Now here’s a curiosity. If you happen to see a little of the trailer, or happen upon the poster for Lord Of War on the tube you might be forgiven for thinking that this is some kind of Con Air 2 – Nic Cage in a big action movie.
But that’s not remotely the case. Lord Of War is about the arms trade and in particular Cage’s character Yuri who travels the third world selling arms to various parties without a care in the world about what happens to them or to what use they’re put.
I watched Jonathan Ross review this yesterday evening and I think he was very unfair on it. He talked about the classic three-act structure into which all films seem to fall, with redemption at the end. But that’s simply not the case with this film.
Cage’s character is completely amoral, and although he gets scared from time to time, it’s not really enough to make him see error of his ways.
There are a couple of very clever scenes in this film: the first sees a bullet manufactured until it’s fired (into the head of a young African child), and the second is the overnight dismantling of a cargo plane.
We’re not left with any doubt where the feelings of the film’s producers as a caption at the end of the film reveals the five largest arms trading nations in the world – US, UK, France, China and Russia – as also being the permanent members of the UN Security Council.