Empty shells in the millions lay on the ground spread out around Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), which means business is booming for a stone cold arms dealer.  Yuri’s expensive suit bears proof in his success dealing in arms trade and that he never gets involved wherever the weapons are sold.  Consequently, he provides the audience with staggering facts that there is one firearm per 12 people in the world to which he comments on how he could arm the other eleven.

A jump cut brings the viewer to the manufacturing of a bullet from the stage of being a sheet of metal to when it is fired and enters the head of a child.  The child who is shot is also firing a machinegun.  It is a powerful message displaying the impersonal machinery of making weapons, but it also shows how penetrating personal each bullet is when they hit an intended targets.

Through a large amount of voice-over the audience learns the story of Yuri.  It is a told in an authentic manner, according to Yuri, as he begins with informing the audience about how he got started selling weapons.  It is clear that he began for the same reasons many try to make a better living for themselves while dreaming of a better life.  Besides this he tells us about the importance of the environment, and how it affected his choice to go into arms dealing.

The story stretches over a 20-year period, as he makes deals with anyone interested in buying weapons.  It covers drug lords, warlords, freedom fighters, terrorists, dictators, and nations trying to get their hands on weapons otherwise not accessible.  Some of these characters affect Yuri’s life in a negative manner, but he ignores the bad aspects of the business, as he is good at it.  Yuri also does not care to whom he sells his weapons, as long as the paycheck comes through.  He even informs the audience that he does not make business with Osama Bin Laden, as his checks bounce.

It might seem a little morbid, but the film also effectively applies a heavy dose of irony in order to show the two sides of the story.  The irony also works well to Yuri’s comments, as he rationalizes why he is in the business of selling firearms.  After all, the only true winners of wars are the arms salesmen.

Initially, it feels a little frustrating with the large amount of voice-over, however, as the story unfolds the voice-over enhances the authentic atmosphere, as if Yuri really was telling his life story.  The camera functions much like an extension to Yuri’s voice-over that helps fill in the details of his dirty job.  In addition, the cinematography occasionally augments the visual imagery through excellent scene framing that brings out an artistic side of the dark world of arms deals.  The visual aesthetics and powerful issue in the film brings together a genuinely intriguing cinematic experience that keeps the audience thinking while being entertained on a high level.

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COUNTRY

USA

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