The Movie
Given a choice between a daring film
that reaches far and doesn't quite sustain itself at those high
levels, and a film that settles for a conventional paint-by-numbers
approach but hits all the notes perfectly within its limited range,
I'll opt for the former in every case. Such is Lord of War: an
ambitious film in the best sense of the word. Edgy, intelligent, and
critical, Lord of War gets off to a fantastic start, setting
an extremely high standard for itself, a standard that no mere
"action thriller" could hope to meet. In the end, the film
doesn't manage to wrap things up with the same punch that it started
out with, but that's not much of a criticism: it's still worth a
dozen more conventional films, and it's likely to stick in the
viewer's mind long after the latest action star vehicle has come and
gone into the bargain bin.
Lord of War is the story of a
gunrunner, a trafficker in the illegal and quasi-legal arms trade
between nations. Nicholas Cage, who always surprises me with more
acting range than I expect, has the challenging role of Yuri Orlov, a
Brooklyn-born ne'er-do-well who decides one day that the profit
margins on legitimate enterprise like his family's restaurant are too
thin. As it happens, Orlov has a talent for salesmanship, and what he
sells is guns: first supplying the local mobsters, then moving up the
food chain to selling the instruments of death on a larger scale
across the world. With a voiceover narration by Orlov, reflecting on
the events of his life, and a meticulous attention to the real
details of history in the years when this story unfolds (from the
1980s to the present day), Lord of War is a memoir, a
reflection on his career, rather than a simple
rising-and-falling-action narrative.
The filmmakers have taken the
challenges of this unconventional approach and made them into
essential pieces of the film's success. Take, for instance, the
dazzling credits sequence, with the camera following the path of a
single bullet from the factory to its end in battle: combining catchy
music with the threat inherent in the bullets we see being made and
shipped and used, it sets the tone of the film from the start,
hooking us into the events but also underscoring the horrible
banality of it all, making us feel interested but also slightly
uncomfortable.
After an opening sequence like that,
I honestly expected the film to settle down into conventional
territory, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Lord
of War manages to sustain its intense energy. The first forty or
so minutes - nearly half of this two-hour-long film - are paced to
absolute perfection. There's not a single wasted moment, not so much
as a single shot out of place, as Lord of War chronicles the
origins and rise to power of Orlov. If the film had managed to
maintain that pace throughout the whole film, it would have been a
masterpiece. As it is, at about the halfway mark, the pace slows
slightly and the film shifts to paying more attention to a critical
period in Orlov's life; at this point, it feels a little more
ordinary. Let's be clear, though: the second half is not as powerful
as the first half, but even so, it's extremely well done.
Throughout the film, from beginning
to end, we get an interesting choice of style: though it's mainly
realistic, there are occasional slightly surrealistic touches that
underscore key themes of the film. Unconventional editing,
cinematography, even sound and visual effects are occasionally called
into play to create an effective shot or scene. Even in one of the
final scenes of the film, a scene that could have been filmed in a
completely conventional way is handled creatively: Orlov describes
what's going to happen in the next few minutes and as he speaks,
we're shown slightly stylized shots of what he's describing.
What I like best about Lord of
War is that, for the most part, it manages to be an intensely
critical film that nevertheless lets viewers come to their own
conclusions. The arms trade is portrayed in all its ugly, banal,
sordid reality. There's no glamor here, and no hiding the ugly truth:
the merchandise that Orlov sells is used to murder human beings. At
times he weakly attempts to justify his work, pointing out that while
he sells the guns, he doesn't force people to use them, or invoking
the idea of "defense"... but it's clear that he doesn't
believe himself for a minute. It's almost shocking how Lord of War
faces up to the worst aspects of human nature.
Orlov is a very interesting
character, and Cage handles him well. He's not a monster; we see that
he does feel something for his wife and particularly his brother. Nor
is he some kind of psychopath, selling
weapons because he loves destruction. No; he's motivated by perhaps
the most conventionally praised virtue in the United States, the
desire to make something of himself, to work within the capitalist
system to move up from his ghetto origins, and as it happens, illegal
arms are highly profitable. He even takes pride in his work and how
well he does it. Yet he can also look at a refugee camp and not
flinch as he closes a deal to sell the weapons that will slaughter
those unarmed people. Can "if I don't do it, someone else will"
excuse everything, or anything? The market system, buying and selling
without regard for what's being sold and to whom, is clearly off the
rails here, but at what level - high or low - can it be fixed? Lord
of War also wisely avoids falling into the typical feel-good
character-development track of "villain rises to heights,
suffers, falls to lows, repents or is punished": the film
includes some elements of this story arc, but not all of them... so
just as in real life, we're never quite sure where the character of
Orlov is going to end up.
