Lord of War

Watched this last night, a documentary-style movie that records the world events in 1980s and 1990s through the life of a firearm dealer, Yuri Orlov.

What sets this movie apart from other Hollywood thrillers is that it doesn’t attempt to artificially render evil “evil”. Despite being responsible for the death of thousands of people, the main character, Yuri, doesn’t really have an evil look. In fact, aside from his profession, he is almost somewhat “likeable“. The writing and directing of the movie is also remarkable: the switch between light background music, humorous dialogs and shocking scenes of war and horrible living conditions in Africa. Like the first 2 minutes of the movie, the making of a single bullet, is quite entertaining… until it flies out of a rifle towards the head of a child…

The people who is doing evil might just be an ordinary person who provided himself with an ill-fated justification for what he is doing; and the horror of war might not be that far from our ordinary life.

Here are some entertaining quotes from the movie:

• Yuri: There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?
• Dictator: They say that I am the lord of war, but perhaps it is you.
  Yuri: I believe it's "warlord."
  Dictator: Thank you, but I prefer it my way.
• When paid with drug by his client:
  Yuri: I can’t hand these to my bank teller at Chase Manhattan… I sell guns, not drugs.
  Client: Diversify.
• Yuri: Back then, I didn't sell to Osama Bin Laden. Not because of moral reasons, but because he was always bouncing checks.

And here are some of the not-so-entertaining ones:

• They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."
• The primary market was Africa, Eleven major conflicts involving twenty three countries in less than a decade. A gunrunner's wet dream. At the time the West couldn't care less, they had a white war in what was left of Yugoslavia.
• Every faction in Africa calls themselves by these noble names - Liberation this, Patriotic that, Democratic Republic of something-or-other... I guess they can't own up to what they usually are: a federation of worse oppressors than the last bunch of oppressors. Often, the most barbaric atrocities occur when both combatants proclaim themselves freedom-fighters.
• WHILE PRIVATE GUNRUNNERS CONTINUE TO THRIVE, THE WORLD'S BIGGEST ARMS SUPPLIERS ARE THE U.S., U.K., RUSSIA, FRANCE AND CHINA
  THEY ARE ALSO THE FIVE PERMANENT MEMBERS OF THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL