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Media Notify me of new comments Author Thread: Lord of War James Lord of War Posted: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 6:22 PM (PST) This movie starring Cage as Yuri Orlov an Ukrainian immigrate to America that becomes an international gun-runner. It follows him from his small-time beginning to be the preimer private mover of weapons. I think Orlov is scum, but the writer did a great job of making him a likeable scum-bag. He takes care of his family and has a dark sense of humor. He doesn't hide or try to obscure what he does, at least to the audience. He proudly states that at one time his weapons were represented in 8 of the top 10 wars, sometimes on both sides. In his opening statement he claims that there is 1 gun in the world for ever 12 citizens. His only question is how to arm the other 11. Which is why I think this movie is so great. It forces the viewer to ask difficult moral questions. The main one is "How responsible am I for other people's actions?" Through out the film he keeps saying that he has never actually killed anyone (which is mostly true). He is just supplying a basic human need. The film doesn't shy away from the fact that he deals with some very brutal people. At one point he states the only reason he didn't supply Bin Linden was because his checks bounce. Towards the end he supplies one group of rebels with weapons right outside a refugee camp that he knows they are going to slaughter as soon as the deal is done. Is Cage right? Does his responsibility for his action end when the weapons and bullets leave his ownership? If he is responsible, how about the people that made the bullets or the guns? What about all the people that he bribed so he can loot the remains of the Russian army? How far back does the line of responsibility go? Several years ago there was an anti-drug campaign whose message was that drug users were responsible for the corruption and violence in South America. The logic was that the end-user enabled the drug lords by buying illegal drugs. "Lord of War" asks the same questions, expect much more brutally. If you think that is true, that Cage and drug users are just as guilty as the person that pulled the trigger, are we just as responsible or the 9/11 attacks as the terrorist that carried it out? They were mostly funded by money from the oil and gas we purchase. Cage's character is loosely based on the real life Russian gun runner. One irony is that that gunrunner actually supplied the guns for the movie. The on-going crisis in Africa are something most people in America never think about. There is so many other more visible things happening today that it is easy not to focus on yet another set of problems. I think this is a needed movie that throws Africa into your face and back into the spotlight.