Trading Death : The Lord of War

"You do not avoid work by sitting idle, you avoid it by doing something else" says Paul Graham. It's on on one of these "something else" moments that I stumbled on this movie, "The Lord of War".

Expectations can play a part, like anything in life, in you liking a movie, and my expectations were indeed low when I started watching the movie. But from the very second dialogue (There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11? ) I was impressed.

The movie charts the Life of Yuri Orvalov, played by Nicolas Cage, a Russian arms dealer. Yuri starts by selling arms to local mobsters in Manhattan and becomes a master arms dealer. There are sub plots of Love, a cat and mouse chase between Yuri and the honest cop Jack, and the turmoil of Yuri's family & his brother.

I liked two aspects of the movie. One, it's presentation. Shot in docu-drama style, most of the story is narrated to us by the main chartacter. Dialogues are short and crisp and pack the punch. The script is neat and moves the movie at a brisk pace. shot in different locations of the world, it's a mini tour of the Arms Dealers world.

Secondly, the movie refreshingly refrains from taking a moral stand or logical conclusion. There are no pointed out villains, or heroes. It tries to show the world of Arms dealers, dictators, genocides, honest cops, corrupted officials and leaves the user with the choice of conclusions. No good-over-evil victories, just the different view points.

Yuri knows well what people do with his arms, but he knows too well that if not him, someone else will do this job. And as he points out to his wife, it's not only money, he does it because he is good at it. On the other hand the director shows us the mental turmoil of Yuri when his family leaves him. But still, he goes on. Through yuri's brother the director shows us a person who is affected by the out comes of the arms deals.

If you would like a sneak peak at the global arms dealing, and the lives around it, I suggest this movie to you. Be warned, you'll have to draw the conclusions !.