Once the audience gets past its incredulity that Nicolas Cage and Jared Leto (who, suffice it to say, look absolutely nothing alike) play brothers in the film, Lord Of War emerges as a thought-provoking and entertaining look at the morally suspect world of arms dealing. Cage plays Yuri Orlov, a Ukrainian-American gunrunner, and the film follows the trials and tribulations of his life in the gun business and how it negatively affects everyone close to him. In many ways, Lord Of War is structured similarly to crime epics like Goodfellas or American Gangster, showing the rise and fall (and rise again) of Orlov, a charismatic and likeable character who lies to himself about the toll his life choices are taking on his wife, brother and parents. Written and directed by Andrew Niccol (In Time, Gattaca), Lord Of War was a modest financial success worldwide but was well reviewed and found a good following on DVD. The film's ending is wonderfully ambiguous, with Ethan Hawke's idealistic Interpol agent Jack Valentine finally catching Orlov but being forced to release him as he is a 'necessary evil' who distributes weapons so that major governments can deny any involvement. The political message of the film is fairly obvious but it is also smart enough to show that in the real world, there are no easy answers for such a complex issue.
