LORD OF WAR (2005)

SHORT REVIEW: I liked that one movie where Nicholas Cage played that monotone, emotionless but kind guy who looked just like Nicholas Cage. This film isn’t nearly big enough. With a subject like international gunrunning, this should have been either a much more epic film or a lot more absurd. All you get is a seemingly small film (in scale and in intellect) that glosses over many rough subjects with a dismissive faux concern. With a heavier script and broader production we could have had a film that dealt with the subject more fully, and given the picture a feeling of being as large as it’s subject. The perpetual use of narration buttresses my argument. Throughout the whole film, we are treated to Nicholas Cage’s emotionless voice over. Nearly every scene is explained and commented upon. I loathe narration; it’s a cheap trick. If a writer is forced to use narration after the first few minutes he/she is not doing their job. Their job is to tell the story through character and story. Narration (in most cases) is an imposition and an easy way out. With the relentless droning on Cage is forced to do with this film, it is obvious that a fuller story needed to be told. The film itself is lukewarm at best. It is interesting but it is also very pedestrian. Much of the dialog is unnecessary, inorganic or just poorly written. Many of the plot elements are predicable and dull. Its subject, gunrunning, saves the film. When Cage is engaged in his trade the film has a fresh, spry feeling. The writer/director Andrew Niccol (The Terminal) seems bored by his own work when Cage is involved with family matters. Too bad, the audience is bored with this as well. Too bad these dry yet annoying family matters make up a bulk of the narrative. In brief, Cage is a gunrunner. His parents and his super model wife don’t ask too many questions about his life. His drug-addled brother used to work with him, so he knows what he does for a living. The gaggle of characters nip and bite at one another throughout the film. The interactions between these characters are dysfunctional and not worthy of a major film. You can see these kind of family dynamics on cheap dramas on The Fox Network. The lack of functionality in this area hurts the film horribly. This is where Niccol develops his characters and it just doesn’t work. That leads to Cage’s character not evolving an effectively interesting double-life which in turn makes the less fascinating of the two lives appear unneeded. If Niccol would have jettisoned the family plot and worked up something that kept Cage with the gunrunning during the whole piece, the film would have succeeded. Overall, this film is an opportunity missed. A great movie could have been made but wasn’t. We could have seen a thoughtful expose on the legal and illegal international weapons trade, but instead we get cultural filler. On the flip side, it’s not a complete disaster. It’s a light and fluffy Nicholas Cage movie that can easily be digested in an evening. It’s worth the five bucks for a rental and then worth forgetting. RELATED REVIEWS: Other Nicholas Cage films Windtalkers (2001) Adaptation (2002) National Treasure (2004) Categories: film, movie, DVD, review, Lord of War, Nicholas Cage, gunrunning, Andrew Niccol