Lord of War is a 2005 crime war film written, produced and directed by Andrew Niccol and co-produced by and starring Nicolas Cage. It was released in the United States on September 16, 2005, with the DVD following on January 17, 2006 and the Blu-ray Disc on July 27, 2006. Cage plays an illegal arms dealer with similarities to post-Soviet arms dealer Viktor Bout. The film was officially endorsed by the human rights group Amnesty International for highlighting the arms trafficking by the international arms industry.
Plot details
The film begins with a voice-over introduction by Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), a Ukrainian-American gunrunner: Over 550 million firearms worldwide means one firearm per twelve people on the planet; he wonders how to arm the other eleven. Opening credits are set to the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth", and depict the life of a 7.62×39mm cartridge from construction in a Soviet Union weapons factory, to being shipped across the world to an African warzone, loaded into the magazine of an AK-47, and fired into the head of a child soldier.
In the early 1980s, Yuri is visiting a Brighton Beach restaurant, where a Russian mobster kills two would-be assassins. He is inspired to go into the arms trade, comparing the constant need for weapons to the similar human need for food. At his father's synagogue, he contacts an Israeli to obtain an illegal Uzi. After completing the first sale, Yuri convinces his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) to become his partner, and they leave their jobs at the family restaurant behind.
Yuri's first big break comes in the 1982 Lebanon War, when he sells guns to all sides of the conflict, despite witnessing war crimes and atrocities. As Yuri becomes more successful in the war's aftermath, his business comes to the attention of Interpol, and in particular idealistic agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke). Valentine is after glory rather than money, making it impossible for Yuri to bribe him as he does other government agents within Interpol and elsewhere in 1989.
During a sale in Colombia, a drug lord pays with six kilos of cocaine instead of cash, and shoots Yuri with one of his own pistols when the two argue. Yuri relents, later finding the sale of the cocaine paid better than money would have. After sampling their profits, Vitaly becomes heavily addicted and eventually burns through an entire kilo. After several months, Yuri checks Vitaly into rehab, and continues alone. He lures childhood crush Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan) to a false photo shoot and subsequently marries her. They later have a son, Nikolai (Nicky).
Yuri's second big break is the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After Mikhail Gorbachev resigns on Christmas Day 1991, Yuri flies to Ukraine and illegally buys tanks and weapons through his uncle, a former Soviet General. Expansion to Africa leads to Andre Baptiste Sr. (Eamonn Walker), a ruthless dictator waging a never-ending civil war in Liberia. During one flight into Africa, Yuri's cargo plane is intercepted and forced to land by a fighter jet commandeered by Jack Valentine and Interpol. He escapes arrest by landing outside the nearby city, and by simply handing out the cargo to locals, he ensures no weapons are on the plane by the time Valentine arrives. Surveillance of Yuri and his activities continues at his home in the United States, however. Unable to charge Yuri, Valentine tells Ava he is an arms dealer, prompting her to confront him and demand he stop his illegal business. For a time, Yuri agrees, but Andre Baptiste Sr. offers him even more money and soon he goes back.
Yuri soon goes to complete a sale in Africa in 2001, where a militia force allied with Andre Baptiste Sr. is visibly preparing to destroy a refugee camp. When Vitaly sees the militia hack an escaping woman and child to death with a machete, he pleads with Yuri to walk away. Yuri refuses; if he backs out, the militia will simply kill the Orlov brothers along with the refugees. Taking matters into his own hands, Vitaly kills Baptiste Jr. and steals a pair of grenades, destroying one of the two trucks carrying the weapons being sold. Before he reaches the other truck, RUF soldiers shoot him. Yuri approaches his dying brother, and restores a grenade pin and tosses the deactivated grenade to one of the killers responsible. The diamond payment is halved for the remaining weapons.
At home, Ava follows Yuri to his secret shipping container of supplies. She leaves with their son and Yuri's parents disown him after learning the truth. When the U.S. Customs finds a bullet in Vitaly's corpse, Valentine arrests Yuri, who predicts, correctly, that a knock at the door will signal his release as a "necessary evil" who distributes weapons so major governments can deny involvement. Despite his losses, Yuri returns to arms dealing. Yuri remarks that it's what he does best, and that arms dealers are most likely to inherit the world one day "because everyone else is too busy killing each other." His final advice to the viewer is, "Never go to war, especially with yourself."
