LORD OF WAR Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Lions Gate Films
Grade: B+
Directed by: Andrew Niccol
Written by: Andrew Niccol
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Lared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Ian Holm, Ethan Hawke, Eamonn Walker, Sammi Rotibi
Screened at: Broadway, NYC, 9/8/05 If you like political movies, especially those that go after people and institutions wielding great power, you can’t go wrong with Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11" or, more recently Fernando Meirellas’s “Constant Gardener.” While the former is partisan, with a text that would anger supporters of President Bush and delight those who think the U.S. is too cozied up with the oil countries,- the latter can be applauded by everyone except for a few villains in the drug industry. Drug and oil industries aside, how about gun running? According to Andrew Niccol, who wrote and directs “Lord of War” (based on a true story), at least four permanent members of the UN Security Council are leading the pack with firearms sales to developing countries, to be used by those favored by the great powers against those who are not so favored. Niccol’s drama goes ever farther. His thesis is that in some cases, weapons are being sold helter-skelter with no-one’s claiming partisan favorites, simply to make money While the U.S., China, France and Russia are indicted for being the world’s biggest gun-running countries, the charge comes only in the film’s epilogue. Niccol casts his muckraking tools primarily against a private citizen who is financing his lucrative life style by selling firepower to the highest bidder, disclaiming any responsibility for what is done with them. His rationale is absurd: that cars each year kill more people than guns. The anti-hero is a Ukrainian emigre to the U.S., Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), whose family left the old country for Little Odessa, the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, by pretending they were Jews. (Russians were allowing Jews to emigrate in the 1980s.) Disgusted with helping his folks run a 3rd rate restaurant near the Brooklyn elevated trains, Yuri convinces his brother, Vitali (Jared Leto), to join him in a daring new business. After Gorbachev announces the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became independent, an event not entirely fortuitous: $32 billion in weaponry, largely AK-47's, grenades, and other materiel got stolen. Dealing with their uncle Dmitri, a general in Ukraine, Yuri and Vitali acquire some of the booty, go through intricate steps to hide the crates from Interpol, but seem unable to elude the Interpol agent, Valentine (Ethan Hawke), who pursues the duo as Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean was pursued by Javert. This intelligent production features some footage from Yuri’s home life: his meeting with model Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), his attempts to cure his kid brother from his addiction to cocaine. Visiting about as many countries as would James Bond, Yuri negotiates several times with a maniac president of Liberia, Baptiste Sr. (Eamonn Walker), who struts about confidently with his son (Sammi Robibi) as they offer valuable diamonds to Yuri in return for the instruments of violence. Yuri continues throughout to insist that it’s not his business what’s done with the weapons, while his more moral albeit dope-addicted brother has second thoughts as does an older gun-runner, Simeon Weisz (Ian Holm), who deals only with those he considers the good guys. Actually filmed in the Czech Republic, New York City, and Capetown, South Africa, the pic is not without comic touches that abruptly change the story’s tone without detriment. Niccol opens the tale in 1981, as Yuri and Vitale’s dad, having come to the U.S. by falsely claiming to be Jewish, winds up taking his “conversion” seriously. “You go to temple more often than the rabbi,” snaps the older man’s wife. Even the tyrant, Baptiste Sr., a killer of epic proportions, laughs regularly at his own little jokes and is shown to be a comic monster like someone from Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator.” Though Nicolas Cage narrates from time to time throughout the two-hour film, the commentary is not purely informational but is filled with the sort or irony that populates Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22.” The title is a corrupt version of the word “warlord,” the sort made infamous recently in Afghanistan but which in this case applies to the gun-runner. “Lord of War” has a knockout of a text with powerful performances to match. This is the most delightfully cynical film this year so far. Rated R. 122 minutes © 2005 by Harvey Karten
harveycritic@cs.com Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
