Lord Of War

Lord of War

Warlord by definition is “a military commander exercising civil power in a region, whether in nominal allegiance to the national government or in defiance of it. (American Heritage Dictionary).” In the move Lord of War Nicolas Cage serves this purpose in a different way. The main plot for the film is Nicolas Cage getting rich off of wars by selling arms to countries in opposition. The beginning of the film shows the societal problem of race in the United States because it shows how his family had to pretend to be Jewish to fit in to the small town in New York and survive without condemnation. I think this is where his life takes a downward spiral. Childhood is what molds you and if you see that your parents are lying and they teach you to lie and not have value for who you are and where you came from then that вЂ?s the values that you will carry into adulthood. Don’t get me wrong I understand that they were doing this to protect the family but the father actually took on the role of a Jewish man in his everyday behaviors. His brother never felt “good enough” compared to his big brother and the parents put more responsibility on the older brother than they did the younger which can explain his drug and alcohol abuse it takes him away from the devalued self image that he has.

This film exposed the harsh realities of war in America and around the world, the politics of war. It showed the selfish and greedy mindset of the nation’s leaders because every person that Nicolas Cage came across had a personal agenda. He shows this in his quote about selling arms to Africa when the West wasn’t paying attention because of their own agenda, “The primary market was Africa, Eleven major conflicts involving twenty three countries in less than a decade. A gunrunner's wet dream. At the time the West couldn't care less, they had a white war in what was left of Yugoslavia.” (IMDB) The character played by Ian Holm that Nicholas Cage was introduced to was the typical stone cold trader. He explained the selfishness of the entire movie perfectly in his first introduction to Cage’s character when he says, “I don't think you and I in the same business. You think I just sell guns, don't you? I don't. I take sides. Yuri: But in Iran-Iraq war you sold guns to both sides. Simeon: Did you ever consider that I wanted both sides to lose? Bullets change governments far surer than votes.” (script-o-rama.com) Just as everyone in the film including Cage’s character Yuri Ian’s character Simeon has an individual motive and drive and it does not focus on any humane purpose because if they thought humanely they would not have made personal profit. One thing that I found interesting that I don’t believe many people notice is that Ian Holms’ character Simeon never introduces a family life and I think the insinuation was for him not to have one. It showed is cold hard ways and lack of value in human life. A key moment is when he kills Uri’s uncle because he thought that would heart Uri’s heart and force him to make good with Simeon. This shows the incompetent views of each character that is presented to us in the gun trade market it’s like they have no conscious and I would guess that since you are selling items that are made to kill you would have to have this wall up.

Nicolas Cages character had lived is entire life as a lie from childhood on up so it did not surprise me that when he established a family it was a lie as well. All his life he longed for the woman of his dreams who lived in the same area as him and yet she never knew that he existed so what does he do? Scam her into acknowledging him just as he does in the gun exchange. He was raised to be a con-artist. He says it best in his quote “Some of the most successful relationships are based on lies and deceit. Since that's where they usually end up anyway, it's a logical place to start.” (IMDB) He purchases her lavish gifts and makes it so that they are the only two people in the room literally and she falls for it. Just as entered the gun market based on lies and scams he entered his marriage and that’s why it was bound to fail. His wife choose to accept whatever he told her and said that she wouldn’t ask any questions. They raised a son and one interesting point that stuck out to me was when he took the gun away from his son to show the shame that he felt for his career choice. It was if he had sense enough to realize that this isn’t the life that he wants for his son. It was the one “break the mold” moment in the entire movie in my opinion. Everything else in the film was predictable based on his upbringing. Eventually his wife realizes that her entire life with him was a lie and she tries to get him to go the straight and narrow and he does but only for a short time. This part of the film I can relate to personally because someone close to me sold drugs for a number of years almost got caught and they choose to run away from the problem. A number of years later they actually do get caught and they end up in prison for a few years. Then they are set free and go the straight and narrow fro about a year and because that was all that they knew that went right back to it because it was comfortable and easy for them to fall back into habit. That’s why I believe that Nicolas Cage went back I don’t