Lord of War

Robo Nicolas Cage: far superior.

There are few movies that you can watch again and again just months apart. Fewer still that manage to not progressively suck with each viewing. 2005’s Lord of War is just such a movie. I know I’ve given Nicolas Cage a lot of shit in the past, and fair enough because he deserves it for movies like Ghost Rider and Knowing, films so bad it’s actually physically painful to watch them. But this movie is different. It was hard for me to sit down and watch it, not because it’s bad – I love this movie – but because it’s a movie that makes you think. It makes you wonder, “what would I do?”, and, “Is this right?” It’s a movie that makes you stop and really look at yourself and society, highlighting that rarely seen grey area between legality and morality.

Lord of War sees Nicolas Cage as an arms dealer of some notoriety. Throughout the movie we find out his feelings about his work. For him it’s purely about business, even stating, “I prefer people to fire my guns and miss. Just as long as they are firing.” His brother, Jared Leto of ‘30 seconds to Mars’ fame, doesn’t feel the same and tries to talk Cage out of it at every opportunity. Wuss. This is a film that dares to ask the difference between ‘right’ and ‘good’, and believe me there is a difference. It doesn’t tell you one way of the other, but instead lets you make up your own mind on the subject.

It isn’t until the end credits that we see this film is based on actual events. Not surprising, really. If there is a way to make money out of exploiting people, someone will find it. Humans are really such amazing animals. You also see a pretty close representation of what it is like in western Africa, with eleven major conflicts involving twenty three countries in less than a decade. These countries are right up there on the list of shit that’s fucked up. I won’t go into some political rant here about Africa. I don’t think I need to. There are other places in the world just as fucked.

Ethan Hawke-man plays an Interpol agent with a sense of duty and an unwavering grasp of the law. An honest cop, a rare commodity indeed. I like Ethan Hawke, especially since he decided to quit as front man for Sugar Ray. He’s fantastic in this film, and so was Leto if I’m being honest. Nicolas Cage has a pretty convincing wig on this time. Far more so than in Bangkok Dangerous – where it looks like someone stapled an old mop head to his scalp. Ian Holm also makes an appearance as a rival gun runner and Bridget Moynahan is Cage’s smoking hot trophy wife. Unfortunately there is little to no nudity, so in that respect this movie can go fuck itself.

Your political opinions may change, hell, the way you see the world may change. This film is more than a great story arc and fantastic directing, this is a story of how the other side lives and just how much the actions of a few can affect us so strongly. As I said before, this is a brilliant movie that will make you question your morals and your opinions of right and good. Is it more important for you that you support the lives of you and your family, or the lives of complete strangers? Maybe it’s selfishness, or maybe it’s just my human instincts, but I’d take the money every time.

They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."