Guided Learning Response #5

Lord of War stars Nicholas Cage as an arms dealer who capitalizes on the dissolution of the Soviet Union by acquiring stockpiles of weapons from shady Russian generals and selling them to warlords in African nations. Cage's character, Yuri Orlov becomes fantastically rich with his arms dealing business and enjoys a lavish lifestyle with his family. His wife is somehow clueless to what his real means of generating income is, but this changes at the end of the movie. Throughout the movie Orlov is dogged by his nemesis, an Interpol agent played by Ethan Hawke. The two characters play a game of cat and mouse throughout the movie with Hawke being continually frustrated by Orlov's ability to weasel his way out of situations. Orlov is active in the arms market in the war-torn countries of western Africa and he is a regular seller to the warlords in control of the region. Orlov is finally caught up in all his lies at the end of the movie and his entire life basically comes crashing down around him.

In this movie Nicholas Cage's character Yuri Orlov interacts a great deal with a warlord in western Africa. Orlov travels to the country to sell the warlord and his son massive stockpiles of former Soviet weaponry and effectively keeps the warlord in power. The warlord and his son are portrayed as maniacs on power trips with no regard for the lives of others. They terrorize the residents of the region they control and enslave people to work under their command, killing them on a whim to make a point. They are only interested in a lavish lifestyle for themselves complete with prostitutes, drugs, and money, some of which they try to bribe Orlov with. At times Orlov is uncomfortable with the fact that he is supporting a psychopath and a plethora of other criminal figures, but the money always wins out and he continues to broker arms to anyone who will pay him. The movie attempts to draw a parallel between the psychopathic warlords of Africa and the political leaders of the United States. The level of success in this attempt is dependent upon the opinion of the viewer. This movies does a good job of portraying the evil of warlords who use violence to maintain their power and is a frightening look at how easy it could be for them to acquire their weapons. In the end the film depicts Orlov as something of a necessary evil in today's society and the overall message is dark and far from encouraging.