[.ca] Lord of War (Two-Disc Special Edition)

From Amazon.com:
The lethal business of arms dealers provides an electrifying context for the black-as-coal humor of Andrew Niccol's Lord of War. Having proven his ingenuity as the writer of The Truman Show, and writer-director of Gattaca and the under-appreciated Simone, Niccol is clearly striving for Strangelovian relevance here as he chronicles the rise and inevitable fall of Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), a Ukrainian immigrant to America who makes his fortune selling every kind of ordnance he can get his amoral hands on. With a trophy wife (Bridget Moynahan) who's initially clueless about his hidden career, and a younger brother (Jared Leto) whose drug-addled sense of decency makes him an ill-chosen accomplice, Yuri traffics in death the way other salesman might push vacuum cleaners (he likes to say that alcohol and tobacco are deadlier products than his), but even he can't deny the sheer ruthlessness of the Liberian dictator (a scene-stealing Eamonn Walker) who purchases Orlov's "products" to expand his oppressive regime. Niccol's themes are even bigger than Yuri's arms deals, and he drives them home with a blunt-force lack of subtlety, but Cage gives the film the kind of insanely dark humor it needs to have. To understand this monster named Yuri, we have to see at least a glimpse of his humanity, which Cage provides as only he can. Otherwise, this epic tale of gunrunnng would be as morally unbearable as the black market trade it illuminates. --Jeff Shannon

5 stars for the film; 0 stars for DVD edition:
This is an intelligent, high-quality film that doesn't deserve to be butchered by whoever decided to release it in a massacred "widescreen" edition. I say "widescreen" because the film has been reformated for what they label as '16:9 DVD Screen Format' (i.e. 1.78:1) and has not been released in its original theatrical widescreen version of 2.35:1. They probably did this to appease people with 16:9 TV sets who cannot bear to have a bit of black bars on top and bottom of the screen, or don't know how to use 'intelligent zoom' function on their TV set. What a shame!!! Although I have not seen the film in theater, watching it at home I was more than distracted by odd framing due to the reformating done to the material, which seriously took away from enjoying otherwise superb a movie. Please do not buy this DVD edition because that will just encourage more butchering in the future; instead, if you like the film, demand that it be released in a proper widescreen that preserves the ratio of original theatrical exibition.

Overlooked, this is my #1 movie this year!:
Nicholas Cage made a torrent of movies juring the time before and after this was made, and by far this seems to be the shining star. The critics Overlooked it, and the movie stores stocked up on it, but not too many people recognized this movie for how brilliant it really is. Mr.Cage plays Yuri Orlov, the man who siezed the arms buisness and made a profit of billions, at one time selling to BOTH SIDES of every existing war. He started off a Ukranian-born son of immigrants who pretend to be jewish, for personal reasons. His brother and him start off with light ammunition sale, when one day Yuri has a brilliant revolutionary idea of massive arms trade. Yup, Yuri is the smartest of smart, and with salesmans charm. His brother eventually gets messed up in the drug buisness and Yuri goes solo, but when he meets his boy-hood dream girl (fantasized about at a young age) He marries her and he is living the life of a President, but then it all goes down hill, his brother realizes what the guns were doing and in an attempt to stop a group of guerrilla forces, is killed. His Wife discovers his job, and the C.I.A are after him. His life went from an all-time high, to an all-time low. A Spectacular movie, worth every last penny.

A slap in the face:
I agree with the previous reviewer. Failing to release an "original aspect ratio" version of any movie on DVD is a slap in the face to any serious movie collector! Im definatley NOT going to buy this one!

Interpol agent pursues arms dealer:
Lord of war is a very effective movie.it is well written and there is a decent back story to the main character via numerous flash backs.Nicolas Cage plays an arms dealer being pursued relentlessly by an interpol agent(Ethan Hawke).I liked the first person narrative with Cage doing the voice-over.it worked well with this picture.you could say this movie is a bit preachy.However i think it's best when watching this type of movie,to just try and think of it in terms of entertainment.so hopefully the movie is well made and has some entertainment value. for me,Lord of War is one of those movies.it is immensely entertaining,with good performances.i love this movie. 5/5