Niccol thrives on realism in 'War'

"Lord of War" is the newest film by Andrew Niccol ("Gattaca"). It's the story of how Yuri Orlov (Nicholas Cage), a Russian immigrant, rises from poverty in the New York ghetto, Little Odessa, to eventually become one of the biggest arms dealers in the world. The story takes place over many years as Yuri facilitates death and destruction. All the while he is chased around the world by globe-trotting INTERPOL detective Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), escaping incarceration by the skin of his teeth. \nIt is almost impossible not to compare "Lord of War" to similar drug-smuggling movies, particularly "Blow." There are certainly a number of similarities in both plotline and character development, but in the end what separates "Lord of War" from other similar films is the morality element, or rather lack thereof. Usually a film like this is meant to serve as some sort of warning from going down the same path as the protagonist. However "Lord of War" is not a cautionary tale, it is simply a realistic (though not too realistic) look at the life of an arms dealer. It isn't so much immoral as it is amoral.\nFrom top to bottom the acting in this film was wonderful. Nicholas Cage was very good in the lead role. It is a difficult task to make an amoral arms dealer into a sympathetic character, but he was somehow able to do it. Jared Leto was also quite good as Yuri's brother and onetime partner, Vitaly. And Ian Holm adds another bizarre character to his résumé by playing Yuri's rival in the arms world, Simeon Weisz. Holm perfectly captures the role, which just goes to show he can play practically any part in any movie. In fact, if you gave him a week to prepare, I'm convinced he could play a prepubescent girl in a made-for-TV Disney movie.\nThe oddest thing about this movie is that it features actual weaponry bought from real arms dealers. Apparently, Niccol spent a lot of time with real arms dealers while writing the screenplay for this film. Niccol eventually bought 3,000 real AK-47s for the movie because he discovered that it was cheaper and easier than having prop guns made. Also, the tanks featured in the movie belonged to an actual gun runner who had to take them back after they were done shooting so that he could sell them to another country. Ironically, Niccol claimed the arms dealers were more cooperative and efficient than the studio or the crew.