The one thing that I wish Lord of
War had done differently is this: I wish the filmmakers had
trusted enough in the power of their material to let it speak for
itself. As it is, the film closes with an explicit statement linking
the events of the film with the troubling reality that our society
ought to deal with. I think that the message is quite clear enough,
and all the more powerful when it's left to the viewer to make the
final connections, but I imagine that the filmmakers were (logically
enough) afraid of the film being taken in exactly the wrong way (like
the way that Bruce Springsteen's vehemently anti-war song "Born
in the USA" has been co-opted as a soundtrack for gung-ho
patriotism).
But even with that qualm in mind, I
have to say that Lord of War has courage in the way that it
wraps up its story. I won't spoil anything, but I can tell you that
the film follows the story and characters to a conclusion that is
honest and powerful. As certain plot elements started to come into
play late in the story, I feared that Lord of War would take
the Hollywood-style feel-good escape hatch, but it doesn't: it stays
true to its material. And as such, it's sure to stay in viewers'
minds.
The DVD
Lord of War: 2-Disc Special
Edition is packaged in a slim cardboard case inside a cardboard
slipcover.
Video
Lord of War looks good; it
just doesn't look quite as good as I'd expect from a brand-new film
in the age of good DVD transfers. The anamorphically enhanced image is clean and attractive
overall, but some edge enhancement is present, so the picture isn't
as crisp as it could be. Colors look natural but are not as vibrant
as they could be, and sometimes there's a bit of grain in the image.
The final effect is that Lord of War looks solid, but it's not
going to wow viewers with the transfer.
One potential area of concern is the film's aspect ratio. While the film was apparently originally shown in theaters in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, the DVD presentation is in 1.85:1. As I was watching the film, I didn't notice any instances of bad framing, so it's hard to say whether this is cropped from the preferred ratio, or simply a different acceptable presentation.
Audio
The two-disc version of Lord of
War sports a DTS 6.1 track, giving it an edge over the
single-disc version, which has only a 5.1 and a 2.0. The DTS track
provides an immersive and enjoyable audio experience, with a nicely
full, rich sound and crisp special effects. The sound quality is most
notable in the songs used in the soundtrack; the musical choices here
are distinctive and add a great deal to the overall feel of the film.
It's worth commenting that Lord of War is not really an action
movie, despite the fact that the packaging and subject matter implies
that it is. We do get occasional special-effects-heavy scenes with
explosions and gunfire, but these are just emphatic touches in what's
primarily a character study and drama.
Compared to the 5.1 track, the DTS
track is significantly crisper, cleaner, and richer; the 5.1 track
does a perfectly fine job, but the DTS really brings out the details
and texture of the soundtrack and is certainly the better track.
Extras
Disc 1, in addition to the film,
offers a full-length audio commentary track from writer/director
Andrew Niccol. It's a reasonably interesting track, though rather
low-key.
The bulk of the special features are
on Disc 2. We get a 20-minute piece on "The Making of Lord of
War"; it has a slightly promotional feel, but still provides
some interesting insights into the making of the film. A 14-minute
segment called "Making a Killing: Inside the International Arms
Trade" seems promising, but doesn't really tell us a lot that
wasn't made clear in the film itself; on the other hand, it does
emphatically underscore that Lord of War is sticking very
closely to the real facts about the arms trade. We also get seven
deleted scenes, text information on a selection of guns mentioned in
the film, trailers for other Lions Gate films, and a photo gallery.
None of these special features
(except for the trailers) appear on the single-disc version.
Final Thoughts
Lord of War is a film that
has the power to hook you in and surprise you; it has a powerful
theme and the punch to deliver it effectively. It's definitely a film
that I recommend picking up, and the two-disc Special Edition is a
much better choice than the single-disc version, by virtue of its
very nice DTS 6.1 soundtrack. Highly recommended.
Buy: