Lord of War (2005)
Directed by Andrew Niccol
Yuri Orlov is a globetrotting arms dealer and, through some of the deadliest war zones, he struggles to stay one step ahead of a relentless Interpol agent, his business rivals and even some of his customers who include many of the world's most notorious dictators. Finally, he must also face his own conscience.
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10 films that influenced Lord of War
What critics say influenced Lord of War
One obvious inspiration is Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas (like that 1990 classic, Niccol’s movie depends on long passages of narration by the protagonist), but Niccol can’t match the headlong pace or resist a preachy, hectoring air (Scorsese never berated his audience for tolerating gangsters).
Niccol has clearly been inspired by films such as Goodfellas and Boogie Nights, and initially infuses Lord of War with a similar sensibility - complete with period-appropriate rock songs on the soundtrack (ie Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" plays during a drug-heavy sequence).
Writer-director Andrew Niccol, however, has already decided how he feels about it, and he isn't the kind of filmmaker to give you a down-and-dirty rise-and-fall story, like Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas or Ted Demme's Blow.
Typically, this type of device is a sign the screenplay needs revision, but it tends to work here in much the same way Ray Liotta's voice-over helps unify "Goodfellas."
But it's not the jolly Goodfellas' marina and Dino tinged streets of mobster lore.
Writer/director Andrew Niccol ("S1m0ne") takes on a huge issue and gives it the "Goodfellas" treatment, making his morally suspect lead a wisecracking narrator and entertaining guide into the glamorously evil world of gunrunning.
But Lord of War, which seems like a depressed remake of William Friedkin's 1983 flop Deal of the Century, has only the slightest connection to his previous concerns as an artist.
At times the film that Paul Brickman's brilliant screenplay for Deal of the Century promised, Aussie futurist Andrew Niccol crafts with Lord of War a sometimes transcendent, sometimes finger-wagging fable about a ridiculously successful gunrunner, Yuri (Nicolas Cage), prowling the hot spots of the Third World like a vampire in trenchcoat and shades.
The image packs a raw shock, not merely for its assaultive POV (used in David O. Russell's Three Kings and overused on sundry CSI 's) but for the blame it drops onto butter-stained laps of complacent movie goers.
Mr. Niccol has obviously studied his Scorcese, as well as the work of David O. Russell (of "Three Kings" fame).
The movie, directed by Andrew Niccol (" The Truman Show ," " Gattaca ") has some of the same stylistic aggressiveness as David O. Russell's " Three Kings ."
Niccol has made a film that ranks with another recent classic of dissention: Three Kings.
The film has the visual appeal of Three Kings with the mixed message of Natural Born Killers.
Imagine the story of a ruthlessly amoral gun runner as it would be told in "GoodFellas" and "Three Kings" and you get pretty close to "Lord of War," Andrew Niccol's stylish, provocative thriller starring Nicolas Cage.
The material between the Orlov?s and their child kind of resembles Ted Demme?s 2001 Blow, a film about the personal struggles of the guy who introduced cocaine to the United States.
Writer-director Andrew Niccol, however, has already decided how he feels about it, and he isn't the kind of filmmaker to give you a down-and-dirty rise-and-fall story, like Martin Scorsese's GoodFellas or Ted Demme's Blow.
Lions Gate Films This would be 2001's marginally underrated Blow, Johnny Depp's equally episodic hop-skip through the narcotics trade.
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Niccol has clearly been inspired by films such as Goodfellas and Boogie Nights, and initially infuses Lord of War with a similar sensibility - complete with period-appropriate rock songs on the soundtrack (ie Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" plays during a drug-heavy sequence).
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Niccol adopts the tactic of laughing at his atrocious action, but this is black satire without the smarts of, say, Dr. Strangelove-and the resulting tone is uneven.
Niccol gives him lip service, but what turns him on is remaking De Palmas Scarface with guns replacing cocaine.
With a bit more subtlety (think Mamet's Wag the Dog) it could have been a masterpiece.
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Ms. Moynahan, unfortunately, isn't given nearly as much to work with as the wives of Scorcese's leading men; she gets neither the complicity of Lorraine Bracco from "Goodfellas" nor the crash of Sharon Stone from "Casino".
Cinematographer Amir M. Mokri ("The Salton sea," "Taking Lives") provides an edgy, sometimes bordering on hyperrealistic, look to the film.