An onscreen postscript states that private dealers conduct less business than the five largest arms exporters â€" the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China â€" who are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
Cast
- Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov
- Ethan Hawke as Jack Valentine
- Jared Leto as Vitaly Orlov
- Bridget Moynahan as Ava Fontaine
- Eamonn Walker as André Baptiste Sr.
- Ian Holm as Simeon Weisz
- Tanit Phoenix as Candy
- Donald Sutherland (voice only) as Colonel Oliver Southern
- Weston Coppola Cage as Vladimir
- Sammi Rotibi as André Baptiste, Jr.
- Eugene Lazarev as General Dmitri Orlov
- Kobus Marx as Boris
- Liya Kebede as Faith
- Jasmine Sais Burgess as Gloria
Historical accuracy
Plot details on the illegal arms market, particularly regarding purchases for West Africa in early 1990s, are closely based on real stories and people originating from the former Soviet Union.
- The main protagonist, Yuri Orlov, is loosely based on several people.
- His character as the world's arms dominator is based on Lebanese-Armenian arm dealer Sarkis Soghanalian.
- He shares his surname with Oleg Orlov, a Russian businessman arrested in Ukraine on suspicion of smuggling missiles to Iran. In 2007, Oleg Orlov was strangled in Kiev's Lukyanivska Prison during the investigation into his activities.
- History (The History Channel) claims that Orlov's life is based on Viktor Bout, a convicted arms dealer notorious for smuggling arms and other merchandise through several aviation-company fronts.
- His background is loosely inspired by that of Semion Mogilevich, a Ukrainian-born suspected mastermind in Russian organized crime.
- The character Andre Baptiste, Sr. is partly based on Charles Taylor, the President of Liberia until 2003.
- The character Andre Baptiste Jr. is partly based on Charles' Taylor's son, Charles McArther Emmanuel. The character wields a gold-plated AKS-47, much like one found in the private quarters of Saddam Hussein's son Uday Hussein during the US-led invasion of Iraq.
- The character Colonel Oliver Southern hints at Oliver North, known for his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal.
The conflicts portrayed in the film are all real conflicts in real countries, particularly those in Lebanon, Sudan, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Liberia, Colombia and Sierra Leone. Conversely, the image of Interpol as an acting security agency is entirely fictional.
Production
Some of the Russian language dialogues in the film (mostly those by Eugene Lazarev as Gen. Orlov) contain very obscene Russian mat wording, translated by far softer expressions in the original English subtitles. It is unclear whether these pieces were part of the script, or Lazarev's improvisation.
A scene in the film featured 50 tanks, which were provided by a Czech source. The tanks were only available until December of the year of filming, as the dealer needed them to sell in Libya. The production team rented 3000 real SA Vz. 58 rifles to stand in for AK 47s because they were cheaper than prop guns.
Release
Critical reception
Lord of War received fairly positive reviews from critics; the film received a 61% rating on Rotten Tomatoes; the consensus states: "While Lord of War is an intelligent examination of the gun trade, it is too scattershot in its plotting to connect." The film also received a special mention for excellence in filmmaking from the National Board of Review.
It received a 62/100 score from Metacritic.
Box office
The film grossed $9,390,144 on its opening weekend, ranking #3 at the North American box office behind Just Like Heaven and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. After the film's 7 weeks of release it grossed a total of $24,149,632 on the domestic market in the US, and $48,467,436 overseas, for a worldwide total of $72,617,068.
Home media
The UK DVD release of Lord of War includes, prior to the film, an advert for Amnesty International, showing the AK-47 being sold on a shopping channel of the style popular on cable networks. The American DVD release includes a bonus feature that shows the various weapons used in the film, allowing viewers to click on each weapon to get statistics about their physical dimensions and histories. The DVD bonus section also contains a public service announcement from Nicolas Cage that addresses the issue of illicit arms sales.
References
External links
- Official website
- Lord of War at the Internet Movie Database
- Lord of War at the TCM Movie Database
- Lord of War at AllMovie
- Lord of War at Box Office Mojo
- Lord of War at Rotten Tomatoes
- Lord of War at Metacritic
- Guns featured in the film