2005
9/10
Ever since the first time I saw this film back in 2005, I’ve been a fan. It broached an incredibly serious subject with the light touch of satire, whilst with striking imagery, great performances and some first class scripting left us with a sense of the moral ambiguity of arms dealing. Asking the question, rhetorically mind, of “is there as much blood on a dealers hands as there is from those who pull the triggers of their merchandise?”
This is one of Nicholas Cage’s better films of the past decade, I may even go a far as to say his best film of the naughties. Andrew Niccol is a lost writer/director in my view as well, directing Gattaca, writing The Truman Show, this is a man with a sharp talent for dealing with socially perverse subjects , such as selective breeding, reality TV and gun running.
I always look forward to seeing his work, but there is just too little. The sound design in absolutely amazing, with a gentle, soothing tone throughout, only to highlight the deafening noise of gunshots and bullets flying. And the same for his musical choices.
All in all this is a classic, but I fear it lost and will not be truly appreciated for some time yet…
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[...] his hands on reins in as much as he needs to keep this as interesting as it could be. I feel that Lord Of War achieved a lot of what this film was after, but in a more successful [...]