Musings in Search of a Muse

Not since Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ have I seen a more deeply profound and disturbing movie as Lord of War, though the latter doesn't have a happy ending. What kept me from breaking down during this movie like I did during The Passion, I don't know. The violence was less graphic but no less disturbing but the immediate social impact is several magnitudes stronger.

It may be the "#1 Action Movie in America" but it is far from being entertainment. Nominally, it is the story of Yuri Orlov (a composite real people and portrayed by Nicholas Cage), an international arms dealer, and the affect that his occupation has on his life and family. The only 'action' in the film involves crimes against humanity as Orlov's weapons are brutally used to senselessly murder innocents and the impoverished. That is what the film is really about -- man's inhumanity to man as one of the Four Horsemen prepares for the Apocalypse.

The tone of the movie is set by the titlecard sequence. At the risk of spoiling the movie for some, this is what happens: The audience experiences the lifecycle of a bullet from the munition's point of view. This clever sequence (eagerly anticipated by someone I work with) educates as it proceeds to it's logical conclusion, but said end happens in the skull of a young boy in a nameless village somewhere in Africa. It is bloody, messy, and the first of many upsets. For me, the shock was enhanced by some exceptionally immature 20-somethings that were sitting behind me and cheering!

It is a mindset like this that permits such atrocities to happen. And that is why part of me wishes that viewing this movie be a requirement for all citizens with a discussion to follow. No, that is not very democratic or politically correct, but the film has many important lessons to teach, not the least of which is while there may or may not be such a thing as a just war, inhumanity is at the core of every war and, indeed, is the basis of most behaviors in wars.

Interestingly enough, as I write this post, Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" is playing through iTunes and the opening monologue seems scarily appropriate:

The Beast is always near and, intended or not, Lord of War shows us his wrath is immutably foul and cruel. By not loving our fellow children of God with the same love that Jesus demonstrated by giving his life on the cross we invite the Beast to tear and shred at the God-shaped hole in our hearts until it fits his ends. Then he has won the most important war there is: The war for a soul.

Some characters in the film realize this, perhaps too late in some instances and perhaps without the religious overtones, but nonetheless the message that the insanity is evil and must stop is clear. Anyone who leaves a screening of this movie without this conclusion must have not paid much attention.

Other conclusions and impressions that the viewer might leave with include the abject poverty that exists in West Africa courtesy of the wars ignored or even fueled by other nations; corruption is an evil that can happen in the most unexpected of places and sometimes with deliberation; a man (or woman) of conscience that does nothing to thwart evil is no better than those without conscience; sacrifice for the greater good can be painful, difficult, and ultimately deadly but is well worth the price even if it fails.

Something I read at the IMDB foreshadowed the film's impact and made certain scenes all the more disturbing:

According to Andrew Niccol, the filmmakers worked with actual gunrunners in the making of the film. The tanks lined up for sale were owned by a gunrunner who had to have them back to sell to another country. They used a real stockpile of over 3,000 AK-47s because it was cheaper than getting prop guns. The gunrunners were more cooperative and efficient than the studio or the crew.

The "footnotes" before the closing credits are of a similar vein, but I wish they had added the paragraph above. It, more than most anything in the film from start to end, brings home the tragedy of the real story behind the movie. Considering the elements in whole I still might find myself breaking down. I'll finish with my prayers first.

Thanks go to Robert Burns for the inspiring phrase from "Man was made to Mourn: A Dirge."