Show commands big screen in Lord of War Warn Cage J is a o I Io L' L r r Jr I. I 1 I JM or I i r t L It t 4 l i f h 1 4 i o i p. p Nicholas Cage stars as a firearms dealer in Lord of War Aaron Zundel The Globe There are over million million million mil mil- lion firearms in worldwide worldwide worldwide world world- wide circulation That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet The only question is How do we arm the theother theother theother other II 11 ll Yuri That quote from the movies movie's opening scene pretty much sums up Lord of War a staring Nicholas Cage as Ukrainian born American raised gunrunner Yuri The movie chronicles chronicles chronicles chroni chroni- cles Yuris Yuri's rise from Brooklyn poverty to become one the worlds foremost gunrunners supplying supplying supplying sup sup- plying guns to just about every night fly-by-night banana republic in the thc last twenty years The movie claims to be based on actual events but by the characters character's own admission Yuri isn't even his real name so its it's impossible to figure the fiction fact ratio For all we know the only actual events might be the fact that there are people out there who sell guns on the black market All historical historical historical ical accuracy aside the movie did feel more like a Discovery Channel special special special cial than something you'd see in the theater Indeed more than half of Cages Cage's lines are voiceover narra narra- tion Stylistically the movie feels like two films that have been spliced together er using voiceover as the is a o documentary gr glue about One the ins and outs out tary and the gunrunning of second is Yuris Yuri's dramatic internal right vs wrong if almost as struggle Its It's wrote two separate separate sep- sep two wo people arate scripts tackling two it of totally separate aspects the same story then n both in ma a threw them blender and filmed whatever whatever whatever what what- ever came out And while that sounds like a recipe for cinematic whiplash the movie manages to pull it There couple of times are a when the narration moves from academic to emotional emotional emotional emo emo- so quickly that it right out of the jars you Lord of War Cont on Page 10 7 i r. r t t t Lord of War Warr r Cont Cant from Page 8 movie a certain hallucination hallucination tion to sequence comes mind they are however few and far between As far as acting goes everyone does well and Cage deserves credit for the fact that he is in every single single single sin sin- gle scene for the full two hours and I never once got bored of him But nothing made me jump out of my seat and scream Oscar Then again this isn't an A m e r i c a n Mystic Beauty River sort of show anyway That's not to say that its it's not nota a character driven film it is but in a more objective way A lot of people are going to charge this movie with having having having hav hav- ing a political agenda ala Bowling for Columbine Im I'm going to have to dis dis- dis- dis agree As someone who likes owns and champions guns Id I'd be the first person to cry foul but Im I'm going to have to be intellectually honest and say that where Bowling for Columbine was an exercise in propaganda propaganda propaganda ganda the gun anti-gun message in Lord of War is totally appropriate for the context I mean can you really argue that trafficking guns isn't a abad abad abad bad thing Or that guns kill people In fact I would say the message is not so much Guns are bad as it is People are bad Or as Yuri would say Evil pre pre- vails As far as wholesale enjoyment enjoyment enjoyment enjoy enjoy- ment goes I think anyone who mistakes this for an action movie will be sorely disappointed I I saw three drunk frat boys walk out halfway through However I think those people who know what they're getting into will say I liked it It gets 7 |