CEO of Death

Directors, scripts, and movies with political agendas aren't anything new. "Fahrenheit 911" is a good example of a documentary with a political agenda. "Kingdom of Heaven" is a good example of a movie with a political agenda.

"Lord of War" is a movie that includes documentary information but is wrapped in a movie, and definitely has a political agenda.

In "Lord of War," actor Nicolas Cage portrays character Yuri Orlov. Orlov is a gun runner. The movie begins with Orlov working at his parents' restaurant: a thankless, minimum wage, dead end kind of kind of job. After selling his first gun, Orlov is hooked on easy money and the adrenaline of the deal.

Orlov's life's work becomes making bigger and better gun deals. Along the way, Orlov is reminded repeatedly that he is more than a salesman: he is a merchant of death. Even after Orlov's brother, Vitaly, dies during a deal, this doesn't stop Orlov from doing business. Like any drug dealer, Orlov doesn't let family or morals interfere with business.

Where does the political agenda come in? Near the end of the movie, it becomes quite clear that the message is: America is a corporation whose business is death and this corporation's CEO is George Bush.

"Lord of War"isn't that entertaining. The story line of an immigrant son turning to crime/business to make it big in America, is nothing new: "The Godfather" is the best example of that. Of course, "Lord of War" isn't of that caliber.

Nicolas Cage isn't exceptional in this movie but he is competent and gets the job done.

If you're interested in learning about gun running and the business of war, this is the movie for you. The movie opens with a little story of how a bullet gets from the factory to being shot into someone's head, which probably has more impact than the rest of this movie.

Unless the subject matter is very important to you, you will want to skip this movie and wait for it to come out on DVD. The trailer for this movie gives one the impression that this is a dark comedy. It has very few comedic moments.

To sum this movie up, death wears an expensive suit, rides in a limosine, and is not a demon but very human.