Lord of War
Oct. 14th, 2005 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annwfynWell, I’m in work today and we’re decorating the office for Halloween. I’m being slightly overwhelmed by it – there are spiders, bats, ghosts and skeletons hanging all over the place. Every time I stand up I have to dodge a low hanging pumpkin.
Last night was a Fun Cinematic Outing. It was meant to be a Fun Flatmately Outing, butrweishaar wanted to go to an earlier showing, which turned out to clash with pierot’s work schedule as he was training people in Reading, so the final group that went were just myself, jez and ksirafai. There was ice cream – and can I take this opportunity to ask people what their favourite flavour of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is? I’m sure it is very revealing. I’m currently a fan of Fossil Fuel – chocolately, but not heavy enough to be overwhelming and providing me with hours of fun by sprinkling minature chocolate dinosaurs throughout – and there was popcorn and finally there was a new Nicholas Cage film.
I’m still pondering ‘Lord of War’. Was it a good film?
What makes a good film?
Is it entertainment value? ‘Lord of War’ had some good one liners, Nic Cage was on good form, and it did lead to jez walking away from the cinema cursing the fact that his career advisors at school had never made him aware of the opportunities in arms dealing.
Does it have a moral message? Erm, that’s where it gets complicated. As far as I can tell, the director wanted to make a point about the arms trade, but I did feel that in hyping up Yuri Orlov’s (played by Nicholas Cage) history to the extent that he did, he somehow lost the point. It’s bad to sell arms to psychotic African dictators who will use them to massacre women and children before arming their cocaine addicted child soldiers, m’kay? Well, yes. We kinda knew that already.
I’m fairly sure there are some much more complex issues relating to the arms trade out there. The fact that the biggest arms dealers in the world are actually the five permanent member countries of the UN Security Council is something that was only mentioned, almost as a throwaway at the end. The way that countries like the UK (as well as the US) tend to arm some pretty objectionable figures in the name of ‘the lesser of two evils’ wasn’t really looked at either. It was mentioned that Yuri was left in business at one point because he was needed by the US government to trade on their behalf when they could not be seen to, but no one ever mentioned the kind of situations where this might occur. Did the US government want Yuri to be supplying Most Evil Dictator Ever? If so, why? I’m presuming it isn’t because the White House is actually run by a bald man with a large white cat on his lap.
As far as I can tell, the film wanted to take a walk in some of the nasty and icky grey moral areas of world politics, but got lost in a rather hyped up morality tale. That doesn’t make it a bad film, but does rather stop it from carrying any very deep or sensible moral message about the issue.
Still, at least I know now that selling arms to psychotic African dictators for them to massacre women and children with, before putting the guns into the hands of cocaine addicted child soldiers and then heading home to shag AIDs infected prostitutes is definitely bad. I’m glad I had Nic Cage on hand to clear that up for me.
And finally, in other news, I now have Piers Morgan’s address and home phone number. I’m organising transport for an event. I hear rumours I’ll be talking to an Atomic Kitten later as well. The excitement never ends!
Last night was a Fun Cinematic Outing. It was meant to be a Fun Flatmately Outing, but
rweishaar wanted to go to an earlier showing, which turned out to clash with pierot’s work schedule as he was training people in Reading, so the final group that went were just myself, jez and ksirafai. There was ice cream – and can I take this opportunity to ask people what their favourite flavour of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is? I’m sure it is very revealing. I’m currently a fan of Fossil Fuel – chocolately, but not heavy enough to be overwhelming and providing me with hours of fun by sprinkling minature chocolate dinosaurs throughout – and there was popcorn and finally there was a new Nicholas Cage film.I’m still pondering ‘Lord of War’. Was it a good film?
What makes a good film?
Is it entertainment value? ‘Lord of War’ had some good one liners, Nic Cage was on good form, and it did lead to jez walking away from the cinema cursing the fact that his career advisors at school had never made him aware of the opportunities in arms dealing.
Does it have a moral message? Erm, that’s where it gets complicated. As far as I can tell, the director wanted to make a point about the arms trade, but I did feel that in hyping up Yuri Orlov’s (played by Nicholas Cage) history to the extent that he did, he somehow lost the point. It’s bad to sell arms to psychotic African dictators who will use them to massacre women and children before arming their cocaine addicted child soldiers, m’kay? Well, yes. We kinda knew that already.
I’m fairly sure there are some much more complex issues relating to the arms trade out there. The fact that the biggest arms dealers in the world are actually the five permanent member countries of the UN Security Council is something that was only mentioned, almost as a throwaway at the end. The way that countries like the UK (as well as the US) tend to arm some pretty objectionable figures in the name of ‘the lesser of two evils’ wasn’t really looked at either. It was mentioned that Yuri was left in business at one point because he was needed by the US government to trade on their behalf when they could not be seen to, but no one ever mentioned the kind of situations where this might occur. Did the US government want Yuri to be supplying Most Evil Dictator Ever? If so, why? I’m presuming it isn’t because the White House is actually run by a bald man with a large white cat on his lap.
As far as I can tell, the film wanted to take a walk in some of the nasty and icky grey moral areas of world politics, but got lost in a rather hyped up morality tale. That doesn’t make it a bad film, but does rather stop it from carrying any very deep or sensible moral message about the issue.
Still, at least I know now that selling arms to psychotic African dictators for them to massacre women and children with, before putting the guns into the hands of cocaine addicted child soldiers and then heading home to shag AIDs infected prostitutes is definitely bad. I’m glad I had Nic Cage on hand to clear that up for me.
And finally, in other news, I now have Piers Morgan’s address and home phone number. I’m organising transport for an event. I hear rumours I’ll be talking to an Atomic Kitten later as well. The excitement never ends!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 04:09 pm (UTC)I've not seen Fossil Fuel out there, what's it like?
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 04:45 pm (UTC)I must find this ice cream...it needs to be tested! Thank you for bringing it to my attention!
(hmm. Had been thinking about Lord of War myself, still not sure now whether to bother or not...)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 05:21 pm (UTC)Must track down some fossil fuel...
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 06:43 pm (UTC)You're right. Arms trading is way muckier and more complex than any film could portray.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-14 08:09 pm (UTC)I need a "Mmmmm, food" icon.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-15 12:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-15 04:03 pm (UTC)I MUST HAVE OATMEAL COOKIE BEN AND JERRY'S.
I've never seen it before.. my day won't be complete until I find it.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-15 09:54 pm (UTC)To answer the important question: Cherry Garcia, no contest. :)