven’t seen anything to back up this claim. At least Blow was based on a real person who is even interviewed on the DVD.

With the anit-gun stuff aside, I thought Lord of War was a pretty entertaining movie. I’ve always enjoyed Nicholas Cage’s work and he’s great as the tormented man who forsakes everything good in life for greed mixed with fear. Jared Leto plays another junkie in this film and doesn’t have a lot to work with. I thought Hawke was great in his role, but he didn’t have but a few minutes of screen time. Moynahan, as the supermodel turned wife, has some really good scenes with her husband as she finds out what exactly Cage has been up to.

The DVD has no extras besides a few trailers and an Easter Egg that is a 30-second video from Amnesty International showing Cage talk about gun trafficking.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD