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Dom Robinson reviews
Momentum Pictures
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MP475D
- Running time: 117 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2*DVD 9
- Price: £17.99
- Extras: The Making of Lord of War, Making a Killer: Inside the International Arms Trade, Deleted Scenes, Interviews, Trailer
Director:
- Jim Jarmusch
(Broken Flowers, Coffee and Cigarettes, Dead Man, Down By Law, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Mystery Train, Night on Earth, Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise, Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet, Year of the Horse)
Producers:
- Jon Kilik and Stacey Smith
Screenplay:
- Jim Jarmusch
Music:
- Mulatu Astatke
Cast:
- Don Johnston: Bill Murray
Sherry: Julie Delpy
Winston: Jeffrey Wright
Laura: Sharon Stone
Lolita: Alexis Dziena
Dora: Frances Conroy
Ron: Christopher McDonald
Carmen: Jessica Lange
Penny: Tilda Swinton
Sun Green: Pell James
The Kid: Mark Webber
Kid in Car: Homer Murray
Lord of War stars Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov, a Ukranian man living in New York who lives with his family that had to pretend to be Jewish just to stay alive, and is tired of making little money doing legitimate jobs so decides to sell guns and weaponry, building up to the point where he’s supplying armies all around the world (except the Salvation Army, he states) over the course of 25 years from 1982 onwards.
1982 is a good time to start, since camcorders come in about the same size of massive container as a good-sized and well-specified pistol does when stored in its own case, so – danger aspect aside – it sounds like there’s easy money to be made. And, once he’s made his first sale, he asks his brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) to join in, given that the only job he’s got going for him is being the crap chef in his family’s restaurant.
As we track their progress through the years, we reach the point where the Cold War ended in 1991 which led to a big surge in arms trading. Thankfully, Yuri also has an uncle, General Dmitri Orlov (Eugene Lazarev), who’s a highly-decorated hero in the Red Army to help get to those weapons. He also woos his dream woman, Ava (Bridget Moynahan), but is always away, busy working so despite aiming to amass all the wealth and happiness he can manage, you have to wonder when he’s going to get time to enjoy it all.
Along the way, FBI Agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) is forever on Yuri’s trail, trying to bring him down while our hero does what he can to appear to just about be on the right side of the law. Ian Holm also comes into the plot as rival trader Simeon Weisz, who ignores him early on as he considers himself above him, then later decides things have changed enough between them and wants to do business with him.
Lord of War is a mixed bag of a movie. It feels more like a history lesson than the action film I was hoping for, particularly the way this one was advertised on TV, capitalising on the high-octane content of films like Con Air and The Rock. However, it’s an easily-viewable and well-told story so never gets boring. As a drama, it’s got just the right amount of balance of hoping things will work out for him and feeling sympathetic when the times come that things just aren’t going his way. Hence, it’s not a film to ignore, but if you’re expecting an actioner and nothing else then you will be disappointed.
The movie begins with a great opening scene, as the titles run, that shows all the stages from a CGI rifle bullet being made to finding its destination and its eventual target. This gives an insight into the end result that a gunrunner such as Yuri will try to put out of his mind because, as he often declares when he sees something he doesn’t like about the way his weapons will be used, “It’s not our fight.”
It’s still not a perfect film, though, as although being apparently “based on actual events”, which could mean anything as there are people who will do that line of work but I’d base a lot of this film’s content being pure fiction, it doesn’t go into massive great depth about his chosen occupation. He supplies arms to as many countries as he can, despite not really being shown the means how he does it – and especially on such a grand scale, while causing stress for his wife and family. Then again, they never explain away the fact why he and his brother still speak in American throughout. Is Cage, at least, completely unable to speak any other type of accent?
It’s interesting to see the World Trade Center towers painted into the background of Cage’s New York family home. Yes, these are for periods set prior to September 2001, but Hollywood is always too keen to paint them out of existence for some reason as if they never happened, rather than cherish the period of time during which they stood.
And if you were wondering about the title, “Lord of War” comes from the term “warlord”, which is misinterpreted part-way during the film by the President of Liberia, Andre Baptiste Sr (played by the always-excellent Eamonn Walker, who came to the fore in his TV work as the effeminate Winston in In Sickness and in Health, but has gone on to forge an acting career which includes the Season 12 episodes of E.R. set in Darfur and played a pivotal role as the spiritual Kareem Said in the unsurpassable, violent prison drama, Oz.)
The film is presented in its original cinematic ratio of 2.35:1 and is anamorphic. It looks fantastic and well-detailed throughout, accurately depicting the look of the many locations, even if they didn’t film there (eg. the Sierra Leone airfield was shot in South Africa – which itself stood in for 13 countries and apart from New York being itself, filming was done in the Czech Republic – here representing the Ukraine – and it’s used in many films as a substitute for foreign climes, given how much easier – and cheaper – it is to do so.)
There’s just a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundmix present here, although a DTS additional one would’ve been welcomed. That said, it’s more of a drama than action, hence 8/10 for the sound, although the ambient background music fits the bill perfectly.
The extras are on disc 2, prefaced with a very short piece of Edwin Starr’s War which repeats and repeats and repeats to the point where it grates. But I digress, so let’s continue:
- The Making of Lord of War (20:25): Filmed in 4:3 and not subtitled, like the rest of the extras except where specified, this is a standard puff-piece of marketing that blends letterboxed 2.35:1 film clips with soundbites from key cast and crew members, on the film’s locations, the crew, the message the film was trying to promote and things like how it was easier to buy 3,000 REAL Kalashnikov rifles for a scene, before selling them back to the supplier at a discount, than it was to buy fake ones.
- Making a Killing: Inside the International Arms Trade (15:13): The dos and don’ts of selling illegal arms… well, really it’s about the don’ts. Just say no, kids(!)
- Deleted Scenes (9:05): There are 10 here, which are actually a combination of deleted and extended scenes. Without going into detail, so as not to spoil the film. Of these, I’d put back in Ava Fontaine, I’ll Stop and possibly Luckiest Man Alive.
- Interviews (15:17): A brief Q&A with each of Nicolas Cage (sat next to producer Norman Golightly), Jared Leto, Ethan Hawke, Bridget Moynahan and one for producer Philippe Rousselet. Stupidly, this section isn’t chaptered so you can’t flick straight between actors. Why don’t distributors chapter their extras? This IS important! Then again, look at the hash they made of the chaptering throughout the movie.
- Trailer (1:43): In anamorphic 16:9. Makes it look far more action-packed than it actually is.
- Nicolas Cage interview (7:39): Another interview, with Cage sporting a rather dodgy ‘tache.
Of the above, the ‘making of’ and deleted scenes are worth a look, but the rest comes across as just filler.
The only subtitles come in English, there are a paltry 12 chapters to the movie which is pathetic since it runs for two solid hours and the main menu is VERY LOUD, almost to the point of shattering your speakers thanks to distortion – note: this is a bad thing. The supplemental disc’s menus are also too loud when they needn’t be. Sometimes, less is more.
Before I sign off, what is really annoying about this disc is the stupid anti-piracy promo and trailers to fast-forward for The Dark, Broken Flowers, The Weather Man, but then not only a bloody Mars bar advert but also one telling us to sign up for the International Arms Trade Treaty!
When will marketing bods at distribution companies realise that these should be put in a DVD’s “TRAILERS” section, not stuck at the front like an old rental VHS tape from the ’80s.
Also, the chocolate ad should NOT be on the DVD when someone buys it, neither the propoganda! If Momentum ever re-release Downfall in the future, will they bang on a promo telling us that we should join the Nazi party(?)
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.