Lord of War
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| Lord of War | |
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Andrew Niccol |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Andrew Niccol Chris Roberts Nicolas Cage Philippe Rousselet Andy Grosch Norm Golightly |
| Written by | Andrew Niccol |
| Starring | Nicolas Cage |
| Music by | Antonio Pinto |
| Cinematography | Amir Mokri |
| Editing by | Zach Staenberg |
| Distributed by | Lions Gate Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | 2005 |
| Running time | 123 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$42 million |
| Gross revenue | US$72,617,068 (worldwide) |
Lord of War is a 2005 political crime thriller written and directed by Andrew Niccol which starred 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 the illegal arms dealer with similarities to Russian arms dealers Viktor Bout[1][2][3] and Leonid Minin. The film was officially endorsed by the human rights group Amnesty International for highlighting the trafficking of weapons by the international arms industry.[4][5]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The movie begins with Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) standing in a sea of spent shell casings. The rest of the movie is told in flashback, starting in 1982 and ending in the completion of the opening scene.
Through voice-over, Orlov describes the beginnings of his career. After Yuri sees a Russian mobster kill two would-be assassins, he decides to fulfill a necessity by providing guns. He partners up with his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto). Yuri's first break comes during the 1982 Lebanon War, when he sells guns to all sides of the conflict.
As he grows, Yuri (through voiceover) tells of his first incident with Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), an Interpol agent who cannot be bought with money. Yuri wins the first encounter when he changes the boat's name from the Kristol to the Kono and confuses Valentine.
During a business deal with a Colombian drug lord, Yuri is paid in cocaine instead of cash. Vitaly and he both get high on cocaine, but Vitaly becomes addicted, and Yuri checks him into a rehabilitation center. From that point onward, he conducts his arms business alone. Soon after this incident, he courts and marries model Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan) and they have a child named Nikolai.
Yuri gets his second break after the Soviet Union dissolves. Yuri rushes to Ukraine after watching Gorbachev's Christmas Day 1991 speech of resignation on television. He begins buying tanks and other weapons to expand his operations.
One day, Valentine reveals to Ava that Yuri is a arms dealer. Ava convinces him to stop dealing and he complies for a short while. He is lured back in when his old friend, the dictator of Liberia (Andre Baptiste), approaches him and offers him more money. Yuri brings Vitaly along due to nervousness. During the transaction, Vitaly sees a group of villagers beat a woman and her child to death and tries to convince Yuri to stop the transaction. Yuri refuses; in response, Vitaly takes a grenade and blows up half the gun shipment. A nearby soldier kills Vitaly.
Back at home, Valentine follows Ava as she finds Yuri's security container. She and Yuri's parents disown him. Valentine predicts that Yuri will be put in prison for a long time. Yuri is released from custody, however, because he is a "necessary evil," as his role as a freelancer lets him distribute guns when the U.S government does want not to be seen supplying them. A free man, Yuri returns to arms selling.
[edit] War zones featured
- Sierra Leone Civil War
- Lebanese Civil War
- Somali Civil War
- Soviet War in Afghanistan
- Second Liberian Civil War
[edit] Cast
- Nicolas Cage – Yuri Orlov
- Bridget Moynahan – Ava Fontaine Orlov
- Jared Leto – Vitaly Orlov
- Ethan Hawke – Jack Valentine
- Eamonn Walker – André Baptiste Sr.
- Ian Holm – Simeon Weisz
- Sammi Rotibi – André Baptiste Jr.
- Yevgeni Lazarev – Gen. Dmitri Orlov
[edit] Music
Opening sequence is filmed on the song For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield.
[edit] DVD release
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 movie, allowing viewers to click on each weapon to get statistics about their physical dimensions and histories.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Critical
The film received a 61% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it also received a special mention for excellence in film making from the National Board of Review.
[edit] Box office
The film grossed $9,390,144 on its opening weekend (2,814 theaters, $3,336 average). After the film's 7-weeks release it grossed a total of $24,149,632 on the domestic market in the US, and $48,467,436 overseas.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Viktor Bout: in the Movies...
- ^ Bertil Lintner: "A necessary evil"
- ^ William Norman Grigg: "Permanent War, Perpetual Profiteering"
- ^ Amnesty International (2006). Lord of War. Press release. http://www.amnestyusa.org/Artists_for_Amnesty/Lord_of_War/page.do?id=1104972&n1=2&n2=22&n3=797. Retrieved on 2007-09-17.
- ^ Hamid, Rahul (Spring 2006). "Lord of War/Syriana". Cineaste 31 (2): 52–55.
- ^ Lord of War at Box Office Mojo
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Lord of War |
- Official site
- Lord of War at the Internet Movie Database
- Lord of War at Allmovie
- Lord of War at Rotten Tomatoes
- Lord of War at Box Office Mojo
- Guns featured in the film
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