movie review - Lord of War
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Tokyo, 2007.04.12
This is a movie about an arms dealer who rides a knife's edge between a successful - and lucrative - career and the legal boundaries of the industry. He spends a lot of time fueling war in Africa, and we follow him through a number of harrowing developments on that continent, ranging from the AIDS epidemic to what amounted to World War Three being fought in the late 20th Century. It's a grim tale that's highlit by several memorable moments such as the total parts-stripping of an airplane in a day by desperate villagers. It's the conflicted nature of the lead's character that keeps this on track, as he is painfully aware of the many casualties but keeps finding a way to carry on.
Recommended.